Picking a dog

[Skean Dhude]

What dog(s) would be the best for us to have in a survival situation. What are the advantages and disadvantages of each breed and what should we be looking at as a trait in a survival dog?

Which dogs are best for hunting/detection/guarding/attack?

It is a lot to ask but what would your prefered dog be and why?

[Skvez]

Any dog I would want in a survival situation needs to be well trained and unfortunately it can take a couple of years to get a pup trained (and takes time and effort on your part too).
I want a dog that barks when people approach my property but can also be ordered to keep silent when we're out hunting.

I'm in no hurry to get a survival dog, as I'm bugging in they're likely to be as much of a liability as an asset, require prepping a lot of food for and likely to become the neighbours most recent meal.

[grumpy old man]

if i was to have a dog,it would be only 3 kinds
1. bullmastiff because their big strong dog for defenece
2. jack russell because their little and good hunters
3. lurcher because their good hunters
and all 3 are good watch dogs

[Reynard]

I have given this quite a bit of thought recently. I am after a dog that will be a decent watchdog and is also a guardian if needs must ie it needs to be a fair size and a protective disposition. I don't want a dog which will eat me out of house and home which rules out larger mastiff type dogs; it also needs to be good with sprogs... I have narrowed it down to Boxer, Doberman or Airdale.

[NorthernRaider]

Terrier like a JR or Parsons JR, Border terrier etc, superb hearing, very alert, easy to care for, few genetic defects, cheap to feed, long living, utterly loyal, kills rats better than cats, can be trained to bark when someone approachs or just to quitely let you know you have an intruder. Borders and Parsons are designed to run along side a horse or cycle all day and still be able to hunt. Also make excellent bed warmers, and terriers will attack ANYTHING regardless of size that threatens your family. Oh and after TSHTF most well sorted terriers can feed themselves from what they catch, though its good if possible to keep feeding them a balanced meal each day.
A while back our Were-terrier spotted our son in an argument with another lad out the front of the house, because he could not get out to protect him the dog ran upstairs and jumped out the bedroom window, Luckily he landed on the lawn with only a twisted leg. And he still got between to the two boys !!!

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Mind you if you get one you may need to cut its nads off, ours would hump anyone and anything at every opportunity, Its not nice watching a terrier hump a neighbours cat half to death, and the look on the window cleaners face when his bucket got humped !!!

Oh yes feed them wisely and with a balanced diet, terriers if their vitamin and mineral content gets out of kilter will take to eating other dogs poo, Yuk cos the little gits always want to come and lick your face afterwards.

[bigpaul]

I agree with you about Terriers,NR i would hate to get on the wrong side of your dog! our Cairn terrier is a very good guard dog, lets us know anybody is about long before they get anywhere near the door, but is a bit too soppy to be an attack dog, she is more likely to LICK you to death and is too noisy to be a hunting dog, she gets excited and barks thus frightening the prey, but a good hunting dog and one you see a lot of around here is a Jack Russell(well Parson jack russell did live in north devon!), some of them tend to attack first and ask questions later, but maybe thats what is needed post SHTF?

[NorthernRaider]

Ever see that video from the 70s where two martial artists were fitted with modestly padded suits and set to fight a pack of terriers? 10 I think. It took about 40 seconds for the dogs to bring both men down. One poor sod nearly lost an ear when his helmet thiny shifted.

[JD1]

I have owned Rotyweillers for the last 25 years (5 dogs in total), an advantage of bigger dogs (GSD's, Rotweillers etc) is the protection they would project in a post fall world. Some of the smaller terriers may well be psychotic killers but they may not stop people trying their luck because of their small size. The downside of a big dog is the amount of food they require, although in my experience it is far less than you might imagine. Rotties do suffer from a lot of inbred problems with joints etc which require a lot of visits to the vet which wouldn't be possible post fall so they might not be the best choice if you are looking for one from that pov

Staffies, despite the fact that every chav has one to look 'ard, are great dogs when trained and socialised properly, and they are also extremely good with sprogs. They don't eat as much as a large breed but will still make people think twice before trying anything. When our old girl finally pops her cloggs we are going to get a couple of staffs

[NorthernRaider]

One good point about devil dogs like Rotties and Dobermanns is you can use them to pull carts and carry packs.

[grumpy old man]

a devil dogs cross between rottie and bull mastiff are good but banned
i don't really put much in dogs