Hopeless Guard Dogs

[LizT]

My dogs go "off" the instant anyone is at my front gate & are about to come on the property. I have video surveillance, so I can check who's on my property at any time. If people then open the front gate, proceed up the steps & come to my front door, this is what greets them quickly, silently & without warning at the side gate, which is right next to the front door. Scares the shit out of people. I reviewed the footage after I actually talked to someone who had left the property & they were already outside again on the pavement by the time I opened the front door to check who was there. Spirit made a Scientology lady (who was hawking for business on a Saturday morning) actually "fly" down the 8 steps from the paving to the front gate. The lady's feet never touched the ground from the paving to the front gate. Funniest thing I've seen in a while ....

Gosh, he could so easily get over that fence. Are'nt you concerned he might find the motivation to one day?

We raised all our yard fencing because our Shepherd jumped it when he was younger.

[Jumabaar]

Bear in mind I'm half a centuary old. :laugh:

When I was a kid we had a Kelpie and if my dad was going off at me and I looked under threat of a belting (it happened)the Kelpie would stand between me and Dad and growl, so Dad would have to "Shut Down' his ranting and raving immediately so the dog would settle. Saved me from many a sore backside. ;)

Awwww. When I was little, my grandparents' GR would do the same thing. Sweet as pie, but my protector.

Old Caesar was one of the reasons I got a GR. He was awesome, saved me from many a spanking! :D

Honey is a great alert dog, she goes nuts if anyone approaches our house when we aren't home & often when we are home.

I have learnt not to ignore her barking during the night, she has woken me twice when our bogan neighbour's house was surrounded by police.

She's a good girl, but barking is all she would do, she's a chicken. :laugh:

She's one of those- "come help me" type of dogs, though she has a very convincing bark if you can't see her.

This- Demi the Finnish Lapphund has a far more threatening bark than the Kelpies!! Most people come in expecting to see a large male Shepherd or the like, only to be greeted by a medium sized fluffer who is generally holding a fluffy toy (she somehow can still bark with said toy in her mouth) with her whole body being wagged by her tail!!!

The Kelpies are scary because they all take turns to jump and hit the door while barking and they all look exactly the same so people can't work out just how many chocolate crazies are waiting behind the door.

None of them would attack anyone coming onto the property. They would just let the entire neighbourhood know there was something 'different' in their house.

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[GSD's 4EVER]

People often ask me that question. Spirit could scale the gate or fence if she wanted to. She just has no desire to. She just wants to see what's on the other side to see if it's something she should be concerned about. I work from home & one of the first tasks for the day, is to take both my Sheppies to the off lead park for a big run .... in all weathers. Spirit has the company of other fur familes members at home & lots to stimulate her mentally, so she has no desire to seek greener pastures. I'm also very big on training for obedience, so my dogs get worked every day. Spirit is more interested in finding out where Scout (my cat) is, than actually nicking off the property. Here she is checking out the back area of the property. No doubt Scout was just over the other side of this wall. Sorry about the picture quality ....

[Kajirin]

Scout gets alerted to any weird/unusual noise or if someone comes around. He's just really woofy/loud...but fine with people who come inside lol.

Since Tye passed away, Scout's become more so alert. Tye was the big beefy don't mess with us kind of dog, if he went into protecto mode, he meant business. First and foremost as long as I was safe he was content to bark and foam at the mouth...but he'd never leave my side.

A few months back someone had been hanging around late in the night, Scout had smelt them from inside and woke up from a dead sleep growling, wanted out and went tracking where they'd been. Of course no one was around when I went out with the torch and he didn't find anyone either [but they'd been hanging around the shed].

But yes I do feel 'safe' with Scout in the fact he will alert me to anything unusual...but I don't know how he'd go with an actual confrontation. Usually with people he's all YaY people let me lick and lick :rolleyes:

[LizT]

People often ask me that question. Spirit could scale the gate or fence if she wanted to. She just has no desire to. She just wants to see what's on the other side to see if it's something she should be concerned about. I work from home & one of the first tasks for the day, is to take both my Sheppies to the off lead park for a big run .... in all weathers. Spirit has the company of other fur familes members at home & lots to stimulate her mentally, so she has no desire to seek greener pastures. I'm also very big on training for obedience, so my dogs get worked every day. Spirit is more interested in finding out where Scout (my cat) is, than actually nicking off the property. Here she is checking out the back area of the property. No doubt Scout was just over the other side of this wall. Sorry about the picture quality ....

Awesome!

This is why they make such sterling police dogs.

"mental vision of GSD scaling high fence while slightly unfit overweight (my apologies to any boys/girls in blue out there) clumsily scrambling over said wall!" :laugh:

[PuddleDuck]

We got up one morning and couldn't find doof, called him, panicking, searched everywhere, finally found he'd managed to wedge his fat butt under the bed. Thought it was odd, hubby left for work and came in 2 minutes later to say someone had broken into the garage and his car. I always thought doof would bark-damn dog could have at least had the decency to wake us up so we could hide too!!!

When I was about 12 dad got me a squidgy teeny puppy who we think was a pitty x cairn. First night home, dad had a friend staying that came home late and dad had asked him to check on me when he got in. Apparently dad woke up to a ruckus, came tearing out and found his mate with our teeny weeny puppy hanging off his pants growling furiously. Dad had forgotten to tell him we had a pup and riff launched himself over as soon as the guy stepped in the room. Riff spent the next 14 years protecting me-dad thought he was the bestest dog ever, even tho riff bit him every time he yelled at me :laugh:

[dasha]

Turns out one of my Kelpies is actually doing her job.

Last night about 2 am, there was some voices up the top of our driveway. Dash started barking as dogs do when something is not normal.

Then I could hear footsteps coming down the steep cement driveway between our place and next door.

Dash's bark was getting more intense, then the deep throat sounds of her growling and lunging at someone for a few mins. It seemed to get louder and more intense at times. (Usually when you try to chase her off, she comes back worse) I was about to get out of bed to go and see who/what it was but decided that it sounded like she had it all under control. There was no protesting sounds from Humans so I left her to it.

We live on acres so I figured it is best for her to let possible intruders know she is around to watch the place in the dark.

Either that or it was the next door neighbours getting home late and trying to sneak in quietly. She was then quiet so I figured she had put them off or recognised the neighbours and that they weren't coming to our house so she left them alone.

She is very good. Even though we have no fences between us and the neighbours and our boundary is only 2 metres from our house, she doesn't go over the line to guard our place. She will just follow up on our side and just always put herself between the people and our place/things.

Apparently even people she knows, she will not let them on our back or front verandah, near cars, stables, horse float if I am not home. But she lets people in the dog shed so i can get people to come and feed her when I am away. She has it all sorted.

[Odin-Genie]

It worries me that the Police officer didn't think the Police dogs could be controlled to prevent a dog fight. Was it the dog handler who made the remark, or the general officer? The handler would be aware of the potential dangers in back yards including dogs, and wouldn't want their dog injured, I'd think they would be pretty capable of managing most situations.

It worries me too. Do police dog handlers let the police dogs run off lead into someone's fenced backyard without checking if there are dogs around? And if there are dogs around, do the dog handlers have 100% control to ensure their dogs don't react to the owner's dogs?

Would the police be held accountable if their dog bit someone's dog in their backyard?

Would the owner be held accountable if an offlead police dog jumped into the backyard and was bitten by the owner's dog?

Most police dogs I have seen have a pretty aggressive body language and I'm sure most dogs would react to them if they jumped into the yard.

[Aidan3]

Not to make a big deal of it, but I had to teach my late GSD to guard from a standing, or standing up position as she had a few injuries jumping at the fence like that (including a cruciate injury). Better safe than sorry.

[TheCheekyMonster]

Lol we have 2 dogs sleeping in laundry - OH brothers room and balcony is ontop of the laundry.

A few nights ago, some unwelcomed teenager broke into the house via climbing the tree and getting in through the balcony.... do you think the dogs made a peep? absolutely not!! but heaven forbid Nala hears a possum, then its on like donkey kong!! hahah.. we guard our dogs unfortunately not the other way around.

[trinabean]

It worries me that the Police officer didn't think the Police dogs could be controlled to prevent a dog fight. Was it the dog handler who made the remark, or the general officer? The handler would be aware of the potential dangers in back yards including dogs, and wouldn't want their dog injured, I'd think they would be pretty capable of managing most situations.

gs

It worries me too. Do police dog handlers let the police do run off lead into someone's fenced backyard without checking if there are dogs around? And if there are dogs around, do the dog handlers have 100% control to ensure their dogs don't react to the owner's dogs?

Would the police be held accountable if their dog bit someone's dog in their backyard?

Would the owner be held accountable if an offlead police dog jumped into the backyard and was bitten by the owner's dog?

Most police dogs I have seen have a pretty aggressive body language and I'm sure most dogs would react to them if they jumped into the yard.

I can't answer the questions about who would be held accountable if there was an altercation but I can share one experience.

We were woken one night by a bit of a commotion in our suburb (speeding vehicles, sirens). My OH heard a noise in our backyard and went to look through the laundry. As he approached the glass sliding door he saw something big moving outside. It was the biggest Rottweiler he'd ever seen and the handler yelled "Police! Stay inside!" The dog was running through our backyard searching for an offender who crashed a stolen car and escaped on foot through our area. The person had committed an armed robbery before stealing and crashing the car, so the police believed he might still be armed.

We didn't have a dog at the time so no idea whether they would check the yard for a resident dog, but the police did enter with their dog before we were aware of it. I *think* the police dog was restrained by the handler at first, and then released to search the yard. I had no idea WA police had Rotties, he was an awesome looking dog.

[GSD's 4EVER]

Not to make a big deal of it, but I had to teach my late GSD to guard from a standing, or standing up position as she had a few injuries jumping at the fence like that (including a cruciate injury). Better safe than sorry.

I totally understand where you're coming from. I wouldn't allow my current B&T GSD girl to jump like that, even if she could. Long story ... won't bore you with the details on an open forum. Whites (like Spirit) are really put together very well & their bodies can deal with & absorb the physical demands of jumping like this extremely well. I take my dogs for a massage every week. Have done with all my dogs for about 13 years now. The lady is very qualified & is extremely thorough, so I'm right on top of any potential thing that could flair up & cause problems. :)

[Dame Aussie]

It worries me that the Police officer didn't think the Police dogs could be controlled to prevent a dog fight. Was it the dog handler who made the remark, or the general officer? The handler would be aware of the potential dangers in back yards including dogs, and wouldn't want their dog injured, I'd think they would be pretty capable of managing most situations.

gs

It worries me too. Do police dog handlers let the police do run off lead into someone's fenced backyard without checking if there are dogs around? And if there are dogs around, do the dog handlers have 100% control to ensure their dogs don't react to the owner's dogs?

Would the police be held accountable if their dog bit someone's dog in their backyard?

Would the owner be held accountable if an offlead police dog jumped into the backyard and was bitten by the owner's dog?

Most police dogs I have seen have a pretty aggressive body language and I'm sure most dogs would react to them if they jumped into the yard.

I can't answer the questions about who would be held accountable if there was an altercation but I can share one experience.

We were woken one night by a bit of a commotion in our suburb (speeding vehicles, sirens). My OH heard a noise in our backyard and went to look through the laundry. As he approached the glass sliding door he saw something big moving outside. It was the biggest Rottweiler he'd ever seen and the handler yelled "Police! Stay inside!" The dog was running through our backyard searching for an offender who crashed a stolen car and escaped on foot through our area. The person had committed an armed robbery before stealing and crashing the car, so the police believed he might still be armed.

We didn't have a dog at the time so no idea whether they would check the yard for a resident dog, but the police did enter with their dog before we were aware of it. I *think* the police dog was restrained by the handler at first, and then released to search the yard. I had no idea WA police had Rotties, he was an awesome looking dog.

OT but we had special Ops police involved in an incident near our house recently, we live in a fab area lol, and they had the biggest Rotti I've ever seen!!! Gorgeous!

[Aidan3]

Not to make a big deal of it, but I had to teach my late GSD to guard from a standing, or standing up position as she had a few injuries jumping at the fence like that (including a cruciate injury). Better safe than sorry.

I totally understand where you're coming from. I wouldn't allow my current B&T GSD girl to jump like that, even if she could. Long story ... won't bore you with the details on an open forum. Whites (like Spirit) are really put together very well & their bodies can deal with & absorb the physical demands of jumping like this extremely well. I take my dogs for a massage every week. Have done with all my dogs for about 13 years now. The lady is very qualified & is extremely thorough, so I'm right on top of any potential thing that could flair up & cause problems. :)

Good to hear. My GSD was very lean, very athletic, very fit and from working lines (DDR). She had magnificent hips and elbows, but she would work herself to the point of injury and keep going if not stopped. I would expect Whites to be not quite so intense, but I figured if my girl could do the job from the ground she would be less likely to hurt herself. I'm not sure how she injured her cruciate the first time but once it happens, you pretty much expect it to happen again.

[german_shep_fan]

It worries me that the Police officer didn't think the Police dogs could be controlled to prevent a dog fight. Was it the dog handler who made the remark, or the general officer? The handler would be aware of the potential dangers in back yards including dogs, and wouldn't want their dog injured, I'd think they would be pretty capable of managing most situations.

gs

It worries me too. Do police dog handlers let the police do run off lead into someone's fenced backyard without checking if there are dogs around? And if there are dogs around, do the dog handlers have 100% control to ensure their dogs don't react to the owner's dogs?

Would the police be held accountable if their dog bit someone's dog in their backyard?

Would the owner be held accountable if an offlead police dog jumped into the backyard and was bitten by the owner's dog?

Most police dogs I have seen have a pretty aggressive body language and I'm sure most dogs would react to them if they jumped into the yard.

I can't answer the questions about who would be held accountable if there was an altercation but I can share one experience.

We were woken one night by a bit of a commotion in our suburb (speeding vehicles, sirens). My OH heard a noise in our backyard and went to look through the laundry. As he approached the glass sliding door he saw something big moving outside. It was the biggest Rottweiler he'd ever seen and the handler yelled "Police! Stay inside!" The dog was running through our backyard searching for an offender who crashed a stolen car and escaped on foot through our area. The person had committed an armed robbery before stealing and crashing the car, so the police believed he might still be armed.

We didn't have a dog at the time so no idea whether they would check the yard for a resident dog, but the police did enter with their dog before we were aware of it. I *think* the police dog was restrained by the handler at first, and then released to search the yard. I had no idea WA police had Rotties, he was an awesome looking dog.

Geez, sounds like they do just go in without asking! I hope this never happens to us as my male GSD is a big boy who would easily be at the least the size if not bigger then the police sheps, he doesn't like strange dogs coming into his territory without his permission!

[GSD's 4EVER]

Good to hear. My GSD was very lean, very athletic, very fit and from working lines (DDR). She had magnificent hips and elbows, but she would work herself to the point of injury and keep going if not stopped. I would expect Whites to be not quite so intense, but I figured if my girl could do the job from the ground she would be less likely to hurt herself. I'm not sure how she injured her cruciate the first time but once it happens, you pretty much expect it to happen again.

Spirit is built like the proverbial brick sh*thouse & is a real little pocket rocket. She's a high drive, high energy dog & is becoming a great working partner. As I said, I take very good care of all my dogs, although I agree that sometimes, all the care in the world makes no difference when it comes to something like a Cruciate. At home, she only leaps like that if Scout is in close proximity & she can hear his bells, or if someone comes on the property & she wants to know "Who the hell are you & what do you want ?" before they get to the front door. :laugh:

[Blackdogs]

We have had a police and dog come through our yard in the middle of the night looking for an intruder. Fortunately our dogs sleep inside, but they did alert us to the commotion. There were no dogs for the police to contend with, but there was a very angry resident, who, assuming the police were an intruder, picked up a hand trolley and almost engaged in a physical confrontation!

[german_shep_fan]

Good to hear. My GSD was very lean, very athletic, very fit and from working lines (DDR). She had magnificent hips and elbows, but she would work herself to the point of injury and keep going if not stopped. I would expect Whites to be not quite so intense, but I figured if my girl could do the job from the ground she would be less likely to hurt herself. I'm not sure how she injured her cruciate the first time but once it happens, you pretty much expect it to happen again.

Spirit is built like the proverbial brick sh*thouse & is a real little pocket rocket. She's a high drive, high energy dog & is becoming a great working partner. As I said, I take very good care of all my dogs, although I agree that sometimes, all the care in the world makes no difference when it comes to something like a Cruciate. At home, she only leaps like that if Scout is in close proximity & she can hear his bells, or if someone comes on the property & she wants to know "Who the hell are you & what do you want ?" before they get to the front door. :laugh:

:laugh: Great pics

[huck house]

Hi! Sorry to revisit the topic so long after the original post.

Great responses from the sad to funny to serious.

Im still blown away that our dogs did not wake up, but even more relieved that they didn't. There really could have been a catastrophic incident. If Teddy had gone to investigate, he would have charged the police dog and the fight would have been major.

I dont think the police dog was let off lead in the yard . The handler was controlling him on lead when I first saw them. It was to me that the police handler had remarked in a worrying tone that there could have been a dog fight. They must have to go in pursuit of a suspect , not wait for the door to answer, assessing risk as they go. I'm sure police dogs and handlers get injured doing this work. Prevention is the big lesson here! We put a big warning sign on the gate to give a heads up. I hope it deters thieves too. Since hearing about dogs being stolen for fighting we are putting a lock on as well. Im glad the gate is not visible from the street as I don't want to draw attention to my dogs. But it has been a reality check and something we should have done ages ago.

I should have used the term 'alert dog' not 'guard dog' in theOP. All the dogs I have ever known or owned would let us know if there was a strange noise in the night. Maybe these two are heavy sleepers? Care-free? Neglected or never respond to in the past so why bother? A breed thing? Just lazy?

I am thankful that we own such sweet welcoming dogs to all visitors but it highlights what a bright spark 'red dog' we owned for fifteen years previously. ;)

[Kajtek]

Intruder alert would probably go like this...

Honbun (our team-lead) would raise the alarm and go off to investigate.

KI would follow Honbun then run and hide at the first sign of danger.

Kluska would bark and secure the area under our bed.

We are truly protected :laugh:

Edited January 29, 2012 by HonBun