Small breed dogs have been used for centuries to act as an alert for the bigger, more powerful dog or home owner.  Small dogs, such as poodle, have a great sense of hearing and a loud and annoying bark that will wake up neighbors in surrounding homes, let alone the larger guard dogs or the owners that may be sound asleep.  Once the small dog hears even the crack of a door or footsteps in the yard, they tend to immediately awake and start alerting with a loud and high pitch bark.  Once this happens, the larger dog will awake as well to discover whatever intruder there may be and typically scare the intruder off before any harm is done in the first place.

Many people think that guard dogs are limited to such breeds such as the bull terriers, such as a pit bull, as well as the Rottweiler because they have that stereotype as being very aggressive.  This may be true in many cases but other dogs such as Labrador Retrievers can carry such loyalty to the family that they will also serve and protect as a guard dog of the home.  German Sheppard’s are also another keen example of the type of guard dog that also loves in the home, though ready to protect when needed, therefore pinpointing one particular breed of dog to act as a guard dog may not be the best choice, but rather all in how you train the dog to act.