Airedales are medium-sized dogs that can be very protective of their family. I did some research into whether or not they would make good guard dogs.
So, are Airedale terriers good guard dogs? Yes, Airedale make good guard dogs. Their size, energy, and propensity to bark means that they do an excellent job protecting family homes.
Airedales are a high-energy dog who were originally bred for bear hunting, where they would work in packs to bring down the massive animals. After that, they were trained for police and military use in the early 1900’s. Although nowadays they’re more common as family pets, this instinct as hunters and protectors has stuck with the breed. Airedales are protective of their family. They’re also large and energetic enough to be able to stand up for themselves.
Airedales as a Guard Dog
So, what makes Airedales such good guard dogs, and what purposes can they be used for?
Airedales will be best served as a guard dog for a family home where their primary role is that of a company, but they can still fill the secondary role of being a protector. If you live in a dangerous area and you want a dog strictly for protection, consider looking at a different breed (such as a Doberman or Rottweiler).
However, if you want a loveable family dog that can also serve as a guardian when needed, the Airedale is an excellent choice. They’re especially good for families with small children; Airedales have an intuitive ability to understand that children need to be protected.
So, what makes Airedales such good guard dogs?
Protective Instinct
First and foremost in the Airedales ability to act as a guard dog is their protective instinct. By this, I mean that Airedales intuitively understand which humans are their ‘family’ and, therefore, which humans to protect. They have an inherit ability to sense threats and vulnerabilities.
The best illustration of this instinct comes from my first Airedale, Sammy. When I was a just a baby, my dad would often travel for work, leaving my mom at home with myself and my sister (who was also just a toddler). We lived in a fairly secluded area, at the end of road with four acres of land surrounding our property.
Sammy had never been trained as a guard dog, but in these situations, he slipped naturally into the role. He was able to understand two things;
- The alpha of the household, my father, was gone, which made him the primary protector of the household.
- Myself and my sister were too small to defend ourselves against any threat.
In these situations, Sammy showed absolute deference to my mom in terms of listening to commands, but he completely took charge when it came to guarding us kids. He did laps of the house, slept at the foot of the stairs, and refused to be more than a few meters away from us at any time. My mom would describe his presence as extremely comforting.
Even when my dad was home, Sammy remained highly protective. Once, our family friend came to visit to see my newborn sister. She had been to the house and met Sammy several times, but never while my sister had been alive. Upon entering, she went to hold the baby.
Sammy, despite having never been trained as a guard dog, understood that a non-family member was now trying to put hands on my sister. He placed himself aggressively between the family friend and my sister, and might have even attacked her had my dad not held him back.
Again, the important thing to understand here is that Sammy had no formal training in being a guard dog. He did, however, have his Airedale DNA, which was bred for generations to protect his pack and attack ay intruders.
This trait is common across all Airedales. Even if you don’t train your dog, they’ll still have that hard-coded response to sense potential threats and protect their owners. This instinct is part of the reason that Airedales make such good family guard dogs.
Barking
The weapon that your Airedale will use most commonly to protect your house is their voice. In all likelihood, they’ll do this both intentionally and unintentionally.
My current Airedale, Theo, barks whenever someone gets within 20 feet of the house. Most of the time, he’s doing it out of excitement and not as part of a threat, but the result is still the same: anyone coming up to the house sees an 80-pound dog standing on his hind legs howling at them.
More than once, we’ve had packages left on the driveway because delivery people don’t want to come to the door and face Theo. It’s not just him, either; in my life I’ve had three Airedales, and all of them shared this trait.
They do this because Airedales are intelligent, diligent, and territorial dogs. They understand when someone’s coming onto their property, and they have a natural reaction to this.
Like I said, most of the time these are friendly barks, so you don’t have to worry about your Airedale attacking your houseguests. What you can count on, however, is that it would be very difficult for someone to approach your house without you being aware of the fact. In this way, your Airedale can act as a built-in alarm system.
Size and Energy
Finally, it’s the Airedales size and energy that ultimately makes them effective as a guard dog. Protective instinct and barking are great, but at the end of the day, they won’t do much against a threat. One of my friends had a Jack Russel Terrier who would bark at anyone who came near the family, but he weighed less than 20 pounds.
To actually act as a guard dog, your pet has to have the size and willingness to do so. Airedales have both. These dogs usually weigh anywhere from 45-60 pounds, although they can get as big as 80. Some kennels in America make the point of breeding larger-than normal Airedales, to better serve as utility dogs.
If you need more convincing, look at this video of an Airedale holding its ground against a Doberman who outweighs it by 20+ pounds:
In addition to their size, Airedales are high-energy creatures. They love to run, jump, and play. They also love to fight with their owners. This willingness to tussle means that, should push ever come to shove, your Airedale know what they’re doing in an actual fight, and they’ll be willing to hold their ground. These dogs are no pacifists.
Are Airedales Aggressive?
Now, based on the above information, it could be very easy to assume that Airedales are aggressive dogs that need to be controlled. In most cases, that couldn’t be farther from the truth.
Airedales are kind-spirited, highly playful animals. They love family, strangers, and other animals, and they’re very unlikely to turn towards aggression unless they’re provoked.
This rule obviously can’t be taken as universal, because no two dogs are alike. They have their own individual personalities and learned behaviours that are going to be molded by the environment they’re raised in. Some Airedales are going to be more aggressive than others, just like some Airedales are going to make better guard dogs than others.
With that said, though, most Airedales are not aggressive dogs. You can keep them around small children and other pets without worrying that they’ll be violent. My Airedale Theo loves strangers, and he always greets my friends enthusiastically. It’s only when another animal acts aggressively towards him does his fighting side come out, and those traits learned via years of hunting bears start to re-emerge.
Training Your Airedale
As I said above, many Airedales will learn to be protective of their family even without any formal training. It’s a deep-seated instinct stemming from their pack mentality. If you wish, though, you can engage in more training to further hone your Airedale’s instincts.
To train an Airedale, you need to rely on patience and positive reinforcement. These dogs are intelligent but stubborn, and they don’t take kindly to being yelled at. Instead, you should focus on rewarding your Airedale for good behaviour.
An important part of training your Airedale to look after your family is enforcing the fact that you are now its ‘pack’. This means that someone in the family should be a dedicated alpha who’s in charge of the household; reinforcing the alphas position is important when the Airedale is still young. Additionally, all members of your household should take turns feeding, walking, and playing with the Airedale so that it learns to accept all of them as pack members.