Wow Betty that is very creepy! My dogs- and I love them both dearly, aren't going to deter anyone. Glad that your Pepper helped you out. It could have ended very badly!

We have quite a few workers, so the general protective of the family dog could end badly, unfortunately.
Will, I don't even know what my defensive needs are I am going to pm you about the current events we have had because I'm a little wary writing them on public forums and perhaps you can tell me I'm over sensitive and to get a poodle Really though, at this point I would welcome being told I am overreacting if that is the case!
Kelly and Sheila, I will check out local rescues. We just really don't get many dogs like that through here, fortunately!

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The lesson is probably most people with bad intent will go looking for softer targets when confronted with a strong dog.

Exactly, Pepper's barking was puppy butt headiness, nothing more. But no one listening to her would of known, even as a young dog she had a substantial build and a grown up bark.

To add to the irony of it all (when you consider how much time I spend training in personal protection :grin we have a white shepherd who is a pet and courage is never a word I would use to describe him. Love him to death but if I was attacked I may see the blur as he gets the hell out of dodge.

One night he woke me up at the window growling and it was basically the same situation. I'm looking out the windows of my lanai trying to figure out what was going on when motion lights start going off like crazy and someone darts across the yard. I do think the person had started at the bedroom window. In the morning light the ground had been disturbed.

In the years since these two incidents I have put a lot of training on dogs for personal protection and have sold a few. Kinda funny that the two incidents where I think my dogs might of stopped something it was a puppy or the pet with the courage of a gnat....

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Wow Betty that is very creepy! My dogs- and I love them both dearly, aren't going to deter anyone. Glad that your Pepper helped you out. It could have ended very badly!

Up to that point I really thought I was someone that was aware of my surroundings and would not be an "easy" victim. It really brought home that I wasn't.

To this day I have no idea how that man got so close to me,literally a 1/2 step back as I moved and I was on top of him.

Valuable lesson learned, even in daylight in a busy parking lot I need to be much more aware.

I have to admit that as I have gotten older, I have become alot more aware of my surroundings when out shopping etc.

Maybe it is just an age thing, as we get older we get a bit smarter (at least I hope we learn from our years) about not living in a world seen thru rose collered glasses,as youth often views the world.

Maybe it's because I am not able to physically do what I could when I was 30 or maybe it is because now that the eccomony has been so bad, many people are doing desperate, dangerous things moreso then ever before.

Good neighborhoods are being plagued by breakins, banks & stores robbed in broad daylight with people around. The 'bad guys' are getting bolder & bolder it seems with little reguard of being put off by their victims.

I used to often take the dogs with me when going out to run errands etc (they just hang out in the truck, their 2nd home)...but now it is pretty much all the time that they go with me whenever I go out. I like their company & their PRESENCE as a deterrent. They will bark if a stranger comes near the truck if I am in it & will bark on command. Just might be enough to give some ill-intended person a 2nd thought.

 Quote: Anne Jones

I used to often take the dogs with me when going out to run errands etc (they just hang out in the truck, their 2nd home)...but now it is pretty much all the time that they go with me whenever I go out. I like their company & their PRESENCE as a deterrent. They will bark if a stranger comes near the truck if I am in it & will bark on command. Just might be enough to give some ill-intended person a 2nd thought.

I take Koenig everywhere as well, Anne. I've really got to get him to 'guard' the car though. As it is, he won't do anything. I think he'd let someone reach in and pet him. So, if they don't have a sleeve or bite suit on, (or whip) then they are friends. I'd like him to get a bit more serious.

Kel, he may very well start to do some of that on his own as he matures. He just turned 2 right?

Does he bark on command? If so just ask him for it when ever anyone comes near the car & he will put 2 & 2 together himself.

Be careful what you wish for..when my female is sitting up & not naping in the truck, she will bark at people standing on the sidewalk as we roll by or at a stop light & even sometimes people in the next car. When I am out of the truck, they pretty much just nap. The truck is their 2nd home from day one as pups.

Had one male that went nuts when anyone came near my truck & it was a PITA at the bank drive up or when getting a coffee at the drive up etc. He even went nuts when I would pick up a friend to go somewhere, with him in the truck.

So every good side there is often a not so good one. LOL

Hazard will growl from the car, but dives into the back seat if someone approaches it I think that I am pretty aware of my surroundings, I am constantly looking behind and around me in public, but my luck, something will happen the moment I reach into my purse for my phone, or drop my keys.

I have a dog that will bark if needed, he's alert to "scary things" at night when he feels I should be aware of them....the two times I've ever been in the position where I've been come at or grabbed at (one, creeper guy at night following me on my way home, two...I think he was trying for my bag). He has jumped up and grabbed enough for me to hit them and run away, which he did with me....this is a dog who is EXCELLENT with children and people of all shapes, sizes, mobilities, and degree of drunkeness as well as other animals. I lucked out...

I got him off craigslist....When I went to pick him up I found an ankle nipping tug obsessed demon who projectile "shuked" the entire 4 hour drive home and stole every sock I owned and hid them in his crate....

Here's a rescue dog that is family companion/PPD, live bites and all.

http://dogblog.dogster.com/2011/07/19/superhero-chihuhua-chases-armed-robbers-from-store/

Oh how cute But is it terrible that my first reaction after watching was "Why did that stupid reporter grab Paco on the top of the head?!" I love how he fell asleep while they were talking about him. That was fun to watch.