Protect you from an attacker?

[ZenGrrrl]

After a creepy event yesterday (someone watching my house too intently), I wondered if my dog(s) would protect me, if they saw that someone was trying to hurt me. Has your B ever gone into "protect" mode? That is, has the dog tried to protect you from someone that appeared to be harming you, or was about to harm you? ~ Lori ~

[MaxBooBooBear]

If we heard a strange sound at night that woke us up–Max would look at me like he was saying--well--are you going to go check that out??? He never went into "protect" mode. He always looked to me to protect him. That was after my german shepherd mix was gone. When I had her, she would go charging to the door barking ferociously the whole time--and Max would pull up the rear--staying right behind her the whole time.

[phoenix3]

Phoenix gets very protective of girls , He's pretty protective of Cheyanne my whippet. With me if i am walking him at night and someone comes down the street he automatically gets in front of my legs and starts to do that evil sounding growl unless he sees me talk to the person and that person puts his hand out for him to smell he goes in attack mode however he has never bite anyone when they come in the house is usally ok with everyone as long as he gets his hugs lol

[Barklessdog]

our male is protective of my wife with strangers. They go nuts at anyone who comes near the house.

The crazy meter reader man hops our marked "beware of Dog" signs walks in our yard with the dogs loose. My wife heard him screaming and found him standing on our deck bench with our dogs hovering below him.

They don't like uninvited guests in our yard. I doubt a basenji is going to personally fight to death protecting someone like some breeds are bred to do (dogo Argintino).

the best home defense is posting beware of dogs signs and most people would case your house first.with dogs most people would go elsewhere.

Although I watched that discovery channel show where they break into peoples houses to show them how easy it is. One house had a big bull dog and the home owners watch it all from a remote camera. The dog did nothing to the intruder, he even patted the dog and the dog followed him around while he stole everything. The final thing he did was take the dog too. He just put him in the front set and left!

[MacPack]

I'm afraid that unless someone were stealing the waterbed or the food bowls, mine would just watch. I do think they would try to protect me from real threat, Ed especially really notices humans we encounter and sometimes his fur goes up and he is a bit snarly for reasons not readily apparent to me. Topper is my alpha, but he is a very trusting guy; Eddie is more skeptical. Thankfully I have not had to put them to the test!
Anne in Tampa

[vstripe]

I dont think Garrett has it in him to harm a person even if its a strange situation. I have had camera crews, people in uniform, people in costume, people in make-up, and all sorts of friends and family come threw the house. some he knows and many he had never met and he just looks over then goes right back to sleep! Not to mention when my boyfriend and I "play fight" which can get a little crazy with screaming and pushing each other off the bed this dog could not care less. Now the first dog I ever lived with was a chow chow mutt he was on guard with strangers and if he saw a figure of a person in front of the house at night he would be right at the door ready to protect me!

[jenwilson]

Hollie is very leery of strangers (and some folks she knows too). Her reaction to meeting most "new" people tells me she would be a protective little doggie if something happened to her mommy or daddy! Anybody who would approach a 35-40 lb basenji mix… standing tense with fur up on it's back and barking/growling intently is CRAZY!!! There are times though that she looks to me for protection. I think we're in this 50-50... I look out for her and she protects me.

[Barklessdog]

We have friends over for back yard bond fires with a weber fire pit.

Anyway, the couple we had over had a son who was coming later. The dogs were loose and he quietly came up to the gate and just stood there, the dogs freaked and ran to the gate and started snarling and growling at him. We came over and he started talking normal and the dogs calmed down. He came in without incident, but I have found our dogs do not like peek aboo surprises out of nowhere or people sneaking up to us or them. They feel threatened.

I think a lot of weather your dog goes on the defense or not depends on the person breaking in. If he is calm and nice, I bet the dogs would not do anything, but he was a sweating hyper crack head, it might be totally different reaction.

[Vanessa]

Chance has only given a ggggggrrrrr once and that was to the cable man who went into our back yard. Anytime he hears a noise he is the first to hear it which I like. He will sit there and just stare in the direction the noise came from and the hairs on his back will stand up. I call it his little mohawk. I don't think he has it in him to actually protect me. He may however lick them to death

[khanis]

I used to think that mine would be protective…..
until my house was burglarized...
that pretty much told me how good the temperaments on my dogs were....
letting a stranger put them in wire crates...
rob the place....
then let them out as he leaves the back door
(all watched by the neighbor while waiting for the police!)...
I guess that says good things for my breeding program

[BDawg]

The only time I've ever even heard Lexi growl was in one of my college townhouse apartments. I swear to God, the place was haunted. I'd hear all sorts of weird noises when no one was home - like when the entire building was gone on Christmas break, etc. It always gave me such an unsettled feeling. Anyway, one day I was there alone during the holiday to get some of my stuff (literally there was no one in our 4 townhouse unit)… I was in my room with the door shut when I heard someone putting away the dishes. Clink, clink... clink, clink... like when you put the glasses away. Not thinking, I just opened the door to see which of my roomies had come home. And of course I opened the door to no one. I walked in the kitchen and had almost opened the cabinet to see if the glass I had put in there had fallen over or something when I realized I had not been in the kitchen. Um....... I pretty much froze and freaked out.

I quickly ran back into my room and shut the door. That's when Lexi (only about 9 months old at the time) started growling at the crack under the door, her hackles straight up. I seriously got chills. I had never seen her do this. I finished what I was doing and opened the door slowly as I didn't know what would be on the other side. She slowly turned the corner, all hackles raised, and then ferociously growled very pointedly towards the end of the long hallway I had to walk down to get out. I could see all the way to the door and there was clearly nothing there, but I sat there for a moment frozen trying to figure out what she was looking at… because she was clearly focused on something. She didn't move; I didn't move. And this was in the middle of a bright sunshiny day!! Very few times have I ever been so terrified.

I have never seen Lexi growl since. Ever. (grunts and snarks, yes, but never growling) That was such a weird experience. I'm not one to believe in ghosts and stuff, but if there were ever a time...that'd be it!

[jenwilson]

The very day I responded to this thread we had a visiter that evening at our new home. The visiter was unexpected and when he banged on the door Hollie jumped up, stretched out her body to see out the window, hair up on her back, barking & growling. She continued this behavior until the person went away (we didn't answer the door - unknown visiter). She is constantly leery of situations, things and people. Having rescued her from a shelter that picked her up as a stray, we know NOTHING about what happened to her before she joined our family. I believe I have a pretty good "Watch Dog!"