I recently purchased a 2yr old black male from a rescue , they have no history on him . He is very timid any slight noise will startle him and cause him to run away , hes very scared to walk down the street ,cars that drive by scare him people that walk by scare him and ive noticed if you raise a object over your head he lowers his body and runs. with no history on him could this be from no socialization ,abuse (object over head)or bad genetics or all three and if so could he ever be tought to gaurd our yard or could i bring in a confident female who is a seasoned watch dog that he could possibly learn from by watching her do her thing in the yard ? I just want him to alarm bark when someone comes up to our yard and stand his ground or am i asking to much of what seems to be a weak dog ?

Nervey dogs are the ones that are most likely to bark at strangers, but being a dog like this I would not encourage the dog to be weary of strangers because its no fun for a dog to live his life in fear. Odds are this dog will never be forward. If he barks in the yard it will likely be an unsure bark well away from your fence on his way to hide behind the house and maybe bark from a nice comfortable safe feeling location

I would focus on socializing the dog and bonding with him. Let him feel like he is king of the castle and safe to be around there. If you are patient and spend the time with him and let him learn that all these scary things are nothing to be afraid of then he might get over it with time. Lots and lots of time.

Putting him with a female could be a positive thing if he likes the female, but don't expect too much from him.

If he barks at people at the fence then great, but I wouldn't go out of my way to create this in him. I would rather focus my time on teaching him to be social with people than to bark at them. He is nervey enough by the sounds of it that the bark will be there, but learning to be social with people rather than terrified of them is the difference between a dog that's barking on his way to a hiding place, and a dog that will stand his ground and bark, even if at a distance.

This dog has very bad nerves. Who knows why? The WHY doesn't matter. The dog will never be a personal protection dog. At best he will bark at people and at worst (without obedience and pack structure training) he will become a fear biter.

He will give you an alarm bark but his flight distance is very large and if people move within that area he will tuck his tail and run.

Adding a confident female will not change anything on this dog.

I have a rescue like that, and I long ago learned to accept him for what he is and not expect much.

His confidence has grown with motivational obedience training and leadership from me, but that just means he is no longer afraid of people walking by.

Thanks for the speedy reply ! I guess thier isnt much hope in him being a good watch dog and it sounds not even a good women can help him the rescue said i could bring him back and choose a harder dog and they would place him with someone who just wants a house pet which would make me feel guilty for giving up on him ! but he just doesnt fit what i need in a dog that being said what should i look for in a basic protection dog these other dogs are between 2 and 4 yrs old and there are 8 others to look at ?

Victor, Bring someone who knows what they are looking at. If you are new at this its easy to get confused when you're amongst all the dogs and you may end up in the same boat again. I don't hold much hope for you finding a protection dog out of a rescue but stranger things have happened.

Howard

Thanks for the truth howard ! i was just hoping to get a shepherd who would watch our yard because at times i keep expensive tools in it but i guess you get what you pay for on a lighter note my wife said maybe we should just put me in the back yard and let me bark at people ha ha

Victor,
I see that you've already gotten good advice from some of the most knowledgable people on the forum.

I'd socialize this dog and make him feel comfortable, with his temperament he'll likely bark for you ( a lot, most likely ) but asking him to stand his ground probably isn't in the cards.

Love him for what he is and be proud that you have a big enoigh heart to take in a living creature that needed you. It's good karma and hopefully you'll get something good back!

Victor,

Let me clarify my last statement. It should have read...You're not likely to get what you're looking for out of the eight dogs left. Good dogs do come from rescues but they're not that common. The odds are against you here.

Will is right. You've already manned up and took the initial step. Stick with him. After all, if you can do ANYTHING with this dog then you have a leg up on those who start with much more because you have to work harder. Your commitment wont be without reward.

Howard

Victor,

I just want to add here that I agree with Howard and Will. You did a great thing by rescuing this dog and taking another chance at finding a "better" dog at the rescue is slim at best.

How long have you had him? I think he may never be the "gaurd dog" that you want, but he may settle in and become less "spooky" about things.
A barking dog is a good deterrent, especially a big barking dog.

My dogs are always in kennels and people still will not get out of their vehicles sometimes. (can't be because when the Mali jumps, her head clears the top of the 6 foot kennel....hee hee )