Source: http://shepherds.volkodavshchik.ru/
Its disclaimer: The text placed on this educational web site only represents private opinions that can be wrong and it is no official instruction how to handle these dogs or how to train them.
All the breeds of big shepherd dogs, if correctly trained, can be excellent protectors and defenders (bodyguards). They all are "dab hands" at what is called guarding service. Generally, the shepherd's breeds of dog have the best endowments for many types of work in the disciplines of protection and defense (but during the training better is to never use a protective sleeve, but a body bite suit only).
Know that because the wolfhounds that are not spoilt and who have good instincts will try, if there is a suitable situation for it, to attack the throat and head of the helper, better is to use such a bite suit that protects the helper's throat and head (but protection like a hockey-helmet is not fit for this, because the dog cannot safely and naturally bite it). The following comparison between the particular suites speaks for itself.
Good body bite suit and a Caucasian attacking by the proper way:
Central Asian Ovcharka Rusha - defense (with a try to bite the head):
As a bonus for this web page I have placed here several excerpts from "Dog related example":
Here is my graph of doggy defenders:
Attitude toward the owner's defense and performance in the fight are two different things. Psychopathic small cur attacking everybody will be for no use since it is too weak, and the strongest dog will be for no use if it will not defend its owner & will not attack the strangers.
Dogs with missing defensive reactions do not have any even if they were provoked for them, dogs with insufficient defensive reactions already show some endeavor to defend, which is however too low and does not result in active attack on the enemy (there is only some barking and endeavor to snap a bit after the enemy once in a while).
It is rightfully said, that attack is the best defense, therefore defenders are attacking strangers. Unreliable defender attacks strangers only in some types of situations that he was trained for, but he is supposed to be passive or tricked in the other types of situations that he does not know. Reliable defender attacks strangers in as many types of situations as possible even if tricks are used to divert his attention from the attack or even if it deals with the types of situations that he was not trained for.
Please note: Truly people-aggressive dog (= reliable defender) should have aggressive reaction to a referee on a dog show when he or she wants to check its teeth (either a direct attack or the dog should minimally stiffen up and growl), to a policeman that wants to control its owner, to a veterinarian that wants to vaccinate the dog, to every stranger that will come too close even if he had a small dog or bitch in the heat with him (it is necessary to teach the dog to be aggressive even against such persons who have a dog with them and approached its owner), to a large number of human opponents instead of one or two only (some dogs "get cold" or retreat when they see more people entering their territory) etc.
My philosophy is simple: Dogs (as well as almost all the normal people) are not able to recognize, which of other people has bad intentions about their owner. It is said that attack is the best defense, therefore the best defense of the owner is to attack all the strange people that are too close to him or her. Normally trained dogs do not react to a lot of small impulses and they are dull, but only such a dog that reliably reacts to a mere closeness of the stranger will not fail. By other words: "The mere closeness of a stranger is a reason to attack."
Advice: It use to happen (and in my life I have encountered it several times) that some guys (either individuals or, more often, curious Special Service) enter the home of people, when they are away (at school, at work, in the shop, at their friends' place and similarly). Then the only member of family, who is present at home, is the dog.
If the intruders have the knowledge of dogs and various means how to confuse and/or defeat them, it is very bad. Especially in young dogs that are trained for protection and such a situation of the encounter with the stranger(s), even if it was only one time in the dog's life, is something what will affect its training.
No dog is able to defend your home fully, when there is some bigger interest to get inside of it when you are away (the neighbor won't say anything to you, if they will pay to him and/or threaten him). My personal experience is that that one only factor, in given case the dog, can always fail somehow. Best are three factors together, in particular human being + the dog + some motion sensor.
Above all, I want to say that you should never let your dog at home alone (ignore fully that your friends are doing so). Always let one member of your family at home together with the dog. And never, not a single time in your life, let your dog without any supervision. And this is also valid for the case that your dog is chained & tied somewhere and somebody asks you to move away to a place, from which you would not have your dog under control any more (even if your best human friend asked you to go a few steps aside, where the dog would disappear from your sight, refuse it).
Closing lesson:
It is obvious, that the endeavor to get the best dog – bodyguard and/or protector of premises – is correct. But all the time we must not forget the fact that no such a dog is able to reach 100% results every time and to manage to deal with all the possible situations. Any dog can be tricked somehow or defeated. And it is the reason why we cannot (and I understood it only after long years) expect everything of the dog.
From the viewpoint of Astrology, only a small number of individuals have such endowments, that they can become the best bodyguards, attacking all the potential enemies of their owner in all the types of situations.
A practical attitude to it is very simple: We try to obtain a dog of the best inborn endowments for the protection work (in our case we prefer the wolfhound to all the other). But we know that it alone cannot deal with everything.
Therefore we should be helping it. We observe the reasonable rules of safety; we can have a gun; we live in the way not to have too dangerous enemies; if the dog fights more enemies at the same time we help it, and similarly. But in this case the dog should get used to the gun in our hands and that we also fight the enemies, not only it.
There are two main options:
1. If everything depends only on the dog, meaning that it won't get any support and it has to do everything alone, it must be best at the protection work. We speak about the most people-aggressive Wolfhound with the best inborn endowments and training. But such a Wolfhound, say, is one out of hundred.
2. If only one part depends on the dog and the other is in reliable hands of its owner with other positive and helpin g factors, it will do when that dog will "only" be good at the protection work, although not best. And such can be one out of ten, for example.
When the owner knows some martial art and/or possesses a gun, his house with the backyard are safely situated with the other positive circumstances (for instance, a dog and a bitch, shortly several dogs at the same time), a good dog is enough and it is not necessary to have the best one. I add that not only Wolfhound is sufficient for this purpose, but also some excellent individuals of various "utility breeds of dog".
After you have read the previous lines, I give you a question, the answer to which is not simple and easy every time: "What is better, a Caucasian Ovcharka alone or a German Shepherd Dog and a gun?" But if I gave you a question "What is better, a Caucasian Ovcharka and a gun or a German Shepherd Dog and a gun?", it would be easier to answer it.