From: Valaria_Vorlop@mindlink.bc.ca (Valaria Vorlop)
Newsgroups: rec.pets.dogs
Subject: Re: Dogs & Home/Nbhd Security (LONG)
Date: 15 Oct 92 03:26:45 GMT
Organization: MIND LINK! - British Columbia, Canada
Distribution: world

David Austin writes:

An excellent article about dogs for security, which I deleted except for:

>In my darkest thoughts, I think of my 11 year old daughter as the possible
>victim of attack. But what if Dante the dobe were with her ...?

Hey Big Dog! You're FAMOUS! (Dante is smiling at you and trying to wag
what's left of his tail completely off.)

That was a very informative article, I'd have liked it even if my dog
wasn't mentioned in it :) Good job!

I'd have to classify my dobie as a "Protection Dog" according to what you
wrote, as well as a "Watchdog" of course. Dante will become alert/agitated
and bark at a whispered command of 'whazzat?!' or 'geddim!' which I use if
I see a wierd looking person approaching. I hang onto the leash tightly
and assume a practiced look of panic, as if to say, "I...I can't control
him...and I don't know how much longer I can hold him back!" If Dante
agrees that the person is wierd looking, he will also add his beautiful
growl in with the barking once I've gotten him started.  People tend to
move away very quickly. He would almost certainly bite if I was attacked,
but of course this whole play act is to help insure that he never is faced
with the need to...I don't want him to get hurt :(

I agree wholeheartedly with what you say about proper breeding being a
most important factor. I attibute 98% of his stability and appropriate
natural protectiveness, as well as his lack of viciousness, to inherited
traits. It can't be said often enough that a good protection dog is NOT a
vicious dog, a vicious dog is just a lawsuit waiting to happen. Of course
the remaining 2% is plently of proper socialization and obedience training.
Backyard bred dobies that I have met have been either overly protective or
completely opposite with none of the guarding instincts a dobie SHOULD
have. It's well worth any extra money spent buying from a good breeder.

As far as the difference between having a big black dog which would
probably not be protective (such as a lab) and a dog from the list of
guardy breeds, I personally would choose to always have one of the latter.
I like to know that my dog could back up his bark if he needed to. Of
course there is no reason I can think of why ANY dog couldn't or shouldn't
be trained as a 'Protection' or 'Threat' dog. If you and your dog can put
on a good enough act, nobody has to know that he would sooner lick a bad
person to death...even a medium sized dog barking and lunging should make a
person think twice about coming close, and since most dogs will think of
this as a game, there's no harm done to your dog's personality. It's really
easy to train a dog to appear threatening, and it can be a really fun game,
especially for a dog like mine who is discouraged from barking indoors.
There are very good reasons why a person might choose NOT to have a guardy
breed such as a dobie, for one thing these breeds can be very dominant and
not everyone can handle that (I recently met somebody having dominance
problems with a PUG due to overspoiling and I said PLEASE never get a
doberman when they told me they had once considered it. An agressively
dominant PUG! Just when I thought I'd seen everything!) but they can still
get a lot of personal security from a dog with acting talent :)

I also wanted to comment on the possibility of being sued if your dog bites
a burglar on your property. While I think this is ridiculous and an awful
miscarriage of justice, I can also think of some reasons why laws like
this exist, though I don't think I'd agree with them. I won't go into that
though unless somebody wants to discuss it. Anyway, for those who would be
happy to have their dog bite even an innocent person who stumbled onto
their property, maybe this should be something for you to think about. Is
it worth the possibility of being forced to have your dog euthanized
because it bit somebody, just so you can defend your right not to have
anybody step on your lawn? As I said before, if somebody breaks into my
house while I'm out, knowing my dog is there, I want my dog to be as safe
as possible. I don't want him to be poisoned, stabbed or set loose. The
person who posted about her Irish Setter showed how horrible that can be,
it could have been so much worse if her neighbor had not intervened! If I
wanted my dog to be like a sharks in a moat, I wouldn't care if he was hurt
defending my property: I'd just get a new dog. But my dog is my FRIEND, and
I expect to protect him even more than he protects me.

To touch on something that was posted earlier about the possiblity of a
small child or mentaly handicapped person climbing a secure fence and being
hurt by the dogs on the other side, the impression I got was: "I have the
right to use my dogs to defend my property, if the person was innocent it
should not be ME who is at fault 'cos they should have been better
supervised by their guardian." Well, they should have been supervised, but
that's really not the point, is it? Isn't the point that an innocent was
hurt, maimed or killed and that they did not deserve it and that it is a
horrible thing? *I* think that's the point. There aren't words to describe
how awful I would feel if one of my dogs harmed an innocent person, even if
it wasn't my 'fault'.

Of course, if my dog DOES shred a burglar some day, he will get the
biggest, juiciest bone I can find, even if I do get sued :)


--
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Valaria_Vorlop@mindlink.bc.ca    I cried because I had no shoes
or:      a4080@mindlink.bc.ca         Until I met a man who had no feet.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *                          - ???