Pet Dogs More Friendly Than Frightening When Put To The Test

[Akayla]

Mita I have heard a similar story. Except a friend was always saying the dog would never hurt him as they were friends. Then one day he saw both the handler and dog out and ran up to pretend punch the man. He soon saw what happens when somene attacks the handler :laugh:

[mita]

Mita I have heard a similar story. Except a friend was always saying the dog would never hurt him as they were friends. Then one day he saw both the handler and dog out and ran up to pretend punch the man. He soon saw what happens when somene attacks the handler :laugh:

Does your friend now have only one arm!!!

It amazes me that those police dogs live at home with the the handler's family... just big cuddly pets.

[tdierikx]

I came home one day to a strange ladder up at my kitchen window... we figured the would be burglars didn't count on 3 Rottis in the house who most probably just sat there staring at them as they looked through the window - and took off so fast that they forgot their ladder... *giggle*

T.

[Simply Grand]

I came home one day to a strange ladder up at my kitchen window... we figured the would be burglars didn't count on 3 Rottis in the house who most probably just sat there staring at them as they looked through the window - and took off so fast that they forgot their ladder... *giggle*

T.

:laugh: Love it!

I don't really want burglars knowing that pet dogs are morelikely to be friendly Any would-be intruders reading this, my dogs are all very protective and scary and will definitely attack you!! ;)

[mantis]

I came home one day to a strange ladder up at my kitchen window... we figured the would be burglars didn't count on 3 Rottis in the house who most probably just sat there staring at them as they looked through the window - and took off so fast that they forgot their ladder... *giggle*

T.

:laugh: Love it!

I don't really want burglars knowing that pet dogs are morelikely to be friendly Any would-be intruders reading this, my dogs are all very protective and scary and will definitely attack you!! ;)

And rip your throat out.

[disintegratus]

Mine will nip you on the bum then run away, probably while soiling himself. I mean, definitely be a big, aggressive protector. Lucky I didn't get him for his protective qualities! The other ones wouldn't even notice if there was someone there!

[korbin13]

The little staffy doing tricks for the 'intruder' is pretty funny.

Well, my tibbies bucked the trend in that their hackles went up & they took off chasing a thief who was coming into our house. The same night, the same thief broke into another house up the road...& he had to step over their staffy, Elvis, who slept thro' the whole thing.

My SBT has let the power meter reader into the front yard (I have a 6ft fence and gate) without a sound, I only noticed when I heard him walk on the verandah to the meter box, I watched her follow him to the gate, waggling her tail.

I noticed her one day at the front door waggling her tail, the delivery guy had come to the front door and my front door bell wasn't working. But she didn't even bark!!

She is useless as a guard dog. Mind you, no bird will land in my yard while she is around, which is handy..........not!

Thankfully my mutt is a better guard dog, but she will only bark and will probably run away if any intruder lifted their arm or a weapon. But to be honest, a dog that would have a go at a human would probably be too much dog for me.

[Nekhbet]

not every burglar is afraid of dogs, a lot of crims do know what they're doing. Also that man didn't do what a lot of people could have done which is whack them with a stick or weapon - it causes immense emotional trauma to an untrained dog. Even that shepherd the best it did was a cornered fear nip which an intruder probably would have punched it for.

Conversely the 16 year old delinquent from across the road now has a massive Malinois phobia ... I lock my dogs up to protect them from people, not intruders from them. I have already had my dogs injured and payed massive vet bills to have them patched up after 2 break ins to steal my bordeaux as a pup, the first had me come home to my Malinois' hind leg gashed open, the second they bashed the bordeaux over the head with a piece of timber and he almost lost his eye. Both had permanent physical scarring from it, and the Skoota had to have weeks of constant medicating and vet visits to save his eyeball.

Edited November 30, 2012 by Nekhbet

[*kirty*]

I think the Rotti would have put up a fight if confronted. And I feel sorry for the GSD because she seemed quite distressed. I didn't like the way he cornered her and 'pushed' her into reacting. The others were just plain cute! LOL!

[BlackJaq]

Well, I cannot speak from experience inside the house but we have found OH's dog happily chewing on a piece of fabric that looked suspiciously like the seat of a pair of sweat pants before. There was a huge commotion and an attempted break-in next door that night and we suspected the intruder may have jumped into our yard to make his escape but didn't know for sure until we found the piece of his pants...

I think each of our dogs would have a go outside. Inside the house I am not so sure since they are not usually left unattended inside and may think they are being naughty? Would be interesting to try it though

As for the Rotti owner, what a reason to acquire a large dog that is untrained to perform the work they want it to do! It appears the public still consider some breeds inherently vicious or maybe born with training (in this case protective or guard training??) Surely everybody knows that a dog should be trained to exhibit the behaviours you want it to exhibit?

[mixeduppup]

I watched it again and I'm a bit worried that burglars are going to see this and think "" and go and steal everything from places with dogs

[tdierikx]

I still think the body language on the Rotti should have given pause - and note the body language on the "intruder" when he was in with the Rotti - didn't take his eyes of it the whole time. The Rotti was the best "guard dog" of the whole bunch I reckon.

In my house - unless you know my dogs, you ain't coming in... and it's not the 2 bull breed ones you need to be worried about.

T.

[aussielover]

I don't think many intruders would be game to take on the barking rottie at the start. You would have to be supremely confident to enter that dogs home and the average crim couldn't tell if the rottie was serious or not. It looked threatening enough from the window and I think the opportunistic intruder would have just given that house a miss, when presented with the sight for a 100 pound rottweiler barking its head off.

In fact the mere presence of all of the larger dogs would probably be enough to put off the opportunistic criminal. If you think your house is at risk of a considered and determined burglary attempt, you should probably install better security measures than just a dog, even a trained one.

We have had people reluctant to enter our home because our dog barks ferociously, not knowing she is really a big sook.

[mixeduppup]

I think that maybe if the person was dress liked a regular person and not in huge get-up they may not be so lucky.

[aussielover]

I don't know why people were so keen for their dogs to attack.

Barking- yes but I don't want the hassle of my dog biting another person and I don't really want her deciding when it is appropriate or not to attack someone.

I would be seriously worried if I thought she'd attack someone, even an intruder and I'd probably seek help.

This is a pet dog living in suburbia though.

[mixeduppup]

Living with an LGD you live with the risk that if not properly restrained someone could be bitten if he saw fit (touch wood he never has). I don't take his breeding for granted, nor his extensive socialisation, as his guarding and protective instincts are inherent and inbuilt. Everyone that visits are aware of his presence and the sign on the gate, simply stating not to come into the backyard but beep. Plus locks when we're not home. If people are dumb enough to climb the gate or ignore the sign or dog standing there barking at them then they're stupid enough to bet bitten. We have a right to have our houses guarded, we have a right to feel that our home and our belongings are protected and if our dogs can do that for us then they should be able to. Anyone that comes in the backyard ( apart from people he knows and likes) without us being there is most likely up to no good and he'll get his LGD on and protect the joint with a bite if needs be and that makes me happy to know my house and belongings are safe whilst I'm not there.

[mantis]

Living with an LGD you live with the risk that if not properly restrained someone could be bitten if he saw fit (touch wood he never has). I don't take his breeding for granted, nor his extensive socialisation, as his guarding and protective instincts are inherent and inbuilt. Everyone that visits are aware of his presence and the sign on the gate, simply stating not to come into the backyard but beep. Plus locks when we're not home. If people are dumb enough to climb the gate or ignore the sign or dog standing there barking at them then they're stupid enough to bet bitten. We have a right to have our houses guarded, we have a right to feel that our home and our belongings are protected and if our dogs can do that for us then they should be able to. Anyone that comes in the backyard ( apart from people he knows and likes) without us being there is most likely up to no good and he'll get his LGD on and protect the joint with a bite if needs be and that makes me happy to know my house and belongings are safe whilst I'm not there.

I'm guessing you don't have a Bull Breed, they are hopeless as guard dogs, because they see every human as someone who will be their friend. Unless they are owned by idiots of course, who treat them badly & train them to be aggressive. The exception being that they think their owner is at risk, they will defend them without hesitation.

I'm happy that a dog will only react if I'm being threatened, but if someone is stealing stuff when I'm not home, I'd rather the dog let them, so they don't get hurt.

[mixeduppup]

I've worked with bullbreeds and I know exactly what you're saying lol

LGDs will protect whether you want the to or not, that why you need to set up a system where only the people with bad intentions get an introduction

[mita]

I don't know why people were so keen for their dogs to attack.

Barking- yes

I heard a police officer giving tips on home security. He said the value of a dog was in doing just that... barking. Because a barking dog tends to bring out people to look at what's going on, or even just to check the dog.

[Tobias0407]

I have seen videos like this before, done by guard dog training companies - it seems to be a common thing that they do. I train in bite sports with my dogs and still I am not sure that they would have attacked this man under the circumstances he presented. He was very calm, confident and yet friendly and nonthreatening with the dogs. He was deliberately not triggering any defense drive any of the dogs may have had. He was also careful to show no weakness - a bite suit will do a lot for one's confidence around dogs and dogs trust you more if they can tell that you are confident and sure about what you are doing. I would be confident in saying that most criminals lack this.

These dogs were not trained, so they could only go on their instincts and past learned behaviours. They would be making judgements based on his behaviour, so I think, particularly with the rottie (and maybe even the collies), we would have seen a very different story had he behaved like a typical criminal.

He came through the front door, rather than over the fence or window or whatever - this is how people normally enter the door and he didn't even have to break it down, he just opened it as it was unlocked. You will get a very different response from my dog should you enter via the front the door as compared to say, sneaking in through a window.

He then acknowledged the dogs in a friendly manner. Some displayed a degree of territorial behaviour but again, he had done nothing to trigger their defense drives so the dogs didn't feel threatened and most well socialised dogs won't just attack someone for no reason (dogs trained in bite sports are no exception).

If you don't have a trained dog, you may still find that your dog protects you should you get attacked either in or away from your home. My dog did before I started his training. This is because your dog will be able to tell that you are scared and that will trigger their defense drive. Depending on how developed that is (based on breed, working lines etc) will then decide what sort of response you get. From what I have seen, it's more about the dog than the training. You can do a lot of training with a dog but if the drives and the nerves aren't there, well you can't make something from nothing, you can just teach the dog how to better manage and express the drives it was born with.

I don't know what he teaches his dogs at his school, but we teach ours to recognise and react to suspicious behaviour and he displayed none of that in this exercise so I would not have been unhappy with my dogs if they too had not attacked someone under these circumstances.