Has Your Dog Ever Protected You?

[dee lee]

My GR is a brilliant watchdog- she is reliably very protective of us no matter if we are at home or at (from recent experience) at a holiday house.

She has a fantastic deep growl & bark that I feel is a great deterrant.

I don't expect anything else, and know she is useless when we are out of the house.

Edited January 3, 2011 by ✽deelee

[m-j]

A girlfriend of mine owns a hotel, her dog a mastiff x is a social butterfly and he is friends with everyone greets them with a wagging tail and soliciting of pats, strangers and regular customers alike but if someone comes out of trading hours that isn't in the delivery vehicles, which he knows, he is a completely different dog unless he knows them well.

[poodlefan]

Many moons ago when I was a youngster(no, dinosaurs didn't still roam the earth), a friend and I were walking with her ACD mix Brutus off lead.

We were going through an underpass (very common in Canberra) when a young man wandered out from the side with his pants down round his knees and his wedding tackle exposed and grabbed me. My friend punched him hard in the face and Brutus came from nowhere and tore a fairly sizeable chunk out of the guy's bare bum. Last seen he was high tailing it for the hills while trying to pull his pants up with Brutus in hot pursuit adding more damage.

Brutus got a lot of K9 Fives biscuits as treats that day.

Howard my Whippet shows some indication of being protective. I hope he never has to be put to the test.

Edited January 19, 2011 by poodlefan

[Snoopy21]

My girl is one of those overly happy, excited people loving types. She will get into anyone's face for a kiss and loves everyone. I never thought she would be protective, but she proved me wrong. My BIL was visiting having met and snuggled Willow on several other occasions. She was asleep on the floor, with my DH sitting next to her. My BIL was telling us a fabulous tale about a brawl during a footy match and jumped up off the couch, waved his fist at my DH and raised his voice as part of the story. Willow leaped to her feet, and stood over my DH with a little growl. My BIL got a bit of a shock, but not as much as us. My DH maintains she must have been dreaming

Still....you never know what might happen if someone were to really threaten us. Hopefully we will never find out.

[Tralee]

A friend's Maremma attempted to stop her daughter from going out the back door by trying to herd her away from the door. The child continued and opened the door, so the dog pushed past, picking up a snake from the back step. The snake bit the dog and he died. I consider that to be a selfless act, but I can't think of too many others!

The Maremma works innately, they have no thought of selflessness.

But, the cost is sometimes too high.

My sister has seperate maremmas both for their sheep and goats but also to protect her when her hubby is off working. ... No-one can get into the house yard with Frosty loose. So when her daughter (who also lives on a remote property) started having children she got them a maremma too. This dog's purpose is to stay around the house and watch the kids. Their oldest daughter was quite the wanderer so this dog has spent a lot of time rounding her up and pushing her back into the house yard over the years.

The Maremma dynamic is really something to behold.

My dogs do not allow dubious movement towards me or passage between myself and the dog.

The dogs will also react if someone positions themselves in the space between us.

Someone patting the dogs cannot move to obscure the dogs view of me.

On one occasion, my big dog would not allow a neighbour to raise his voice at me during a confrontation.

Notwithstanding, the Maremma 'works' very astutely; they will only attack as a last resort.

In order, the Maremma i/ warns, by barking,

ii/ chases off,

iii/nips and harasses.

In six years I have not seen a Maremma attack.

For a Maremma to take a snake, the snake would have to be moving towards them and their company.

Just this week a cat came into our yard.

Eventually I had to get up and investigate.

The dogs had the cat bailed up against the fence, and fortunately it was smart enough not to step towards the dogs and lived long enough for me to remove it.

However, I know of several tales where animals have ignored the warning and step too close to the dog.

For this reason, I have to confer with the advice I was given on this board when sourcing my first pup.

Maremmas are not for novices. and would add that they are not for lazy owners either.

Has my dog ever protected me? Everyday.

[Aidan3]

The Maremma works innately, they have no thought of selflessness.

If they had a thought of selflessness, would it truly be selfless? Think about it.

P.S I don't think the dog attacked the snake, the kid would have stepped on it so he picked it up. Fantastic dogs, you're lucky to be able to live with them.

[cee9175]

Luckily I have not needed protection yet. Its hard to say if my whippets would protect me - on one hand they are big sooks, but on the other, they have damn good growls and barks and I always feel safe with them when I am alone at home

Edited April 15, 2011 by cee9175