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Does Your Dog Make You Feel Safer

63K views 256 replies 208 participants last post by  ADogCalledQuest 
#1 ·
This question applies to all dogs,not just those with PPD training. I like the fact that Casja will alert when someone is at my door,but I know that she would basically give anyone the grand tour if they wanted to take something. So I don't feel 'safe',but don't feel 'unsafe' either if that makes sense.

How much more secure do you feel with your dogs?
 
#112 · (Edited)
I didn't get Phoenix to be a "Protection" dog, but that is kind of what he has turned out to be. He is territorial aggressive (though we are making AWESOME progress!!! :laugh:) but I hike all over the place with him. I live out in the country, and hiking by yourself can be dangerous. Not to mention, there are creepy people in this world, and I'm not very big. I do feel incredibly safe when he is with me; he is my extended eyes and ears. I love the security of having him with me; nobody messes with my dog!
(I'm not old enough to carry a handgun yet :( Though I know how to use one and we have lots of guns in our house. You can bet I will when i'm old enough though!)
 
#113 ·
My dog definitely makes me feel safer! I live in the country and one time someone came to the house really really late at night, a short time after I moved there. I was sleeping, he had been drinking and didn't know a friend who he was looking for no longer lived there.

My dog was barking and growling. She will bark if someone comes to the house, but won't normally growl when I'm up and it's daytime and when I tell her it's ok. Something about night time and me being asleep, she was definitely really suspicious.

Anyway, I don't know if she'd actually protect me, but her ears are far better than mine and she will give me a good warning, so she can at least eliminate teh element of surprise and I also think she's a pretty good deterrent from most people.

Also, she LOVES my dad, but he was letting his dog out when I was walking her up the driveway and he was hidden by a little pine tree. He stepped out (he was a fair distance away) and said hi which surprised us both, it took my dog a second to realize who it was, she went nuts barking at him. Then she saw it was him and got all excited to see him. So she's definitely on the lookout for suspicious behaviour in people.

I don't own a gun, and I don't ever want to own one. I think they kill more people by accident than on purpose, and they would make me feel more unsafe than they would safe. I by far prefer my furry security system. :)
 
#115 ·
My pup is only 5 months old and does alert to any small sounds. However, he also speaks on command and I can always whisper 'what's that?' and he'll bark. Don't know where he picked that up ... I think he just likes the idea of barking, although he doesn't do it indiscriminately.
 
#116 ·
I'm sure my dogs would protect me if it came down to that, but I think there would be some negotiating first. Neither my Pit or my GSD have a great desire to get involved. The GSD will bark if he hears anything and the Pit will investigate the majority of the time, but I think they expect me to protect them.
 
#117 ·
I am not too sure that they will protect me from serious bad guys with weapons, but I can pretty much bank on the fact that they will deter the vast majority of people who are looking for an easy target.
 
#118 ·
I doubt my dog would protect me and I wouldn't want him to, i'd be afraid he's seriously hurt. I'm ready to protect him though.

However, his barking and lunging would probably deter most people and if it doesn't then he probably wouldn't be much help even if he was protection trained and I was willing to give the command.
 
#119 ·
safer? idk...maybe in the sense that if they alert I will have time to do what is needed to protect myself if there is an intruder. I would not expect them to attack.
 
#120 ·
Yes , I feel safer with my 90 pound boxer hound mix , my 130 pound Mastiff , and my growing GSD. I do not know if they would attack..but they bark and bluff. Which gives me time to get to the tools that I choose and train to use should my family , including my dogs , be threatened. Unless a dog was specifically trained to engage , I would not bank on it. Is it a possibility they would attack? Absolutely ( especially a Chihuahua lol ) Would not bank on it though. They do make me feel safer because they are reliable perimeter alarms , they make decisions based on clues humans can't pick up and they share that decision with me through body language , and their batteries are never dead ,and cutting the phone or cable lines can't shut them off.
 
#122 ·
I definitely feel safer with the dogs. And now that there are 3 GSDs in the house (insanity), it's even better.

Of course almost 7 month old Russell is basically useless at the moment, but he does have a big boy bark and is as big as Carly. And Carly is dark and scary looking, and I wouldn't want to cross her if I was a stranger. Then there is Sage. She is the early warning system. I joke that if someone tried to come into the house unwanted, that they would probably break a hip falling over the herd of dogs.
 
#123 ·
YES, I feel much safer with the Hooligans!!! NO, I don't think they'd protect me BUT other people don't know that because they act like they're going to eat someone alive if they come to the gate or the house.
 
#124 ·
Absolutely. Just the look of a GSD is intimidating enough for most people.

Last week some dump truck driver didn't like the fact that Kristen tried to pass him on a hill and blocked her even though she had a lane to make a move. At a light, he got out of his truck and started pounding on the passenger side window yelling at us. Buggi started going ballistic at him with the "I WILL MESS YOU UP" bark and the guy about pooped himself when he saw a GSD's teeth less than 2 inches from his face. Needless to say he shut up and got back in his truck cab. He was driving like a jerk.

I just am always comfortable knowing that if I'm not around, and even when I am around, we have a GSD who has the natural protective instincts.
 
#125 ·
Yes, Eko makes me feel very safe. He is very protective of us and his little sister Xena :p Every once in a while just to be an idiot my roommate will slap me on the arm in front of Eko to instigate him and Eko will snap at him and stand in front of me. I always yell at my roommate for it but it is a bit comforting to know Eko would protect me if someone attacked me. Just the sight of him is enough to scare the bejeesus out of most people, and although it makes me a little sad most people are scared of Xena too. No one wants to go to the house with the scary GSD and the pit bull!
 
#126 ·
Absolutely! I don't go almost anywhere without Diesel. For the last 6 years he's been with me through thick and thin. Even on duty I take him sometimes.

nope this is my son. my right hand.

he's an excellent judge of character and he's gonna come first I don't care WHO comes in and out of my life.....probably why i'm still single lol;)
 
#130 ·
Skylar (our 5yo gsd) is very protective. Our UPS guy is scared of her, and approaches our front porch very cautiously when he has a package to deliver, then he gets back to his truck very quickly. As others have said, I don't know if she would actually bite someone, but her bark & menacing look has been enough, to scare many away. One night she woke us up barking at about 3 in the am. I looked out and saw an older chevy parked, but still running in the middle of the street in front of our house. Whe I went out to check it out the chevy drove off down the street, turned around in the cul de sac and came back and left.Wish I had gotten the plate #, but didnt. later that morning I got up and discovered that the 98 Civic in front of our house had been broken into & stuff stolen from it. I learned to pay closer attention when Skylar barks late at night now.
 
#131 ·
Now that Lisl is grown and matured, I do indeed feel safer having her with me late at night. I know what she is capable of and I think we each compliment the other.

I have learned about her drives and thresholds, her motivators, and what can stress her, and make her change drives or fall out of drive.

These dogs are certainly fascinating to train, study, and to bond and become partners with.
 
#133 ·
She used to. Now Heidi is 13 and sometimes I am not sure she hears too well. Her hips keep her from getting up to the window to look also.
This describes our house. Lucky was a vigilant watch dog but at 12 perhaps 13 his back legs are so weak and he doesnt see very well. When he naps he's almost comatose.The girls are close to 12 years old as well and they dont wake up easily. If all three are up and they see someone they still can get their bark on. But its now my role to protect and watch them.

I always felt saferr in our house w/ Daisy and Lucky ,they were a defibite deterrent.
 
#134 ·
Last night, we had reason to have a total stranger in our home. As he sat at the kitchen table, Hondo laid quietly in the living room...staring at him. The man stated, "The dog scares the *bleep* out of me."

Yes, Hondo does make me feel safer.
 
#135 ·
Actually, yes...as long as they can't see her! She hasn't even hit 30 lb yet.

But the other night, I was at home, my husband was out of town, and I had the puppy out late at night. I do not know exactly what she heard or smelled, but all of a sudden she charged up to about ten feet from the privacy fence separating our yard from the neighbors' and she stared straight at the fence and let out a low, menacing growl I'd never heard from such a small puppy. Then she started barking in a voice I'd never heard from her.

There have been thefts in my area of the city, so it is entirely possible someone on the other side of the fence was up to no good. My girl is a tad small for her age, and slender, so she doesn't look at all intimidating, but the sounds she made had the hair on the back of my neck standing up!
 
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