Will goldens protect if threatened?

my cousin trained his golden to essentially stand guard at their home. if someone approaches he barks, and if one of the family members don't acknowlege the stranger he's ready to jump that person. it's pretty crazy. once my cousins shake your hand once or say hi to you, you can come and go on their property all you want.

shaped it by always whispering "whos that" when someone would walk by them or when they were at a traffic light or something. the dog learned to jump up from a slumber to make sure everything is kosher.

i do it with my boy just to train him to know when he should be more aware. he knows the doorbell well even though no one goes to our front door, but even if my wife is coming in the door i'll say "who's that" and he'll jump up alert. otherwise i had someone in the yard and knocking on our back patio door, he barked once but continued chewing on a rawhide. i guess if i didn't hear the one bark i wouldn't have known they were there, but comeon... take on a bit more urgency...

Our old golden Spud grew up with my kids, when their teenage friends would come into the house in their dozens, he would welcome everyone. He was a big boy, but never barked when someone came to the door. I guess we 'trained' him to be quiet and not to guard the house.

We were actually burgled in the night once, they rifled the downstairs and even stole the tv & dvd, and took the whole window out in the kitchen! When the police came the next day they looked at the dog lying across the floor and said "what was he doing?" I shrugged and made some joke like "he probably wagged his tail at them and said "come in!""

Bless him, I wouldn't have had him any other way!!

Now we have Obi and Izzie. Obi has had a delivery driver pinned to the front doorstep with his parcel held out in front of him... Obi barks like fury when he hears the front gate go and continues until I open the door. Izzie hardly ever barks (only at next door's cats). Funnily enough, I totally trust that obi wouldn't bite... anyone who ever met him would tell you what a loveable teddy bear he is...

As for proper perceived threat.... hmmm, I really don't know, I guess if push came to shove he would.

For sure, they are not guard dogs, but have different personalities and some can and do bite!

I don't really know, but I think it depends on the dog. Our golden girl would definitely let anyone in the house! She would actually greet them at the door and show them the way around. She hardly ever barked. Now, our boy does bark a few times to let us know in advance if someone is coming in the driveway. A really weird thing happened just the other day, and I wondered if it was because he is a year old now and his hormones must be kicking in now. I was talking to our elderly next door neighbor who my dog adores, and a man approached from the other direction and started walking towards my neighbor, who uses a walker. He was not from our neighborhood and we did not know him. My dog got in front of the elderly lady and growled, a real low deep "Don't come near my Friend" growl. The man gave wide berth - I called Ranger over and he came to me right away. I was surprised that he growled and tried to figure out what was different about this man that would cause him to behave that way - he was dressed like everyone else, shirt and jeans, no hat or any other object in his hand. Ranger meets many people every day, people carrying objects, in wheel chairs, using walkers, etc. and has NEVER growled at anyone. I just wonder if dogs can "sense" something wrong with someone?? Or if maybe he sensed my neighbor was a little scared of the man?

My Annie, who has since passed on was the sweetest, most mellow, dog in the world. She never harmed anyone or anything. I thought of her as a real pushover until one day when my daughter and I decided to go fishing. We always took her with us because if she saw us hooking up the boat, she would jump into the back seat as if to say, "are you ready yet". We backed the boat down the ramp, parked the car, and headed out to our favorite fishing spot. I was completely unaware that we were being followed. When I stopped to anchor the boat, another boat approached us. There were two guys in it and they wanted to know what we were doing. (Duh, we are in a fishing boat with fishing gear). Annie stood up, hair on the back of her neck raised and barked and growled, like I have never seen before. We used to call her little woof because that was all that came out when she barked but after that day the nickname faded away. The only other time that she did anything similar was when I was giving my daughters boyfriend a ride home. My daughter got in the car, Annie got in the car, and when Stephen tried to get in, Annie stood over my daughter and would not let him anywhere near her. He had to ride in the front seat with me. Looking back on the situation, I don't know if she was acting on her own, or reacting to my reaction to the situation (does that make sense). I really didn't like her boyfriend at all and I was a little taken aback at being approached by the boat. Either way, the guys in the boat couldn't take off fast enough and Stephen stopped coming around (the dog made him uncomfortable). Thanks Annie, we still miss you. You were one of a kind