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Over socialization

2240 Views 30 Replies 11 Participants Last post by  sizzledog, 
M
Hello. Long story short: we moved to a big house with over 50 windows and openings. My family consists of 2 babies (3&4 years old)my wife (working), a lady who helps for the house (and lives with us) and me (working hard :) away from home 7am to 6pm).

So we bought a female Doberman for company and protection/alert. To tell you the truth, I had many male dogs in the past but without the babies and always living in the yard and never inside the house and as near socialized as this one.

Now this Doberman is almost 10 months old, sleeps most of the nights in my bedroom (has left the crate) and she is just the sweetest dog in the neighbor: extremely socialized, extremely friendly with all small kids and with our visitors, very friendly with all other dogs even with some cats.

My question is: is it possible that I have over socialized her, so that she will not become a good guard dog? From some signs I would say no, for example we have changed our bell 3 times (!) and from the first day she knew that someone is coming (good sign) and was waiting in the door to greed him and/or play with him (not a good sign).
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MrsJohnnyG
That's a good question -- thanks for asking it and to everyone for your helpful replies.

I do have a question about this though:
At 10 months, she hasn't even entered adolescence, let alone become an adult. Puppies don't guard anything.
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My puppies are only 4 months old, but they have started growling (and sometimes barking until I thank them and tell them they can stop) when someone they don't know comes onto our property. Are you saying that's not normal? They are very well socialized and when they take their cue from me that a visitor is a friend not foe, they become friendly and greet them with tail wags (for example, we had a crew of about 10 landscaping workers... all men... that they had never seen before... once they saw me greet and talk to them, they bounced up to them wagging their tails).
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