My 2 bark at everyone that walks by. I doubt anyone would come in this house.

 

My Hans is very gentle, warm and friendly to people, extra careful with children. One evening (7 p.m. ish) we were out for a potty walk on a dark residential sidewalk. Out of nowhere there was suddenly a guy on a jankety bicycle in front of us, not sure where he came from.

Anyway, the guy stops about 6 ft. in front of us and says "Is your dog male or female?" I was caught off guard by the odd opening question but as I was answering, Hans started a deep, loud, menacing growl. That really surprised me and not more than three beats went by and Hans just let absolutely loose with a barrage of his loudest, most ferocious barking and lunging at the guy. Now I had him in hand, but he wasn't trying to break away from me either. The guy took off and Hans settled but had eyes and ears on him or the direction he left in for at least 30 - 45 seconds. It took me that long to really absorb the totality of what had just happened. It was like he started yelling "I SAID, GET THE **** OUT OF HERE NOW OR ELSE"

I don't know what exactly that guy had in mind but I absolutely trust Hans that it was no good. He protected me. We've never had a repeat of anything like it. I love him so and I'll never forget it.

 

My Hans is very gentle, warm and friendly to people, extra careful with children. One evening (7 p.m. ish) we were out for a potty walk on a dark residential sidewalk. Out of nowhere there was suddenly a guy on a jankety bicycle in front of us, not sure where he came from.

Anyway, the guy stops about 6 ft. in front of us and says "Is your dog male or female?" I was caught off guard by the odd opening question but as I was answering, Hans started a deep, loud, menacing growl. That really surprised me and not more than three beats went by and Hans just let absolutely loose with a barrage of his loudest, most ferocious barking and lunging at the guy. Now I had him in hand, but he wasn't trying to break away from me either. The guy took off and Hans settled but had eyes and ears on him or the direction he left in for at least 30 - 45 seconds. It took me that long to really absorb the totality of what had just happened. It was like he started yelling "I SAID, GET THE **** OUT OF HERE NOW OR ELSE"

I don't know what exactly that guy had in mind but I absolutely trust Hans that it was no good. He protected me. We've never had a repeat of anything like it. I love him so and I'll never forget it.

 

WHile I can't place a true instance he protected me like you are asking, I feel so safe with him there. Titan is well behaved off lead on our property so he literally goes everywhere for every reason with me.. trash, mail, yard work, car work, etc. That enough is a deterrant, I make it very known that he exists (just by simply allowing him to walk with me outside and play in the front yard), and he is well behaved. As someone said in the "getting a GSD for protection" thread, a well behaved dog seems more threatening than one going all over the place and he fits that bill. He watches people as they pass and alerts on the few that look too long at the house. I like that.

When we are inside the house he hears everything only barks if there is something there so I truly trust his instinct. This alone makes me feel so comfortable. I would never rely on him solely for protection, but he's a very good alarm system, ha! My husband and I have a few guns and our own training on protection, so together we are a good match

I will say that when he was a puppy and we lived in a remote village in Germany, I would walk with him and he was so friendly with every single person.. I mean he was just a baby! But there were 2 times he clearly wanted nothing to do with a particular individual and I trusted that. Once was a creepy man that I had seen in the neighborhood looking at my house a few times. One day he followed me and Titan to the hills behind our house and Titan would not let him near him. Growled at him and wouldn't turn his back to him. The guy laughed and I went home and locked all my doors writing a description of the man down. Another was who I then called the "witch lady" just the vibe I got was that, and Titan again wanted nothing to do with her, growling and wouldn't take his eyes off her. Well, she did then mumble something in German, really creeepy like and spit at me and called me a B**** so there's that... Could also be that she looked different but he had no issues with any other strange being or animal we made contact with, so I truly believe something was off about those two. He was only about 6 months and we never had an incident. There's only been one time in his whole life he's tore after someone and it never happen before that or after that so there's that too, not attack, no blodd drawn, just barking and a nip (story for another day or I can link the thread)

Anywho, I think if you have a well bred, stable dog, while I wouldn't rely on them for protecting when it came down to it, there is something to be said about feeling protected or feeling safe

 

Rex has never been in a situation where he has had to protect me seriously, but he protects me in little ways.

When the salesmen come to the door, Rex is always by my side to make sure they do not stay long. The shadier the salesman, the nastier he gets. Only one has attempted to push the sale with him there, and he even had the nerve to accuse the dog of being racist when Rex got really nasty. When I finally shut the door in his face, the man laughed, threw some sort of stink bomb at my house, and walked off.

No, Rex is not racist. He just doesn't like pushy people or criminals.

 

I would really be interested in knowing what my dogs would do if I was in danger. They have never been in that position but both are very confident dogs and have never once coward in any situation. There have been a couple instances that I thought were interesting. Once I was unloading the dishwasher and didn't hear my husband come home from work. He came up behind and scared the crap out of me. My female darted between us and gave him a look like "don't you touch my momma" and even gave her "man bark". It was very surprising because she thinks my husband is the most wonderful person on earth. Another time he walked by and smack my rear end when I was bent over. Again she jumped to "action". One thing I do know is they love me as much as I love them. I feel like in any case we would both be eager to protect the other.

 

Pretty interesting video ...

This one is pretty good as well, but I feel like you need to have a strong relationship with the dog for it to protect you, imo.

There was actually a thread that was like this.

 

I think the premise that an untrained dog will not protect his owner from an attack is probably true for the most part. They may bark and lunge and that kind of thing but I am not sure they would actually defend their owner from an all-out attack.

However, I say most dogs because I do believe there are some non-trained dogs that will respond aggressively. I like watching these kind of videos, but I am really not sure that they can approximate a real attack. In the first video, we were just looking to see if a dog would defend his property. In the second video, the little girl was not really frightened, she knew that this was a simulation.

I think if you take some non-trained family dogs and put them in a situation where they see their owner being assaulted, crying, screaming, terrified and reeking of fear, then yes, I think there are some that would react. Unfortunately, there is no way of being sure what your dog would do unless you actually face those kind of circumstances.

 

I don't know that I would call it out right protection but I was taking the trash out to the community dumpster one night after the sun had gone down and just happened to let Cafall tag along with me. No sooner had I gone to lift the bag to toss it in than all the hair on his back went up and he started growling. I looked where he was staring and this kid in a hoodie totally just stepped out of the shadows and walked off. I don't know what the kid was doing there but Cafall wasn't going to let him stay hidden. I was thankful Cafall was there with me.

 

Don't you think it would make a difference if they were in their home?

 

Yes, I do.

 

I was in the back bed room setting up a stereo and Bo was with me . I have a side door that I would leave open so Bo could come and go as he pleased , we have a doggie flap now . Anyways..I see Bo take off and next thing I hear are screams ! Bo had a guy who was face down in the dirt by the leg and was pulling him back .The guy was screaming like I've never heard before ! The guy was a tweaker and had jumped the fence to steal a bike I had hanging in the carport . The bike was chained to the post . I grabbed Bo by the collar and told him "drop" and he let the guy go . The guy took off , limping , and jumped the fence . A half hour later there was an ambulance at the end of the street and a police car , they were working on our boy . They took him in for being under the influence . This happened over a year ago .
Bo is a well tempered dog . I only trained him in basic obedience . I know that some dogs are trained to do these things but I don't know how . This is all Bo .
There was another incident two months back where a guy jumped the fence and Bo grabbed him by the arm and pulled him down . Just as I pulled Bo off the guy a police car came around the corner and I flagged him down . Turns out the police were looking for this guy ! My neighbor from across the street saw the whole thing and said the guy was swinging a metal clipboard at Bo , and that's the arm Bo had a hold of . The guy refused medical and got a ticket for trespassing . No charges were filed on BO .
This guy has and will protect the home front .

 

My dog protects me every night....

He lays down next to my bed, and periodically releases these UTTERLY NOXIOUS FUMES which ensures all the monsters under the bed stay there, and do not have the courage to get out and attack me!

PS: a few nights ago, after smelling the umpteenth deadly fart, I shooed him out of the bed room!

 

My Boo (Kohl) was 110 pounds of sweetheart. He was the kind of dog that would help a robber carry our belongings out to their car... So I thought. One evening our rude, drunk neighbor came over to start an argument. I asked him to leave and he grabbed the screen door and flung it open. My sweet boy went after him with hackles up and teeth showing and a growling that I had never heard him do. (And he was 9 then). The neighbor never came back over and my boy never made that sound again. Miss him to pieces.?

 

Ruger is still young, will be 6 months old on Monday, so this is about as "protective" as he's been thus far - though its not like I've had many instances needing protection thankfully!

The beginning of April, we went to the beach and were sitting by some rocks enjoying the sun and surf when a group of about six 12-13 year olds started rushing in our direction, screaming and jumping and yelling, then started kicking sand toward us when they got about 4 feet from us ... Ruger raised his fur and found his real bark! We ended up leaving altogether, too many obnoxious people were there (forgot it was Spring Break - this was our normally "quiet" beach), and those kids were digging holes and talking about how they hoped people fell into them when the tide started coming in.

 

Off topic. But Tara, we need to see some Ruger updates!

 

See? Those videos are interesting but they don't take into account how territorial german shepherds are. Xerxes even chases the robins out of HIS yard!

 

I think Wolf protects the house more so than the people in it. She is typically in my room if we are inside, so any footsteps she does not recognize cause her shackles to raise and for her to do her deep growl and crazy loud bark while standing on my bed. Every now and then she will bolt into the room growling and barking to see who it is. I have no clue what she would do if it were an actual intruder.

We actually let her bark as much as she wants when someone unexpected comes to the door because we want that type of fear in a stranger. We calm her if its someone we invited over. Again, I don't know what she would do anything if a "bad guy" came in.

 

Simply put, them being in the home protects us from intruders.
No break and enter intruder wants to break into an average looking home with 3 dogs going bananas at the door.
To much hassle, too much noise. No one wants to worry about a bite.
Have they ever personally protected me?
No.

 

Aren't those videos basically advertisements stating why you need to have a trained dog? Going by the originator I would say so.

We live in a rural area without a lot of foot traffic fortunately. Varik is territorial, but the only thing he has defended me from was a june bug. It got in the house and I screamed shrilly (I'm terrified of flying bugs .. ugh .. esp june bugs that don't know HOW to fly and usually bumble into you *shudder*). Varik immediately started barking viciously and took it down when I swatted at it. Of course now he alerts me to ANY bug that gets in the house .. you know .. just in case I need him to do something about it.

 

I don't really think it is advertising, it just seems like a experiment if your dog will protect you or your home.
But, I agree that GSD's are territorial especially the males and if someone was to do a experiment like the one the news cast did I think the outcome would be a lot different imo.

 

I don't think we'll ever know the specific instances our dogs have protected us. A thug could be looking for an easy place to rob and skip your place because you have a dog. We just never know.

I live in the country. Folks come down my drive, hear my dogs and back out. I might never know if they are sales people, long lost relatives or thugs. I figure if it's important, they'd call.

 

I was going to get out of bed and have a bad day and they laid on top of me and wouldn't let me.

 

Bella, look at the website for the guy that posted the second video. It's a website to train, sell or rent guard dogs. A little suspect.

 

One time I was walking Ilda in our neighborhood, she was about 10 months old at the time. I didn't notice, right away, a dark figure lurking in the dusk of a fall evening.

She alerted, at first barking, then she started lunging forward too. Freaked me out!

It was a great relief to realize I was safe from the big cut out Halloween Witch figure decorating my neighbor's yard.

 

One time I was walking Ilda in our neighborhood, she was about 10 months old at the time. I didn't notice, right away, a dark figure lurking in the dusk of a fall evening.

She alerted, at first barking, then she started lunging forward too. Freaked me out!

It was a great relief to realize I was safe from the big cut out Halloween Witch figure decorating my neighbor's yard.

Just nearly died choking on almonds when I read that those witches will get you!