EZRider

Matt, no offense was taken in least. I understand your message how important to have solid control over a big guard dog.

TMH

Unfortunately, if you fire a gun you need to shoot to kill, not wound. It has to be to the point where there is no other option in your mind regarding the safety of your person or that of your family before you can use deadly force (which would include the use of rock salt). If you shoot and wound, there is a witness against you (Hey, I was just trying to get out of there and this **** shot me!). If you kill, it is your word against a body, and although bodies can talk to some extent, it is much more difficult for them to lie about the situation.

Tazman - You are a stand-up guy regarding your attitude on dogs. I fully agree with others that a dog is one of the best deterrents of theft - Even if they are small they make a lot of noise and that is one thing that burglers do not want. In your situation, however, it would not be much of a life for your dog, and I am really glad that you are thinking along those lines.

I think that the best ideas if you stay in your situation are the bright motion-sensing lights, the Beware of Dog signs and maybe the recorded dog-barking tape (in fact put a water dish, food dish and a chain/tether outside in full view to add to the illusion). Thieves are stupid and lazy, and they will go somewhere else if they are exposed by the lighting and question whether they will have to deal with a dog. They will typically pick the easiest place to steal from, with the least potential of getting caught.

One last thing: Call your local PD and let them know your situation. SOMETIMES (if they are not stretched too thin) they will be willing to perform some extra patrols in your area, and maybe even get out of their cars and do a quick walk-around of the building for a while.

Good luck,
Tom

Matt H

You got it, I have given my trainers card to probably 20 people and each time they say, how did you know my dog wasnt trained. A pretty good first bet is that they are pulling you down the road and you have no control over them. Having control is the only way to insure that the situation is one you can handle. Right now at my trainers there is a GSD and his owner only took him there after he broke her leg. (Got the leash tied around her ankle and drug her down the street). As owners we have to be responsible for our dogs. I hate that people think of rots and pits as killers, their owners are the killers, the dog just did what was natural and had not been corrected.
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OriginalSterm

Dogs are great protection when trained properly. But, in the case of some neighbors, their house was cased for a while I'd say. They came home from church Sunday afternoon and found the sliding glass door on the back of the house broken and the dog laying dead, poisoned, in the kitchen. Tons of stuff stolen, broken, or rummaged through. The cops couldn't do anything about it, said that fingerprints are pointless and eyewitnesses are shakey evidence at best. I say, if I have a dead burglar on the floor, it's a pretty easy case to solve.

Guns don't kill people, fed up homeowner's do...

Matt H

Oddly, my dog wont eat from anyone but my wife, myself, and the trainer. AND she wont eat at all unless she is told to. If someone slid open the back door she would tear them a new one so I dont think poison would work, who knows. I dont think there is a sure answer.
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Ag951

That's a good feature in a security dog.

Water944t

Since Glasers got mentioned, I thought I would relate the story of the first Glaser kill in the US. (As far as I know, that is.)

My dad was a cool guy, with lots of cool friends. One of them, by the name of Jim W., had been a high level cop all over Texas, before joining with my dad in the Dallas Indoor Pistol Range, and the North American Security Acadamy. I have lots of great memories from the range and taking money from unsuspecting members of Dallas' finest during re-qual shoots. (As I mentioned before, I am a very good shot with any firearm you choose, I just grok weapons.)

Jim had gone to New York, to attend a sherriffs convention. One evening, he went down to the lobby to get some crap from the little hotel store, gum, deodorant, whatnot...as he returned to the elevator, two well-dressed black men got onto the elevator with him. Jim thought nothing of it, and got off at his floor.

As he turned the key in the door lock, he was struck from behind, thrown to the floor, and one of the black men began sawing at his throat with a large knife. Fortunately for Jim, the assailants' knife was centered in the large knot of his tie, slowing the blades' cutting into his neck. Jim then reaches into his waistband(he claimed the gun was under the bed, ok Jim whatever), pulls out his sidearm, and fires one round of this new trick ammo called a Glaser.

The Glaser is whats called a 'frangible' round, meaning that it is designed to come apart inside the target, rather than penetrate and possibly hit things behind, or through walls. It is a hollow bullet, filled with tiny shot pellets and liquid teflon. It makes a pretty nasty wound, and I think they used to have a 'one-shot/one-kill' warranty.

So anyways, the local 5-0 shows, and they take Jim into custody after examining the body. It seems that the coroner thinks the black guy was killed with a 4-10 shotgun, which the police can't find and Jim can't produce since it was just a .38 pistol round that tore this gaping hole in said bad guy.

So after ballistics testing on the Glasers in Jim's pistol, everything is hunky-dory, and Justice prevails. Yay for the home team!

Matt H

Actually, it is a necessity in a guard dog, to prevent exactlywhat happened above. Sucks at 0430 in the winter though having to actually go out the door and tell her to eat.
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Ag951

Fortunately it's only a trait found in real world guard dogs, or all those break-in action movies would be really short lived and even more boring.

How about a recording of your voice on a timer?

Matt H

Who knows that might work. Sometimes I have to go stand out there and go, eat your food. She will look at me like, do I have to? Of course, she knows she only gets 15-20 mins and then the food is gone so shw doesnt usually balk to much.
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theedge

To be perfectly honest, you know where you shot yourself in the foot? I bet you left your windows alone. If the supid monkeys see something they want, supid monkeys want to get that. They prolly looked in your windows, saw a nice car and a work area so in they went.

Solutions? Can this get a mutt crap, its pointless and expensive and in the end they can still give the mutt a wack with a crowbar or something along those lines. That and rotties are ugly, youll inevitbly have whiney mothers around the area saying your dog is a killer and is going to eat her brats, etc etc etc. That and if you can on a trip for a month, your dog does you no good.

So heres what you do:
1) Bar your windows with GOOD bars. Sure they can break the glass but itll be WAY to much work to saw or break the bars off.
2) Put curtains on there so they cant see whats inside, but you can still get light to work by, whatever. Monkey cant see, monkey wont want to bother getting.
3) BIG *** halogen lights on motion detectors. If someone walks thru my parents back yard at night, bam a few hundred watts of halogen lights the area up, same with the driveway where ill eventually be parking a porsche. Put these in dark areas where someone might hide to wait to see if youre home as well. With some fiddling, try to get them so that the sensitivity isnt on max, since the quality detectors can often pick up moths and such flying in front of the sensor.
4) DEADBOLTS on your doors. If you dont have these already... well no insult but it serves you right after the first time.
5) If you have a crappy plain wood door, upgrade it if you feel you want to. The doors in my parents house (outside ones I mean) are steel jacketed oak. Look nice, but good luck messing with them.
6) On the inside doorjam where your lock bolts and all that go, screw in a thick chunk of solid oak or something similar. This will prevent them from kicking that the lock area and breaking in. Make sure it screws into the 2x4s thatll be next to the door frames, and that its a nice thick peice of wood.
7) Up to you, but a bar that can go accross the door at night would be handy.
8) Some sort of lock device for your garage door to keep them from sliding it up by force or anything. This all depends on your garage door of course.
9) Indoor motion sensor hooked into a loud siren. If they get into the garage, loud siren goes off and wakes you up, wakes guy next door up, and scares the bugler away.

All this will work better than a dog IMHO. You dont have to feed the bars on your windows, or take your deadbolts for a walk, or clean the poo from your motion lights up. And all this would be WAY cheaper than a decently trained dog, yet provide a similar level of protection.

Ag951

Hey edge, the dog vs. alarm argument is moot anyway. The garage where he stores the car isn't anywhere near his house.

Matt H

Of course, your house looks like a war zone and your resale is shot to hell when people want to know why the NEED bars. You could also, barb wire your fence tops, put up conrete safety walls, get solid mteal doors, etc, etc. Then again, if you want to test my rot, I will leave a key under the mat for you to try your theory, good luck not pissing your pants long before you get a swing with the crowbar (that no one noticed you carrying).
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theedge

I figured it was next door, my bad.

Any dog can be defeated, just depends on the person doing the defeating. Not many home burglers are going to tangle with ANY dog for a car and some wrenches, just like they arent going to tangle with thick window bars.

Matt H

Lemme know if you ever get the urge to try, might be kinda a cool video to have around.
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