Watchdogs: These are dogs that are trained to look for their owners and his or her property and alert their owners if they sense an intruder
Guard dogs: These dogs are trained to take action against an intruder in the case of a perceived threat.
Protection dogs: These dogs are trained to act both as watchdogs and guard dogs. They may or may not be natural watchdogs
Livestock guard dogs: These dogs are trained to act both as watchdogs and guard dogs but mainly for livestock
Dogs that fall into any of these categories will tend to be protective in the manner of the training they have received. But other factors can also influence how a dog would protect his or her owner.
These factors are mainly:
1. How they are integrated into the household.
A dog that grows up as part of a family unit will unavoidably develop some bond with the family members. Dogs as we have said time and time again are pack animals, they are dependent on the welfare of each other for survival. That being said, when a dog grows up within a family unit, they automatically become his or her pack. Your welfare and that of your family members become important to your dog.
Automatically, anything that your dog perceives as a threat to your or a family member must be dealt with instantly hence your dog would act as a protector in those instances.
2. Preferential treatment.
Your dog is not ignorant of the ones that give them preferential treatment in the family. These are the ones that take time to feed them, take them on walks, exercise with them, communicate with them, and bond with them just to mention a few.
These people have made themselves special to the dog so it’s in the dog’s best interest to look out for these kinds of people. You will find the dog going to extreme lengths to take care of these people.
In a sense, the dog is doing it for himself or herself. They know that if anything happens to these people or affects their schedule, it would also affect them and the goodies that come with the person.
3. Past bad experiences.
Dogs that have been abused in the past tend to be more appreciative of love and kindness when they receive it. The same reason makes them overprotective of their owners that show this love and kindness when they suspect he or she is under threat.
Stray dogs, shelter dogs, etc tend to fall into this category, there is a high possibility that they have had some bad past experiences and would be overprotective of you in situations they don’t understand.
There is also the problem of not knowing how to interact properly due to lack of socialization, separation anxiety issues, and more.
4. Enabling the protective behavior.
Some dogs are natural watchdogs, they do not need any motivation to act as your unsanctioned protector. Australian Shepherd dogs, Dobberman Pinschers, Rottweilers, German Shepherds, etc. fall into these categories easily.
But other dogs become protective as a virtue of the training they get from their owners. The dog becomes protective as a result of the instructions given to him over and over again. For some dog owners, this may be unintentional, for others, they may be doing it out of necessity to protect themselves based on where they live or some other reasons.
Enabling this behavior has negative results as you end up endangering people around you and also giving your dog the impression that you are too weak in handling some situations thereby leaving them to use their initiative instead of following your commands in a security situation.