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What do you think your dog would do if a "bad person" came on your property?

5K views 47 replies 35 participants last post by  Carriesue 
#1 ·
What do you think your dog would do if a "bad person" came on your property?

last night my security cameras caught someone snooping around the property and that got me thinking what my dogs would do if someone actually tried to come in while everyone was sleeping. 2 of my dogs are well socialized but our 15 pound bichon/poodle mix doesnt like strangers he was a rescue. i personally think my Dane would sleep through it and my GSD would try to play with them and Odie our 15 pound baby would be the one "protecting us" lol
 
#2 ·
All my previous gsd's where very alert to 'unusual behaviour,, and that includes cars driving by at an unusually slow speed.
My previous dog, Zandor, was super friendly and very mellow (long-hair or part golden) but went completely cujo one night, and only one night, when a stranger approached me in a weird and threatening way (stalking, staring, heading right at me from the side), so I know that just because they,re friendly doesn't mean they won't step up to plate some day when it counts.
 
#3 ·
They would do what they have been taught - alert & destroy period! I don't have to guess, just ask the last guy/animal who did it! We have 6' chain link fence for a reason and many many posted signs. The cops and ambulance have been here more than once. Each and every time carrying the perpetrator away! Each time stating WoW who in their right mind would try and come here un-invited..
 
#4 ·
They will do what comes natural to them if threatened. Only had one experience where my 2 yr old protected me. I was walking back from grabbing a slice of pizza at night in the city with my german shepherd Bullet when three men kept making every turn I made and my dog kept turning his head around but we kept walking. Then finally I think Bullet had enough of them so he turned around gave two loud barks and growled and off they went in the other direction. Don't know if that qualifies for anything but made me feel good my little man is watching my back.
 
#5 ·
My two are in the house during the night but we have had a couple of close calls that would have resulted in a bite if I had not been around to stop it.

My two are not trained dogs, one rescue (male) and one rehome (female). Both dogs are kept in the house but with fenced property.

First close call was I was woken in the night by my female growling at something outside the window. Open windows in the summer time. It woke me so I went into the dining room just to listen to see what she's wanting to get at. Thinking its just a raccoon or something. I hear a voice and see a flash light on the other side of the fence. On my niehgbours property. I know he works shifts and his wife has 2 young kids. Not knowing who this and knowing they only have one gate to get out I call out saying do not open that gate (sounded like he was fiddling with it trying to open) because dogs would get him - this is after mine have been growling and barking, but the dogs are still inside with me. It was a somewhat empty threat, I was not going to release my dogs into the dark after what I thought was thief. I said and did this to scare whoever it was away. Person does not respond to me, and I can hear him talking to someone. I go around to the front of my house about to call the police, and I look out to the street and see two cops walking down my street. Unusual for my area to see any police. I call them out from my front door letting them know someone is in my neighours back yard, they came and spoke with me and said it was one of them and with a K9 that they were out looking for someone. No big deal and good call on my part not letting my dogs out in my fenced property to scare this person away. It's possible they could have been on my side on the fence and one of my dogs shot if they went after an officer.

The second close call was last summer having my roof replaced. The company and roofers were great. I guaranteed them the dogs would not be a problem and would be inside with me at all times. The dogs were surprisingly well and chill with the noise of the roof being replaced and seeing people on the house. They kind of just looked to me for direction and could see I was normal and this wasn't a issue. Anyways, roofers break for lunch. They tell me they will be back in an hour or so and they gave me the heads up they were leaving in case I wanted to let the dogs out to run. I make sure gate is closed and all is clear and let the dogs out. I'm walking around the house just looking the work done and I can hear my male barking at something I come around the corner and just get him right in the time, he literally lunged, snapped and missing this guys thigh as he was backing up. My recall worked and he came back to me without biting. Now I'm shocked by all this, I swore the place was clear and all roofers were gone. Both trucks pulled away, I immediately apologize (thinking he's one of the roofers) and scramble to get the dogs back in the house. I briefly take them inside and come back out and this man is gone. Nowhere to be seen. I'm a bit puzzled because both trucks were gone, I had what I think was 6 guys working on my roof and I didn't meet everyone of them when the crew showed up so i assumed this was a roofer. Turns out it was NOT. Guys come back from lunch break and I speak to them, they are looking at me like I'm nuts because all of them were together and I don't recognize the guy from the group of them now. Turns out this was a complete stranger that came onto my property likely to steel tools that were laying around. They didn't clean up anything while they left for break. It's a nice area, gated lot, with known GSD's around so they had no concerns just leaving tools around I guess. So in this case my dog did great and prevented a theft. It's pretty wild how quick that close call bite almost happend, and it kept me motivated to keep focused on the training. I don't know how the recall worked because its not something I especially trianed, I taught him leave it in certain cases but never scenarios like this. My dogs have no formal training of any kind, or bite work or protection.
 
#6 ·
My Yorkie would go into kill mode,lol!The other two would be threatening but I really don't know if they would engage with a bad guy.
The other evening I had left a bag of garden mulch leaning against the barn.They noticed it when the sodium light came on and had a fit!That intruder did not belong!I let them out to investigate and they tore out there and skidded to a stop in front of it,noses going and growling.Oh,it's just a bag.Mission aborted:)
 
#20 ·
This happened to me, but with a centipede. My dog came running to see who was killing me. She looked pretty unimpressed when she saw the centipede. At fully 3" long, I thought he was quite impressive, but she disagreed with me.

With respect to a human intruder, I know she'd bark the house down. Beyond that, I'm not sure. Her bark is booming and her growl can sound pretty menacing, so I'm hoping that's all it would take.
 
#8 ·
Not sure and Im actually a bit curious too since he is still young just turned 10 months.
We have not done any protection work in about a good month or two. I do believe he would bite though because he has a fairly serious edge even at his young age.

One time he laying next to me in the living room while I was watching tv when my brother came home. He let out a pretty loud deep bark and charged towards the door but melted into the goofy puppy he still is by the time reached him and realized it was my brother.

Another time i heard him snarl like never before around 3 am. I thought he was having a bad dream since he did it once or twice and then was quiet all within about 10 sec. The next morning when i was leaving for work i realized our back door was open a crack!
 
#9 ·
I am sure, even though she has not been protection-trained, she would step in if needed. I would not send her out to prevent her from getting hurt/shot. Just her behavior and appearance should be enough unless they really meant harm and would shoot her, me or us both. We live rural and it is peace of mind with her around. When she does respond to something, Cam tags along with her bravely
 
#11 ·
Lucky kept circling and barking at one scumbag even after he assaulted my father in our yard. Usually her show was enough to back most off, but this loser was drunk and the only thing he knew was that he "beat up" a cop. Scumbag was taken home to sober up, dad was investigated for almost a year for breaking his nose (and glasses). Scumbag was butt hurt about being the Tae Kwan Doe instructor laid out with one punch.
 
#12 ·
It is not a question I consider often.

My dogs hear a vehicle or a buggy slowing down on the road before I do. If they turn into my drive, they alert. If someone walking down the road turns onto my property, they alert.

If I ignore their alerts, (I do especially if I hear the garbage truck, or know the CEI guy is coming) well, then, I suppose someone could come in my front door. Karma is right there in her kennel and would be barking her head off. Or the back door, and he would have to go through Milla.

Ok, they are nice girls, and maybe they won't bite him. They all have good voices, and any but the most determined at attacking me individually would go and find some place less protected than mine, probably get a better haul too. All of my wealth sheds and wags.

But let's say someone did come through my front door. Bear would bark and fling her self at the baby gate, and probably go over it to get to him. Babsy is kind of getting old, but she would have already been at the living room window watching his progress, she would go to the door and investigate, and if he had any fear/aggressive/stealth feelings going on, she would growl low and let him know she will bite him. At that point Bear would be over her gate and would either engage herself, or would get between the guy and me.

Karma might even try and scale the six foot fencing to get over -- she's an escape artist. I wouldn't expect much from Quinnie yet, but she would be barking and running in and out and in and out. The rest of my dogs would be going nuts outside. And this would likely alert neighbors.

I do not see Babs or Bear letting someone rape or murder me. A determined, prepared intruder would have a gun or knife and would engage the dog. Hopefully, this would give me time to load my gun.

Of course nothing like this has happened in the last 47 years, no reason for it to happen in the next 47 years. So I'm not going to sweat it.
 
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#13 ·
I have so many that I would hope this wouldn't happen. I would think they would have a much easier time at the house down the road without dogs, but you never know. All three GSDs love people they know and don't pay attention to those they don't know. They are always very alert no matter what. I go back and forth with which one or ones would react. When I think I'm right in my thinking one of them does something that changes my thoughts. Apollo has that edge and always has. Robyn and Apollo are super close to me, I thought Robyn was super attached but Apollo passed her up. I think it would completely make Apollo crazy if someone was hurting me. I've seen Midnite switch gears when a guy tried coming over the fence and when some guys were on the roof across the way with ski masks on, he flew at both and his bark was way different then normal. I also believe that someone might have attempted to break in when I first moved in. The door was dented on the bottom and Midnites claw marks were next to the window. Midnite had to be super mad to do that, but nobody came in. I think with all three of them there would be serious injuries. I think it would only take one to lead the way and the other two would follow suit. I don't think any of them would back down. I don't see them attacking someone unless they were threatened, but even more so me. I would never want to see them hurt if they did so, so I would always try to protect them.
 
#14 ·
One would probably give a great show and the other, smaller female, would bite.

An intruder that challenges a German Shepherd might only answer to a firearm.
 
#15 ·
My pointer mutt has never engaged anything 'strange & scary.' But we've always been there. Pointers are much more watch dogs than guard dogs. And he does that well (again, never been at a point where he's had to go into a guard mode). However, backed into a corner, I think he would destroy any person that tested him & I was there to command him.

He's very alert to things around our property. He'll bark when people walk by (stops when told to. I walk over, check it out, and let him know it's nothing to be concerned with). But it's more of a gentle bark. When out in the woods, twice we've been standing along a slope and what with the angle of the sun and all the trees about, some oddly shaped broken dead tree must've looked like a big scary monster to him. His deep growls came out and his hackles up. He wouldn't work towards it, though; just holding his ground, moving side to side & close to me. He only moved forward when I went forward. Showed him what it was. All was good.

Once while walking downtown, some idiot on a bench (wearing a poofy winter jacket, good up, and wearing gloves) sees us approaching/walking by and just before we get to him...the guy suddenly moves his body (was completely still the whole time up to this), raises his hand into the air as a fist and does one of those little pump fakes. My dog jumped back a step and was on guard. Hackles up, deep growls, and a couple barks, but never moved towards to engage; stood his ground. Quickly told him to stop and we continued. Pretty sure everyone nearby heard me 'muttering' plenty of foul language as I walked away.

Only one time has he attempted to engage a possible threat. My girlfriend had him by the lake, and she had our Chihuahua mutt puppy (about 6 weeks old at the time) with her. She turned around and a deer was VERY close...and walking closer. She was awestruck. But as it was about 3 feet away, she had a thought of fear & panic that it could turn & kick her or trample the puppy. At that very moment, she said he immediately darted over and chased the deer away. Recalled very quickly, too (so he wasn't chasing it for fun...his hunting focus is insane & can be a bit tough at times to break).

Our Chi chi pup is now about 12.5 weeks...she's starting to get her voice and barks tiny barks when he is barking. No idea what she's barking at, but wants to help sound the alert.
 
#16 ·
My parents ancient English Setter scared off a burglar. They broke two windows on different sides of the house and tried to get in the back door, but Pippy saved the day. He was the biggest marshmallow, and afraid of his own shadow, but he must've barked enough to deter the burglar. Good boy, Pip!
 
#17 ·
I had a bear of a girl a beautiful sable but solid solid bone.. She was very friendly and loved to play fetch with anything. I used to play ice hockey and the ice rental was often late at night. One early morning as I was heading to my car which was at the far end of a dark parking lot (free skate time the parking lot filled to capacity so I had the sucky parking space). She would come with me and chase pucks on the ice.. As I walked back I noticed a man come from the shadows and approach me.. I had my gear over my shoulder and while I was aware of him I wasn't necessarily feeling cautious.. She didn't like it, he moved towards me with intent and the most hair raising demonic growl came out of my sweet girl.. I actually looked at her scared and then realized the man was beating a very, hasty retreat.. My girl smiled back at me happy as always, fur slowly lowering and hoped in the truck... Definitely something about the man she thought was not appropriate..
 
#19 ·
I was just wondering about this over the weekend. I really don't know how my boys would react.

Sinister has protected me from 2 crackheads in my alley before, he caught me and them totally off guard, I honestly didn't expect him to do anything but he did. But he was on a leash and we were in the alley and not exactly on my property. I don't know how he would react to someone coming into the house and coming after me. I would like to think that Sinister would help me defeat the intruder, I would not allow him to attempt the fight alone.

Draven.................................................. I think he would think it's a new friend or that it's a game. I do not feel safe with Draven, he is always happy, always friendly and always excited to see people. He greets everyone that walks past my fence with a tail wag and a smile and I HATE IT. I live in a bad neighborhood and Draven is a terrible "guard dog." If something were to happen to Sinister, I would not be able to stay in my home with just Draven.
 
#22 · (Edited)
No doubt he will protect us from any intruders. He has a very protective nature. As sweet and goofy he can be he has a whole other side. A few month ago he must of heard someone lurking around the property as was the first time he woke us up in the middle of the night barking downstairs at the front door. It was a different kind of bark that you just knew it was no cat hanging around outside.

The guardian of the grounds-
Studying the ways of squirrels.
 

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#26 ·
I have the very real worry that one of my dogs would bite an intruder, be they a "bad person" or not.



Most people (burglars, even), when confronted with a medium to large sized dog, barking in a threatening way, would have enough sense to not proceed any further.
 
#27 ·
My experience with the current dog is that she is very alert to anything moving (people, critters, leaves, etc.). She will stop and "take note" of people. Neighbors and other people she knows, she is aloof, but doesn't bark. People she doesn't know- she will assume full "stranger danger" mode and I believe you would have to be crazy to confront a dog that seems intent on protecting her turf and showing off her impressive dental work.

I will say that I've teased a neighbor who commented to me that he noticed my dog and I seem to have a routine where we do some brief training in the front yard. My answer is that "yes" we do and the main reason is because I figure that if someone is "scoping" out the neighborhood, they will likely choose his house over the one with the big shepherd trying to shred a tug toy.

I can sympathize with those who have friendly dogs because my last shepherd never met a stranger. However, he was still a decent watchdog because he alerted to people and if you didn't know the dog (and know that he would probably help drag items out of my home for a treat), you would be understandably reluctant to challenge him based on the breed.
 
#30 ·
Once upon a time, long, long, ago, when I did not have a dog, but only a killer cat. The cat used to sleep in my bed. His name was Ashley because when I fished him out from under the neighbor's porch he was so tiny and wild, I didn't know if he was male or female. But he was generally known as Monster Kitty, or just Monster.

Anyhow, one night, I called his many nick names, and then called Monster as my nighttime routine and he came and leaped up into the bed. But, he did not nestle down by my head and go to sleep. He jumped out of the bed and went away. I did not think much of it. But just as my body was transitioning from being awake to being asleep, a hornet nailed me in my ear!

**** cat! He knew what was in my bed, knew that thing was there, and he just saved himself, and did not even warn me. Super Kitty would have batted at me until I got out of the bed, and then he would have went back and attacked and killed the flying menace. My cat just slithers away into the night and leaves me in the drink to drown.

I like dogs better. At least they share my abhorrence to anything that flies and stings, multiple times. And they are loyal, and brave, and they would never laugh at me after slinking away from a serious threat.

There was one cat that protected its toddler from a pit bull attack -- that is a CAT worth keeping. My cat played with a mouse, and killed a mouse for me, but in 7 years, I can't really say that was anything to boast about.
 
#33 ·
Your kitty did warn you, you just missed the warning. They don't signal the same as a dog.

I came home from work one day and the Rottie and GSD acted as if all was well. I went in the living room and my old cat was laying on the window sill. She flicked her ear in the direction of upstairs and I knew something was up.

Yep, no family member was home but the step son left his witchy girlfriend alone in his room to ramble through our house with no supervision while we were gone. No dog alerted but the old cat did, subtle as it was.
 
#32 ·
So today I'm home for lunch letting the dogs out and I hear knocking on the door. I shut the back door, go to front door and no one is there. I go open the back door and dogs fly to the front door. So now I'm thinking ok they heard it too. Midnite is at front door wagging his tail, no barking, sniffing under the door. I'm thinking that's weird, it has to be someone he knows. I go back to work and about an hour later my operations manager says did someone knock on your door? I originally thought it was him messing with me, but I refused to acknowledge it(which bothered him). I told him I thought it was you because of how Midnite acted-Midnite LOVES this guy and knew it was him. It completely amazes me that their noses are so good because that is the only way Midnite knew it was him, he didn't see him at all.
 
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