When other dogs show up, our Golden won't even protect his food dish. That's the way we like it, but it sure looks funny when the chickens are chasing him out on the lawn.....
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When other dogs show up, our Golden won't even protect his food dish. That's the way we like it, but it sure looks funny when the chickens are chasing him out on the lawn.....
After the barking and incessant licking I think my two would probably give the intruder a tour and offer them a beer.
After we had to put down the Shepherd / husky cross we had another Shepherd cross show up. Funny thing about both dogs, they were strays that sort of adopted us, were both shepherd cross and both had docked tails. Anyway, the parents house was broken into and the thieves let the little bugger out of his crate and stole that along with a pile of other stuff. Mom came home to the rear door kicked in and the dumb dog running around. We joke that the dog showed them where everything was.Quote:
Originally Posted by ahadley
What a great laugh reading some of the posts!! So true too... Thinking back on my dogs... Twenty years ago, I had a mini poodle mix that would bark when someone came to the door and bullied Dobermans in the park. She had balls of steel but she was way too small to do much more. She would have probably gone and settled down on the porch while a thief cleaned the place out. My American PB Terrier was a big, muscular 90 lbs of marshmallow love. If he felt someone was a threat, he would place himself between you and the other person or dog but nothing more. He was like a rock that way and strangers were too scared by the look of him to even try anything. I only ever heard him growl once and that was at a dog that had made an initial aggressive move. The confrontation did not last. Sometimes, if he sensed a welcome visitor was intimidated by him, he would sit right next to the person (if they were on the couch) and ever so slowly start to lean onto the person until he got close enough to lick them on the face! The person would be too scared to move a muscle when the dog sat next to them and would just about have a heart attack when the dog suddenly slathered them with a big, wet kiss! I guess you had to be there but it was a laugh every time... The rest of my dogs have mostly been bum-wagging greeters -- although they can be so enthusiastic about a visitor that it is possible the person may not get past their loving and in through the door! I am convinced my current Brittany would eagerly help them carry stuff out!
I think the perspective proposed is not entirely correct. As long as you expect them to defend YOUR property, as it has been demonstrated, leaves room for questioning. In my case, my dog is learning to look after HIS property. Only then will you get the best protection he will be capable of delivering. My 6mths old, would bark as soon as he detects any movement around the house - including frost quakes. I know my wife is protected as he is very aware of what is going on around him. Mind you, the level of protection I expect from him so far is to bark as loud as possible. I would not encourage him to bite people or other dogs unless really necessary, and we haven't been exposed to that yet.