Will Your American Bully Protect You? Train a Bully to be a Guard Dog

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Do you have an American Bully that loves to greet new people? Doesn’t that make you wonder, what would happen if you had intruders attack the house? Will your Bully greet them with cuddles, or will it sense danger and attack?

Will your American Bully protect you? Your American Bully will protect you if it senses any danger as they are very loyal and protective of their family. However, such a family-loving gentle breed may be more prone to protect you from other animals than people. Nevertheless, they could be trained to be excellent guard dogs.

Keep reading to know more about the American Bully’s instinct to protect, and how to train it to be a good guard dog.

Will Your American Bully Protect You?

American Bullies are a very loving and loyal dog breed. Dogs, in general, have the instinct to protect their owners from any dangers. Mix this instinct with a highly intelligent, devoted, and courageous dog breed, and you’ll get an American Bully.

The Bully breed was bred to be among the most devoted companion dogs. They form a deep affection for their owners, are pretty dedicated to their family, and are very bonded to them.

They can be good guard dogs because of their fierce loyalty, which will drive them to do virtually anything to defend their people. However, because of their unwavering commitment to their family, many people often perceive Bullies as dangerous.

If you properly train your bully, they won’t ever act aggressively toward you or other people unless you tell them to.

The problem with Bullies is that if they’re properly socialized, they will probably protect you from other animals, but won’t be alarmed by people. However, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t socialize your dog, you just need extra training to teach it how to be a guard dog.

How to Train An American Bully to Be A Guard Dog?

A Bully with high physical mobility, a positive temperament, and a bite drive would be the best choice if you want them to defend you. Additionally, you’ll need to teach your dog the acceptable times to display aggressive behavior.

Physically Fit

If you need a guard dog, the first thing you should look for is a fit dog. Bullys, in general, are a very muscley breed. However, they’re still prone to obesity, so you have to monitor their food intake and give them a nutritional diet to keep them fit.

You also have to provide it with extra exercise, so that they could be fast and flexible to be able to catch an intruder. You can take them running, jogging, or even let them run loose in open spaces that allow dogs.

Even if you don’t want a guard dog, you must still train your bully so that it lives a long healthy life.

Temperament

Socialized Bullys have a great temperament, they rarely get bothered, and they even don’t react when kids poke and climb all over them. However, that is not an invitation to leave your dog with kids unsupervised.

A bad dog attitude is hardly a problem if your dog has great social skills with people and dogs. Moreover, socializing with your dog helps them differentiate if it’s a dangerous situation that is appropriate for them to attack or not.

If you’re training your dog to protect you, you have to treat it gently and reward it with tasty treats when it does a good thing.

Bite Drive

All dogs bite; however, their bite drive changes from one dog to another. As biting is an innate trait for all dogs, controlling it in any way will be challenging. It will take a lot of training.

Bullies don’t have a high bite drive; however, they tend to bite when they feel threatened or feel like their owners need protection. If you want your Bullys to be a guard dog, you must train it to bite at the appropriate time.

Bullies are frequently trained as puppies not to bite, but if you carefully train your dog to only bite when given the command, they can become powerful protection dogs.

It’s important here to note that American Bullies don’t have locking jaws (see explanation here) despite what many people and media outlets will have you believe.

Obedience

Training a dog is always necessary, but if you want your dog to guard you, training is even more important. If you do not properly train your protection dog, they can start to bite others, get into dog fights, or ignore you when you give them commands.

Your dog will learn with time and enough training. American Bullys especially like pleasing their owners, and training them just requires a small amount of effort and patience. You should begin by teaching your Bully the basic commands “sit,” “come,” and “stay.”

Once they have learned these commands, you can then start teaching your dog to bark or bite on command. Use a stuffed pair of jeans or a dummy to teach your dog where it is appropriate to bite and where they should never bite.

You should train your dog to stop whatever they are doing on command to avoid excessive aggression. As you train your dog to bark or bite, you should also teach them to stop by using the command “stop” and rewarding them with treats. They will eventually understand what you expect of them.

When training a guard dog, it’s crucial to keep in mind to go slowly and be patient because if you don’t, your dog can develop destructive tendencies and become confused by your directions.

Bullies will stop at nothing to pay attention to their owners. However, if you don’t communicate with them clearly, they can interpret your instructions incorrectly, leading to later excessive aggression or disobedience.

In Conclusion

Bullys can make excellent guard dogs if trained; however, you have to be careful with the training so that it doesn’t result in a highly aggressive dog. And even if you’re not training your dog to be a guard dog, keep it fit, healthy and well-fed.

Will Your American Bully Protect You? Train a Bully to be a Guard Dog

Will Your American Bully Protect You?