Protection trained dogs, I recently had an incident happen. A mechanic assoicated of mines followed me home, after servicing my Jeep. This guy I hadn't seen in years had just told me that he was ex-con and that he had lost his job.

My delimea is I've now showed him were I lived and he knew from my maintenance records the times I am at work. As I unlock my front door, the my dogs met me at the front door, the GSD noticed this guy in the drive. The dog usually shows no concern so intent on greeting me. This time the GSD barked and charged, and didn't stop at the command.

I hadn't notice the Guy had grabbed the passenger side door of the Jeep. Hearing and seeing the dog approach he froze and said "No"!, the GSD circled him nudged him with his nose and barked. I gave the recall command he returned to me at front door. During this the female Rottie/mix stepped off the porch growling looking back at me. I ordered them back in the house got the money, and paid him.

As I drove him home he told me "I didn't know you had those big dogs at home", he asked , "do they stayed in the house all the time. And "Man if I had move he would have bite wouldn't he". Sounds like a ex-con to me.


Problem - For some reason I felt safer, I thought that his questions were a little probing especially after finding out he was an ex-con. Am I wrong in feeling more secure and not worrying about that the dog didn't immeadately stop? Almost like they made him changed his plans?

What happened to the Rottie then the GSD? She was left behind, What triggered the GSD? I apologized but I didn't mean it? Am I wrong in feeling like I was being cased or setup?

dogs are a lot more astute and intuitive than we give them credit for. they picked up on something. give them a hug and an extra tidbit for supper tonight because you can sleep better knowing that your buddies are looking out for you. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Don,
Spooky. This exact thing happened to me once. I gave our used stove to the local church and they sent two men to pick it up from my house. My working GSD was inside, my akita bitch was on the porch with the stove, and my rottie bitch was outside the screen porch.
When the two men approached the porch the Akita furred up instantly. This was not unusual for her so I put her inside with the working dog. The two men were allowed to enter the porch and seconds later the Rottie targeted one of the men and tried to come thru the screen to get him.
I was flabbergated. This was totally out of character for her. She was one of the sweetest Rots I ever met and she had never aggressed on someone like that before. She has never had formal bite training but her obedience was impeccable with hand or voice.
Being a local cop, I recognized this man. Apparently the church had given him some work to keep him off the streets. There was something about him that the dog reaaly hated but for the life of me I didnt see it. Fortunately I was able to stop the dog from coming all the way through the screen with a command. I had no doubt that this guy would not be coming back without invitation for fear of becoming dog food. It is incredible how these animals can read a persons character in a matter of moments. I never cease to be amazed.
Dont feel bad in enjoying the security your dogs bring. It made my nights easier when working late hours when my retired PSD was home taking care of the family. I knew he would die protecting them.

BTW, I agree with Patricia...Gravy soaked kibble all around is in order.

You were uncomfortable, hence, your dogs felt uneasy as well, is my best guess.
As to the "intuitive" powers of dogs, horse hocky.
Dogs are not freaking pyschics. My dogs have let some crappy people come around and heck, with most of 'em, if there was food and pets, love was in the air. On the other hand, some great people who they know and should trust, by golly, if I'm not in the house, they better be up on the wall being still.
I'm not an ex-con (or a present one!)-and yet there's a dog or two out there who's been real keen to take a bite out of me-were those dogs "sensing" a bad seed deep in my nature? Heck no. They were just knuckleheads whose owners lost control somewhere.
You control who your dogs bite, especially when you're standing right there.
This is not a rant against you and your experience, more of a rant against dogs 'sensing" bad intentions. Bull****, I say.

whatever. :rolleyes:

Whatever what, Pat?
Do go on. My guy's ten year old says whatever .
Are you ten? Or maybe you actually have something to say?

Alex,
I'll go as far as agreeing with you that dogs arent psychics. But I am going to disagree with you on the point that dogs are, what some people would describe as, intuitive. Im sure what my rottie was keying on was body language, odor (adrenalin dump?)and possibly eye contact. These animals, though domesticated, utilize their senses just like their wild brethren. We expect a well bred dog to possess these qualities so that they may do the job expected of them. We exploit their wild behavour for our gain. Obviously if you own a dog that is so inbred that it is a retard, you will have an animal that is inconsistent in their behavour.

Ask any good decoy how easy it is to set off a well bred working dog. It takes very little. Many things that a dog notices or keys on is nearly undetectable by the average person, or it happens so quick that the owner/handler misses it. My dog tracks completely differently between a lost child and some scumbag running from the law to avoid jail. He knows, just by the odor left behind, what is expected of him. Had a birthday party for my youngest last year and had about 25 kids and 20 adults show up. My PSD was in the yard next door and suddenly went balistic on one of the adults. The adult was casually sneaking up on one of the kids and the dog picked it up amongst all the chaos. I had to really look hard to see what he saw.

SO...they may not be intuitive, but to us couch potatoes who are so far removed from our ancient ancestors who had to hunt/fight to exist, these incidents may seem supernatural.

I used to take my newfie to obedience classes. One woman had a husband that would come and watch on occasion. Without fail, every single time he showed up, Annabel would start barking at him and wouldn't let him near her. She has never, ever, barked at anyone else out in public, and only once when someone came in the house without her knowing it. She's usually friendly and goes up to people to be petted, never, ever agressive.

I don't know if she picked up on something from HIM or if she picked up on everyone's attitude about him (no one liked him), but the trainer didn't even say anything about my killer newfie, which kinda said a lot because I remember when a rottweiler attacked Cassie, my shepherd, and Cassie went back after the rott instead of just ignoring it...the trainer came over and smacked Cassie on the head. Obviously, I was VERY angry about this and it just shows that she didn't accept agression, even if the dog is provoked, yet she understood about the creepy guy.

To Howard-
Of course a decoy should know how to "set off" a well-bred working dog. They're Trained-both the dog and the decoy...there's not a whole lot of "instinct" in good bitework-yes, a well-bred dog has to have good prey drive but if you take him as a pup, give him obedience and nothing else, then take him out on a field as an adult and show him a dude in a suit who's waving his hands around-I think you'd see some defense and maybe even some fear, but would that be the dog "set off" by his special dog intuition or maybe by the fact there's a strange large guy approaching and his natural defensive reaction is to bark and protect himself?
Like most people on this board, I've had a dog that would raise the roof for a prey item, just the sight of it "set them off" and the same dog probably would have let Ted Bundy crawl in the window if he was carrying a ball.
I don't let my dogs "intuit" who is a "bad person" and who is not. There have been several people who my dogs have not cared for. And nope, I don't trust their judgement on such matters at all. I had a nasty stalker a few years ago-once even got his hands on me very briefly. He was a co-worker who used to drive with me to work and stopped by the house to be "helpful" before things degenerated. The dog liked him just fine. But my best friend in graduate school, a perfectly nice girl who always had treats for the dogs-the dog always barked and postured around her. And you know what? She was scared-probably "adrenaline dumped" every time she had to walk in my house. Does that mean my dog was picking up on some special signal I missed and alerting me to a bad choice in friends?
The "intuitive" powers i will credit to dogs are this: they know their owners, and smell fear or whatever chemical comes off very frightened or nervous people. If you are uncomfortable, so are they. If a person near them is very nervous,(perhaps because they are afraid of dogs, or maybe perhaps they feel alienated and anxious because everyone around them thinks they're creepy)
Some dogs will seek reassurance from you, some go be alone, and others express their unease by barking at people or even biting them.
It is my firm belief that there is no smell or signal identifiable only to dogs known as "convict", "felon", "prior bad acts", "bad husband", or even "bad intentions". Not even Lassie could do it.