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When bringing a new schnauzer into your family you want them to be loyal and loving but not over the top protective. Are schnauzers protective in general as a breed? Or can they learn to be calm, loving companions?
Are Schnauzers Protective:
Schnauzers have a background of being hunters, guarders as well as herders which make them more protective than your average dog. Instinctually, they want to keep their loved ones safe. However, with proper socialization schnauzers can be great companions without overprotective tendencies.
In this post you’ll discover the truth about schnauzers and their protectiveness, how you might unknowingly be reinforcing their protective behavior as well as 4 helpful tips to curb a schnauzer’s overprotective behavior.
Tip #2 is by far the most important!
Let’s jump right in.
Table of Contents
Top 6 Reasons Why Schnauzers Are Protective
1) Instinct
Schnauzers were bred to help German farmers back in the 1800s.
They were trained to protect their family as well as to herd and protect cattle from predators.
So it’s very natural for a schnauzer to have a desire to be protective of their family.
They develop strong bonds with their owners and have an innate desire to please them which comes from their working background.
They have ‘guard dog’ built into them and will need some additional training to help them behave around unfamiliar dogs and people.
It’s also natural for dogs in general to be protective of their pack because it’s how their wolf ancestors survived in the wild.
Which also contributes to a schnauzer’s instinctual desire to protect you and the rest of their family.
Related Reading: Do Schnauzers Make Good Guard Dogs? What To Expect
2) Traumatic Past
Oftentimes if a dog experiences a traumatic past, whether it’s abuse or abandonment, they will be more protective over the things they find valuable.
And schnauzers are no exception to this.
They could show overprotectiveness toward their food, toys, certain areas, and of course their loved ones.
If you’ve adopted a schnauzer that’s had a traumatic past, first of all, you’re a wonderful human being.
Second, over time, once they begin to trust you, they may start to behave overly protective.
Because they experienced such poor conditions, now that they are much happier with you, they’ll do anything to protect and keep you safe.
More often than not, their overprotectiveness isn’t necessary.
But their painful past gives them a strong urge to return the love you’ve shown them by keeping you safe.
Related Reading: 8x Why Schnauzers Are So Aggressive + 11 Tips To Stop It
3) Unknowingly Trained To Be
Many of the behaviors that dog owners don’t want to see in their schnauzer are actually unknowingly trained.
You might think this is crazy talk, but your pup will do just about anything to get your attention.
Whether your response is positive attention or negative attention is less important to them.
What they really care about is you’re now paying attention to them when you previously weren’t.
So if it’s yelling at them when they aggressively bark at guests.
Or if it’s laughing when they jump on your lap to create space between you and your guest.
Both situations are training them to continue their protective behavior.
Until they’re distinctly trained on the proper behavior needed when around guests, they will continue to be protective because they think it’s the right behavior.
4) Unhealthy Amount Of Love
How much love is too much love?
Loving you and wanting to be close to you as much as possible is one thing.
Then there’s love that borderlines obsession, which isn’t healthy and usually results in being overprotective.
This can also be a sign of separation anxiety.
When a schnauzer loves you too much, they may exhibit overly protective behavior among other extreme behaviors.
Unfortunately, when a dog is emotionally dependent on their owner, it can be a rather challenging task to curb their protective behavior.
This can show up in schnauzers if they were abused in the past, abandoned, or were isolated as a puppy.
Related Reading: Can a Dog Love You Too Much? (5 Signs They Do!)
5) Lack Of Socialization
Socialization is important for all dogs in order to learn how to behave around strangers, but it’s even more important for schnauzers.
Because of their background herding and guarding, they need lots of interaction with new dogs and people from a young age.
If a schnauzer has only interacted with one person for most of their upbringing, any unfamiliar dogs and people will be seen as potential threats.
Which causes them to act aggressively in an attempt to protect you.
It’s not their fault, they just want to make sure you’re safe.
And since they didn’t learn that unfamiliar people can also be friends, they only see them as threats.
6) Lack Of Rules Or Structure
Dogs like knowing where they stand in the pecking order of your family.
And without proper rules and structure, they may not know if you’re in charge or they are.
In this case, they probably think they’re in charge and need to protect you.
It may seem hard to believe when you see a dog grab a shoe and run all around the house, but all pups need and value structure/rules.
If your schnauzer knows that you’re the alpha of their pack, they won’t feel the need to always be on the lookout for potential threats.
They’ll understand that if you’re cool, calm and collected, then nothing is wrong and they don’t need to be aggressive/protective.
When a family doesn’t incorporate firm, consistent training a schnauzer can easily pick up undesirable behavior.
Like being overly protective.
4 Tips To Help Your Schnauzer Not Be So Overprotective
1) Only Reinforce Positive Behavior
Oftentimes people unknowingly reinforce negative behavior. Which then becomes problematic later down the line when a minor poor behavior becomes a severe problem like overprotectiveness.
If your schnauzer does anything you don’t like, do your best to react as calmly as possible and remove them from the situation.
Don’t overly react by yelling and making a big scene.
This is likely what they want.
Simply tell them no in a firm, calm voice and put them in their crate or in another room.
If you don’t react in a way that shows them this sort of behavior triggers you, they aren’t as likely to do it again in the future.
Pair that with positive reinforcement when they do behave in a way you’d like to continue to see, and their bad behavior will be a thing of the past.
When you know you’re having people come over and your schnauzer has notoriously been protective, make sure you have your trainer cap on when the doorbell rings.
Have treats on hand and reward the positive behavior you want to see, and remove them if they do anything bad.
2) Have Them Experience Many New Dogs, People & Places
From the age of 2 months old to 12 months old, do your best to introduce your schnauzer to as many different dogs, people and places as possible.
If they’re isolated from the outside world for the most part, meaning the only meaningful interactions they’ve had are with you, they’ll be protective.
They need to learn that other dogs aren’t dangerous and can become great friends.
They need to learn that other people aren’t potential threats and are your friends.
And they need to learn how to follow your commands when in a variety of different environments.
Bottomline, the more variety they experience in their early years, the more well behaved they’ll be around unfamiliar people and animals.
3) Mitigate Misbehavior
If your pup is acting overly protective, it’s because they’ve learned the behavior over many months or even years.
That means it’s going to require some behavior management to rid them of this unwanted behavior.
Since it may take extra time to untrain their overprotective behavior, whenever you have guests over put them on a leash or even get a muzzle.
This will give you more control over their bad habitual behavior around new people and keep everyone safe.
4) Work With a Professional
Sometimes a dog that behaves overprotective is too challenging of a problem for people to solve.
That’s where bringing in a professional can be extremely helpful.
They’ve likely experienced dozens or even hundreds of protective dog behavior situations and know exactly how to eliminate it.
Rather than attempting to fix your pup through trial and error, find the exact root of the problem and the best solution by working with a professional.
Other posts you might find interesting:
Do Schnauzers Make Good Guard Dogs? What To Expect
Do Schnauzers Have Bad Teeth? 6 Indicators + Helpful Tips
11 Reasons Why Schnauzers Dig On Your Bed + 4 Tips