Ovcharka101

Post 68

This is an almost impossible question to answer, but as a Caucasian Ovcharka and white (and black and tan) german shepherd owner and breeder, I can offer a little understanding from my perspective.If you want guard dogs for a country where you aren't jailed for killing an assailant who breaks into your shipyard at night and you don't want to train the dog (s) for long periods, and work out of the box, then the Sarmat and the Caucasian Ovcharka (its cousin breed) are the most lethal breeds. Which means that both breeds have more PSI bite than a lion and can be shot (not in the head or heart) a few times and the target will still die. Even when considering a Fila and other such guardian breeds, there is no match for protection against both two-legged and four-legged assailants. And this goes for a high percentage of the breed. They would kill any other breed, and I have seen it a few times, with the dogs receiving little damage. They have thick coats and fighting styles like a boxer, moving in and out for an opening and preventing damage to themselves. They weigh over 220 pounds, with the speed and agility of a dobby. But for the home, they are terrible for most owners. You need time and patience with these breeds. Without it you have a nuclear weapon going off. The caucasians, whether the mountain or steppes versions including the Sarmat, are absolutely deadly and should only be owned by the most experienced, caring and devoted trainers in the home. I think they should be license required. For example, if your fence is not strong enough, and the ovcharka is not trained, he would kill anything within or close to his area. Is the death of another human so easy to sleep over? They have positives, such as I have never heard of a reliable source of an ovcharka biting his owner unless the dog (tiny percentage) is already insane, or is treated extremely badly. It is not the family or regular friends who should fear this dog. They are gorgeous and cuddly teddy bears, even with younger children, allowing terrible pain without any aggressive response whatsoever. And I could mention numerous positives but it would take me too long. But don't get this dog unless you have a half hour minimum a day to train it, you are willing to learn and to learn how to socialize your dog and have masses of patience and are intelligent enough to use this correctly. A good example of a problem is a story from the Czech Republic, where a new friendly neighbour came over for a drink at an ovcharka owner's house. They spent the night with the dog outside in the summer air, enjoying conversation together, the owner and the new neighbour, until they got very drunk. The owner then went off to the toilet and fell asleep during his activities. He woke up the next day to find his friendly neighbour, cold, scared and suffering from blood loss. The ovcharka had not allowed him to move and had ripped his arm open when he spoke. The new neighbour was lucky to live and mostly due to the fact he did not look the ovcharka in the eye or try to move and had some understanding of dog reactions. He just was extremely cold and suffering from blood loss because he could not move to dress his wounds. These are the kind of situations you can get into with these breeds and the lesser guard dog breeds. You must understand what you need and why. I started on the ovcharka because my wife and child were followed home form the supermarket by five 25-30 year old males jeering at her, using obscenities and promises of a “good time.” We then had two huge gentlemen attempt to get into the garden while she was alone in the house. And without these outside circumstances, I would never choose an ovcharka. But the youths are common in the area. I live with the wealthy and not so wealthy sharing the neighborhood. Many carry knives and other weapons, and a GSD, Rottie or Dobby would be dispatched easily. These are local criminals who are not afraid to take on a challenge.But again, I can own an 85 kg Ovcharka male with medium aggression (tested at five weeks). (I would never take a high aggression ovcharka) because of the following reasons.1. I am a breeder and have a lot of experience with dogs2. I am 185cm and 100 kgs and train with weights and can dominate this dog just about,

and assign that dominance to my wife as well which is reasonably easy with an ovcharka.3. I train him hard every day with four main stages of training for this breed, as they change personality with age (so one minute, they are great with male dogs in the park, and the next month they will rip them apart).4. They are extremely protective of the family, but also incredibly docile towards my children, but I socialize him constantly. I mean constantly. Dogs come into our home, the ones he knows and doesn't know. We go say hi to everyone in the neighborhood, we take him on "dog" outings, we practice attacks within the property to teach controlled response and we leave him with others overnight at times (good and knowledgeable dog owners) which we have done since he was a puppy.5. I have a large garden and a strong fence and have trained him over many hours to respond to passers by correctly. For example, he will follow people, but will not bark unless they come too close. Once they stop moving towards the fence and move on, he stops barking and follows. This took a while, as their natural instinct is to rip anything and everything apart on sight. I have also trained him to release immediately in attack mode. Without the above five points in place, I would not even consider taking on such a breed. Some 600-700 PSI with a potential 100kgs coming at you at lightning speed if they turn on you is almost certain death. And remember the 2,000-year-old instinct of these breeds (guard breeds) , in this case an Ovcharka, is to eliminate a threat. You can train them on what is a threat, but once that has been determined, they will kill itT they don't want to stop it, control it, make the threat fear them or chase it away. They want to remove all life from it. They are bear killers, usually working in pairs, with one front attack (good chance of the dog dying) and the second coming from behind and hamstringing the bear. Then they selectively rip it apart to prevent damage to themselves. They are fearless killers at best and worst, with inexperienced owners, they are just death to all dogs and man alike. They will drop you to the ground first with their weight and charge and then go for the stomach, your hands will go to protect your abdomen and then the throat will be torn out and it's all over in seconds. So, most guard breeds tend to be a lesser threat than a caucasian ovcharka. They are hard to train, with low recovery and release times. My Ovcharka will stop on first command, but that is only from a long long dedication to his training which actually becomes more intensive at the age of three to four years, when they have finally matured. So in summary, unless you are a truly dedicated dog trainer, experienced, willing, caring, reasonably wealthy and dominant, large human male, then I would stay well away from guard breeds. For your own good as well as the dogs. The larger, the more dangerous, mostly. It is unfair to take these noble breeds and then place them in shelters and destroy them because of individuals who want to show how powerful they are in the dog park, or how deadly they dog is compared to the next door neighbor's. Or they haven't the sense to realize that without many years of experience with dogs and training them, they let loose a monster that can see even children as a threat (rare in ovcharkas but definitely a possibility). When they play a little rough with your child and youi decide intervention is needed, a full head on intervention, then 80-100 kgs of 700 PSI bearing down to dispatch a four year old child because the owner isn't watching does not know the dangers and thinks it is great to have the biggest, most dangerous animal possible when a lovely boxer would have done the job.The standard family home should only consist of the dobbies, rotties and GSDs. These are loving and scary enough for most situations. My last word is this. My male Caucasian Ovcharka is adorable, lovely, well mannered, controlled, protective only when necessary and has an immediate release timer. My children, cats, neighbours and friends adore him to bits, my cuddly teddy bear killer, but I know what he is and anyone he does not know is supervised around him by his "controllers" – me or my wife. And no one has ever tried to break in. No one has followed my wife home. No one has threatened my children. They don't get bullied at

school (after a short but requested appearance of the family dog at sports day with a little show of controlled aggression when a dobby got a little close) So it is not all bad. Le'ts hope that is enough warning to the not so bright.