Does it matter to you?....

[Good_Karma]

Originally Posted by Whiteshepherds

Mine bark at strangers that come in the yard and walk past the house. They bark if they hear things in the woods and they bark when a friend or family member shows up at the door. As long as they stop when I tell them it's okay, I'm happy.

This pretty much sums it up for me too.

[Caledon]

I got her as a compainion and just the fact that I have a dog in my house is deterent enough for a b & e, in addition to my alarm system.

I've had maybe two occasions that Dakota has given me signals about people. She can see who is at our front door, and this one time she gave a couple of big barks. I did not answer the door. She acted strange a few days ago when we passed a person going door to door for driveway sealing. She actually turned around and stopped, ears up, mouth closed after he passed us, the guy never looked back so he did not see her reaction, but on the way back she became alert to him but this time he crossed the road. Funny thing he never knocked on my door, and my driveway needs sealing.

[Chicagocanine]

Hard to answer. I was going to say it doesn't but I'm not sure. Bianca will bark at anyone who comes near the house, and that is just fine with me. If it bothered me or if I didn't like it I would train her not to, but it doesn't so I don't. She'll stop barking if I tell her to.
So since I haven't tried to re-train her not to bark does that mean it does matter to me?

I do admit it makes for a good way to get rid of solicitors. When I crack open the door and Bianca's muzzle is right there barking they tend to back off. If they don't back off I can just say "Sorry, I can't hear you over the dog" and close the door.

She doesn't normally bark when people come near the car which again is fine with me because I like to take her a lot of places and I don't want her to be barking at people constant when we're out. I am pretty sure if someone was menacing she would bark though.

Originally Posted by Countrymama

I was told that have a beware of dog sign meant that you knew your dog would bite and made it a liability. We

Actually this is not true. It all depends on what the law is where you live, and actually it is more common for the law to say this does NOT make it a liability. In some places NOT having a beware of dog sign can make you more likely to be held liable. In many places the law does not take a sign into account so whether or not you have one does not change whether or not you are considered liable.