We have two very simular dog stories in my family. Before I was born my aunt had an almost all black German Shepard named Duke. Now keep in mind this was in the late sixties and early seventies. He was an infamous dog really. All of the neighborhood kids would come over and ask if "duke could come out and play?" They would then have to come and have my aunt put Duke inside because when they got ready to go home Duke wouldn't let them cross the street. He would lay on them if they tried. Well anyway, one day my aunt was home alone had the front door open. They entry way is always kind of dark so you can't really see inside while standing on the porch. Well my aunt hears the doorbell ring goes to awnser it. There is a man saying he is with so and so company and would like to tel her about this greatproduct etc.. Well she had a bad feeling about this guy so she never opened the door just said no thanks and turned to walk away. The man grabbed the door handle and jerked it breaking the flimsy lock. What he neglected to notice was Duke in the hallway also. He never barked at the door so the guy never saw him. When he stepped in he got a crotch full of German Shepard. The man backed out of the door and Duke let go. The man then made a limping but hasty retreat. The police picked the man up later in the day and arrested him. He was no salesman. So needless to say my aunt has had German Shepards ever since. The other story(sorry so long) happened last year with my wife. She was home alone with the door open. We have a full lenght glass door. She was sitting on the couch watching tv and my American Bulldog Maximus was lying just to the right of the door chewing a bone. Her was about to trial for his Mondio Ring Brevet when this happened. (we have since put him down for medical reasoms) A man approached the door and my wife got up to meet him. But before she could get there he proceeded to open the door himself. He couldn't see Max lying there. He got the door open about two inches when Max hit the door like a frieht train. Luckily he shut the door and held before he got bit. My wife grabbed him by the prong collar and told him to sit. The man then tried to convince my wife to put him in the backyard so he could come in. She said no he can talk through the door all the while with Max growling next to her. The man just said nevermind and got into a van with two other guys and drove off. No bite but who knows what would have happened. I also have another story about Max if interested. No bite though. Just let me know. Ryan

Do you care about the venue? Are you particularly looking for these news stories in the U.S.?

I keep a file of published hero-dog stories, but it isn't limited as to geography.

I understand that you want to emphasize protection-trained dogs acting in accordance with their training, right?

Once again so that everyone understands - For my book I can only use stories that have been published in a newspaper or mentioned in a filed police report. I need to be able to 100% verify the occurence.

So while personal stories sound good, I need documentation - which hopefully will be one of the many things that sets my book apart from the others.

Thanks!
Will Rambeau....struggling author... <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

"Arnold the Crime-Fighting Pig Dies"

http://apnews.excite.com/article/20050720/D8BF3BHG0.html
This might fit somewhere in your book <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

Will,
You can count me in for a sale aswell. Seriously, nothing is wrong with pictures in books. But those cheesy dreaded sketches are just aweful!
Just like some of the other folks here, my "stories" can not be verified, but I'd like to share them with the folks here because well, we all love these stories!

I have had 3 real situations where I either had to call upon my dog or he just acted.

One time in band camp..hehe. One time I was walking in the park near my house and this lady stopped me for some dog talk. She was walking a very nice looking APBT. (pit bull) As we talked, I put my dog in a down-stay about 2 feet behind me. Her dog started to get out of line and she began mildly whining at her dog,. cut that out, stop that,. her dog progressively became more disobedient and she pulled the leash really hard straight up in the air over her head as if she was going to hit her dog.

As soon as she raised her hand up like that my dog leaped for her (breaking his down-stay, I instantly pulled back as hard as I could on the leash, the prong on his collar bent and he became free. He latched onto her hand, he then bit her love handle and her behind. He caused a lot of damage.
I gave him the "OUT" and restrained him by the scruff " I panicked. Keep in mind that from the time she raised her hand from the time I had my dog restrained, only seconds past. This all happened very, very quickly. There was plenty of witnesses and I was thinking "LAWSUIT!"
I believe my dog did the right thing, and the woman would have never gotten bit if the collar did not fail.

Long story short, the dog did what he was supposed to do, the lady was very understanding and healed in a few weeks and we ended up becoming friends and training partners.

Another time; I always end up walking my dog late at night, I live in the city and there are plenty of morons out at the time of night I walk my dog. I always expect there is going to be a situation. I just assume something is going to happen. Of course 9 times out of 10, nothing extremely unusual happens. I was walking my dog, no leash just the ecollar and remote and this typical late night street walker come heading my direction. I repeated the heel command just to avoid any confusion on the dogs part of what should be happening (it had been a few minutes since I had given him any direction). When I walk my dog, I always walk out of people's way. This guy just kept coming closer and closer and adjusting his oncoming path so we would "collide". He didn't seem to care that I had a dog. I could not avoid walking into him, So I just stopped dead in my tracks. He came within about 5 feet of me, now I'm starting to get nervous. I had no doubt that my dog would remain in the heel as long as this guy didn't talk to the dog or do anything stupid. So the guy says "hey man, you got a cigarette?" I said no, I don't smoke, as I had a cigarette hanging from my mouth. This was really ironic because I REALLY don't smoke, I just happen to want one so I took a couple with me on my walk.(we keep some around for when we go out, you know those people only smoke when they drink? That's us. So then he goes, well, can I "borrow" some money so I can catch the bus? Sorry, I don't have any money on me. He got really nasty and started to escalate, I knew it was only a matter of time before my dog would become aggressive and I really wanted to avoid that because I had no leash. Maybe he was a jerk, but he didn't deserve to be attacked by my dog. So I just told my dog to heel and I stepped off to the left, so I was between him and my dog as I walked away. I walked about 3-5 steps and I could hear him take off behind me kind of briskly, my do turned around very quickly (without warning) and became really really aggressive, the guy turned the other way and ran, literally. My dog didn't try to chase him he just kept growling, barking and being nasty as can be. I didn't give him the out until the guy was far enough away that I knew he wasn't coming back.

I feel this was a real life instance where my dog protected me, without a doubt if he would have come another step closer or said anything he would have gotten some new scars.
Of course I alway had the option of giving my dog the watch command, but for some reason the decision didn't come clear to me, so I didn't.

I'll be real brief on this one last one. I have a fenced in yard. Someone was trying to get in my gate, it was late at night and I was on the computer which is near my door. So I could hear noises, and when I looked out the window I saw this dark figure trying to get in my gate. This was really scary because the window I was looking through is really close to the gate entrance, so it was like I was standing right next to this guy. For some odd reason, neither of my 2 dogs were even barking. So I opened the door to let my GSD out and told him to search. For him this means look around the perimeter of the house, you will find someone, bite them when you do. The gate was still closed, but the guy ran off, I stepped outside after I seen him run and opened my gate and sent the dog after him. There is a blind corner, my dog stopped dead in his tracks as he entered the front yard. I don't know how, but the guy disappeared into thin air. There are lots of cars on my street so he could have easily hid behind one. I'm sure he wasn't on my property any longer so I called the dog inside and then called the police.

In the area I live in an area where I'm certain "something" will eventually happen again. Hopefully we are ready for it.

Good God this a long post. Sorry.

I've got another one with no press-release, but just the same... Hey no one ELSE had press release either so there. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

I was walking with my 15-month old Dutch x Mal female (best working dog I ever had, for sure) and we were in the park. It was kinda getting dark, but we were close to the entrance of the park where my car was. The path goes through a narrow grove of trees, like a forest maybe 200' deep on either side. So definitely NOT a real forest, but deep enough that you cannot see through the trees.

Anyway, I could see in the distance there was this guy on a bike kinda meandering along, not really riding it, but heading away from me slowly. I didn't think much of it, it wasn't THAT dark, and he headed down the path into the grove of trees.

As we approached the grove, the dog stopped rigid. Let out the deepest, most SERIOUS growl I have EVER heard. I called her to me, and she stood beside me staring into the trees. I took a step or two forward. It was only about 200 feet of path through those trees, and I'd be back to my car. The dog was still growling.

I got a shiver clean up my spine and decided to walk AROUND the forest grove, taking me about 10 minutes out of the way but the whole time Rip was fixated on the treeline. When we finally got around the forest (i.e. we ended up on the OTHER side of the grove, where the path we would have taken comes out) I did happen to notice that there were no bike tire tracks in the mud coming OUT of the grove, so the guy definitely was still in there.

Kinda sends a chill up my spine. Women get attacked in that park all the time, and I had overestimated the daylight I had left. Thank God for good dogs. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Can't use this either, no documentation, but I am proud of my dog. She is now about 10, was maybe 8 when this occured, GSD/chow. My teenage daughter was walking her in daylight in a large park near the house when she was approached by 4 or 5 drunk men. They circled while the dog tried to keep an eye on all the men. When one man reached out and grabbed my daughter's arm, the dog leaped, connected, he screamed, all the men ran away. She has no training, is a rescue, but has always guarded the family in a serious way.

Folks, thanks for the stories but as I've said before, without documentation, I can't use them.

I'm going to lock the thread as the posting of unusable stories is not helpful.