If a guard dog is oversocialized can it lose its purpose as a guard dog?

[Anonymous]

Lets take the case of my friend's cousin and his dog, a large male Rottie. His store got robbed 3 times (once in late 2018 and twice in 2019) and his dog did nothing. He thought the robbers giving him biscuits were friends. One of the robbers took him for a short walk, then came back and left as if nothing happened.

The dog was been around lots of people (men, women, children and babies) another dogs and animals all his life, 24/7. However, it acts as if everyone wants to be his friend, indiscriminately. They are supposedly great guard dogs. Though, if it got raised into treating everyone as friends and never train to discriminate/guard can it lose its natural guarding instincts, purpose? Is it good to oversocialize a guard dog, esp if it's a powerful breed?

Updates

+1 y

While it's great to have an easygoing, friendly dog... his dog is super naive and a couple times have invaded other dogs' spaces. A couple dogs backed away and found it uncomfortable when he approached too much, thinking they wanted to be his friends too.

[MrSlim]

A dog can only be a guard dog if it's trained as such. If you just get a big scary looking dog and hope it protects you odds are you're going to be let down as most dogs are bred for temperament. You're looking at a good $5000 in training for a legit protection dog.

[Asker]

yeah apparently his dog came from docile parents and a very sweet temperament from the start
I guess this is the case of nature vs nurture. They aren't born into being guard dogs after all but taught to.

[MrSlim]

Both come into play. You can find breeders that breed dogs for their original intended purpose but they are few and far between, most people just want a pet not an actual working dog.

[Hoss1981]

It depends on how you turn your dog. It still can be friendly when the owner is around. But when you leave it to guard a place it won't take any shit.

[Asker]

Apparently his dog is too naive and overly friend. If he were a human, he would be like a random stranger hugging you and calling you his friend. Now that would be uncomfortable and kind of weird right? That's the same thing that happened with a couple other dogs that walked away. They were uncomfortable with his random approach.

[Hoss1981]

My guess he just didn't train him right if he was wanting a guard. But it can get annoying if the pet is not trained at all and that's what it sounds like here.

[ciitruskiwi]

I think you answered your own question with the first paragraph. His store got robbed and his dog did nothing. That's your answer.

[Hyper2]

What 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 they took him on a walk 😂😂😂

[Asker]

Yeah his dog is very naive. I thought Rottweilers were natural guard dogs. That's the most sweetest one I've ever seen.

[Hyper2]

If he has to be used as a guard dog. He needs training and a handler. Someone has to give the command when to attack.