So what are you recommending to the OP, Tortoise, a dog specially trained? a malinois? I think you've made the point that you feel dogs that are specially trained are important if you want a specific type of dog trained to truly hurt people on command or 100 percent keep an object safe.
Personally I prefer my dogs and their untrained instincts and good common sense. I've always been looking for dogs that were family pets and not exclusively a working dog, and I suppose it all really depends on what you want out of your dog. The OP can clearly decide if they want the type of dog around their child that is trained to bite like that, or whether they want to use the family gun for protection and use the dog as more of an alerting system and hopeful backup helper in times of duress, hopefully with some dual purposes, such as being able to pull a cart, or carry a pack.
Personally a dog able to herd or help hunt would seem useful to me so that is what I'd want, but it all boils down to what kind of assistance hiker wants when TSHTF. But your comments such as "we are making your head hurt" are the kind of comments that get good threads closed, so why don't you just agree to disagree with some folks who may have different dog opinions than yourself?
One thing I have learned, we all have our own ways and own opinions about how dogs are based on the dogs we have known. Agreeing to disagree on this topic is a very good choice; discussing dog training is like discussing religion or politics, it can go sour quickly because everyone is so convinced their own ideas are correct. My theory is that because dogs are very trainable by many techniques, so everyone is an expert....and I'm not being condescending, I say that meaningfully. I personally am not fond of highly trained attack dogs, I've lived around them and folks who said they were the experts experts and taught people how to train these dogs, .... the dogs ....bit people at the wrong times! So my experience with this has not been positive and feel that these types of dogs are best left for the police force and such, as there are very few "typical" owners who will be able to handle these types of dogs. Malinois can be VERY hard to own. I've re-homed several that people chose because they thought they would get into this stuff at some time and the dog was way too much for them. So from my perspective an attack trained malinois is only for a dog expert type person to own and control.
But I respect your opinion for yourself and for your dogs and your choices, and I can agree to disagree without suggesting you make my head hurt or I need to bash my head against the wall. You are going to make yourself crazy if you want to try to make all dog people agree on what is the best kind of dog. Can't we keep this a little more light-hearted so the thread does not get closed? The "best" dog is going to be in the eye of the beholder.
OFG will think it is Ti, for Denim Deb it was her cocker, for me it is my border collie, etc., for you, obviously, a dog with a lot of special training and an aptitude for it. I thought the idea here was to present our thoughts for hiker to choose the perfect dog for them, not argue regarding how to define the word "protect" or "guard" when speaking about dogs.
I love the object guard exercise.
