Hello All-

Havent posted in some time, but was compelled to by my inability to find any statistics on the prescence of dogs acting as crime deterrence.

Is anyone aware of a web location with stats on dog ownership and home invasion/breaking and entering/criminal activity etc etc.

This has been the subject of much debate in my social circle.

Thanks in advance,
Brock

I haven't been able to find stats on this subject, but most likely a robber would avoid properties with dogs that bark even a property that shows decals of dog ownership. I guess some might take a chance on a dog that sounds little or more of a curious bark than a "I'm going to bite you" bark. But if they are going to rob you for a specific purpose (they know you carry large amounts of cash, diamonds, etc.), I'm assuming they will still try to get into the property whether a dog is there or not and are willing to kill the animal or anyone that gets in their way. JMO

The other thing with burglar's is that any dog that barks will make noise and may alert others to what they are doing, this is usually enough to stop someone.

PS - I'm sure owning dogs (gsd's and mixed shepherds) all my life has stopped people from trying to break into our home in the city.

Kim

http://www.terrificpets.com/forum/21980.asp
I found this, it involves a pit bull protecting the home from someone who wasn't expected to be there/wasn't known by the dog.
In my personal experience so far with my GSD, only 14 months old, is my protector. At 4 months old she growled at someone when we were out for a walk in the local park, the man was large, unseasonally dressed with sunglasses on-kinda creeped me out passing him, but she kept on growling till we were a few yards away. My fiance works 'shift' work and when he's on nights, I know I can depend on her to alert me to something that isn't right. She has growled at him when he's come into the house in the morning and will not let him come into the bedroom until he says her name a few times and then she also smells his scent and is OK then. My family member and a few friends who have seen her, have been surprised at her size and her looks(looks pretty intense even when she's not). I live in a transient city in WY and the crime is pretty bad here. That is one of the reasons we got a German Shepherd in the first place. I think that having a "certain" breed of dog can deter crime-at least mugging, kidnapping, breaking and entering-I know that when people see me with my dog that if they had any inclination to do harm they thought again.

The only quantifiable evidence I've seen was a comparison of burglary and unlawful entry cases in the city of Valencia, CA.

Which of course I can't find on the internet anywhere. The study was printed in an issue of Combat Handguns magazine, but as far as being a good piece of scientific statistical analysis. . . .it sucked.


The study looked at burglary and unlawful entry reports filed in three middle class neighborhoods over a period of 5 years. The one key piece of information being IF the reporting officer noted whether there was a dog present during the crime or not. . . and if by some chance a dog had somehow stopped the crime.

What the publisher of the report believed to be significant was the fact that in 9 out of 10 burglaries the victims of the crime did not own a dog, or in a few cases, had their dogs with them while the crime was committed. This statistic however does not take into account the possibility that there was no mention of dog ownership in the police reports. So who knows if this number is accurate, or not???

In the unlawful entry cases, and this I found interesting, there were many reports that made mention of dogs interrupting subjects in various stages of entering people's property and/or attempting to commit thefts. Most of these cases were dogs who barked their heads off and brought attention to what was going on. There were no accurate percentages given on who had dogs, or if there were cases where people had dogs that didn't do anything, or anything else that could show proof that it's better to have dogs than not. But, in these few cases mentioned. . .the dog did stop what could quit possibly have been a more serious crime. Dirtbags tried to break into homes, or broke into homes, and because there was a dog there doing what dogs do, the dirtbag was caught or took off.




I think that a lot of evidence that we have that shows dogs are a deterrent to crime comes from criminals themselves giving accounts of their own MO's. I've seen these interviews on TV at various times. Criminals, or former criminals, will state that they avoided homes that had loud or intimidating dogs. That makes perfect sense, what is the easy target? The house with the noisy 110lbs Rotty, or the house without? LOL

Much obliged for all the replys. It DOES seem hard to quantify a dynamic wherein something DIDNT happen. By that I mean, Along the lines of what Robert said, how do you prove why someone chose NOT to rob you.

Keleah, I totally get the "looks pretty intense" aspect of GSD's and deterrence. My old sable rescue was so scary looking that non-dog people would cross the street when thsy saw him on his leash. Or ask me if he was a wolf *eyes rolling*.

DOGS AND PERSONAL SECURITY: AN INTRODUCTORY GUIDE
http://www4.ncsu.edu/~n51ls801/securitydogs.html

Also google "Figgie Report Part VI-The Business of Crime: The Criminal Perspective"

I got four GSDs in the house/yard. I'm convinced if a criminal was looking to burgle a place he'd move on to easier pickings.
Of course the only break ins we had in our nieghborhood was someone broke into the nieghbors beer frig on the back deck. Yea we live in that type of nieghborhood. Lots of people with dogs in the yard here

it's my personal opinion that the average criminal is lazy and looking for the easy way out. like i tell the kids: most crimes (talking burglary and theft here) are that of opportunity if you give them an opportunity, they'll take it. if the kids put their bikes in the shed, no thief is going to go through our shed when the neighbours' kids are leaving their bikes on the lawn.

if i were going to break into someone's house and a dog started barking, i'd move on and find one quiet. there's no quantifiable statistics behind this, it's just me trying to think how the criminal would, and it's my belief it's pretty close to correct.

of course, it doesn't take into account someone who's determined to get into your house, but then the chances of that happening are much slimmer than them wanting to break into just anyone's house and happening upon your's.

In my street there have been 2 occassions where the whole street got visited except the houses with dogs. Emperical evidence

Greetings

Johan

I agree, criminals take the easy route. We have had an incident where somebody tried to break into our house. My parents hadn't had dogs, and I had just moved in with mine, but nobody really knew because they were always with me. My dogs aren't barkers so the guy got quite the surprise when he came sneaking into the downstairs where my bedroom is (it's a den and didn't have a door at the time). My Java pinned his arse against the door and Dunkin was in his face soon after. The best part was the nice wet spot on the guys jeans once he was allowed up. It was one of the neighbor's hellion teenagers thinking he was cool (we were the only ones without dogs until that point).

I hate the fact there is so much prejudice against certain breeds, but in a way I'm happy knowing the chance of somebody messing with me while I have my pitbull is less likely than if I was walking a little poodle :-)