Trespassers

Have you ever had someone trespass on your property? Not like..come door too door selling stuff or anything like that, but, you're not aware of them and they're not supposed to be there. What did your dogs do?

I just let the dogs out and Amber went running up to the fence barking her head off and through the fence I could see that someone was sitting or standing right up against it (it's a wooden privacy fence, but I could see the movement and clothes through the boards). The fence isn't really near the border of our property, so he was defiantely on our land. I'm home alone so I didn't go up to the person or anything, I was kinda hoping that Amber barking and growling would get him to leave. He stayed there letting her bark for like 3 minutes and then I guess he got the idea and left, because she stopped barking.

Is this bad for me to do? I feel Aloott safer with Amber when I'm alone, but should I not let her guard the house like this? What do you let your dogs do?

IMO you did the right thing. :first: It's not like she's outside barking at leaves falling and being annoying. She was doing her job, to take care of her home, and shouldn't be faulted for it. Now if it were a child or something, you have to curb the behavior because untrained kids do stupid things (like poking dogs through the fence, etc) and end up getting bitten, but the dog is responding appropriately to a threat.

I actually do this alot...I tell them loudly "whos there? Go git em, go find em!"

that way the intruder first of all, knows I know hes there. Two, you acutally putting it on cue, so they don't go nutso for every person they see from the yard.

She did the right thing, I would have done/do the same thing as Criosphynx. And if at that point they don't move alone. I would say OK I'm calling the cops now.

I actually do that even if I suspect someones there. If I am home alone and Fudge has been growling, barking and prowling round the house I will send him out and hope that is only foxes he is scaring away
His cue 'go git em' means charge round the yard barking your head off unless you see something that you can chase away.

Although my mum does the exact same thing LOL

And sometimes if it's late and I am taking him out I will send him to check out the yard except I will give him the added cue 'quietly' . I hope my neighbours appreciate it LOL

If there is someone on the property Roman barks and charges. I've never had someone not back up so I'm not sure if he'd bite or not, and most times I had time to call him back.

I also have a cue that makes him go on serious alert but I've never tried to get him to go after people before, only raccoons.

It is certainly the highlight of his day when he gets to do this, I like to see what he does and they should get off my property anyways... so as long as I have control over the situation I don't see a problem. That said if there were someone out there right now (and Roman wasn't at the kennels still) I'd get him on excitement-alert and then hold his collar and go out there.

Most people avoid my property due to the dogs. I have alerted Gunnar before when someone was lingering a little too long for my liking, he ran out there with his serious bark and the guy left.

This is one thing I love about my dogs. I live alone, and out in the middle of no where. NO ONE can sneak up around my house without at least one of the dogs hearing it first. Their barks are different for different things -- if its a person, verses a stray dog or other animal running around -- We have had a lot of stray dogs recently, actually I'm pretty sure they are owned, but allowed to roam -- as one little terrier shows up with a sweater on, on occasion LOL

Anyway, Paris, my oldest smoothie is best at alerting to people. She is actually very people friendly, but is a very good watch dog. If I know someone is out there, she usually just watches quietly. If I don't know someone is out there, or I'm asleep or whatever, she usually goes crazy barking and jumping on the door, or she'll look out the window doing a very low growl. She is also my traveling buddy, if I'm traveling alone and far from home, for the very same reasons.

We have 6 ft tall gates beside the house locked from the inside.. so there is never anyone coming in that way that doesn't belong. The neighbours directly behind our house have 4 ft chain link and a 6 ft tall cedar hedge and losers for children. Last year I caught movement around 11pm in our yard. The kids and their drunk loser friends had climbed over the fence. I let the dogs out and Smudge sounds much bigger than he is barking. They panicked and dove through the hedge while screaming at the top of their lungs. My two though it was the most fun game ever.

Years ago we had a Chihuahua that I trained in every aspect and their was a guy that came over looking for my father. Instead of knocking he just walked right in. She seen him come in and went right for his ankle. She let go when he walked back out. After he walked out I told him had he of knocked that would not have happened and that you have a hell of a lot of nerve just walking in someones house. He then knocked on the door was let in and she was fine. She never did that to anyone before and never did it after as long as you lived their and walked right in or if you did not live their and knocked first and was let in by someone that lived their.

As for Lola she does not bark at anyone that comes to the door or at people that are outside in the apartment complex whether or not they have been here before. If someone was to walk right in that she did not know she would probably go up to them with her tail wagging and want to say hello. Their is a light on each side of my truck that comes on whenever I have the battery switch on. One night I left the switch on and a neighbor comes over knocks on the door and he said Lola came out of the bedroom with her tail wagging. She did not come and wake me up. It was one of those nights where I fell asleep with the lights and TV still on.

When you let your dog out go out with him every single time. Do you have a lock on your fence? Not to scare you but he might want to steal the dog, that is what popped into my head. But just reading that post creeps me out. It’s not good if someone is hanging around your dog that you don’t know. We have locks on out gate.

There was a prowler in my back yard a few months ago.

Kharma took out the back bedroom window going after him.

I'm pretty sure he had to go home and change his pants.

My neighbors love Kharma. Several of them are older -- we don't have prowlers in the neighborhood anymore :rofl1:

I think you absolutely did the right thing. That would freak me out!

I love that I have Lizzie. She's just 'got' that temperment that she just KNOWS people. I feel totally safe with her judgement of people. And I like that I know that she won't go further than nessecary. She's just very level headed, lol.

Dogs just are such a great judge of character. They KNOW when someone bad is coming around. Even though Rocky and Jack are little Jack Russell Terriers but they can be vicious to intruders who are not wanted. They are extremely loving dogs but they have the personality that they own everything and everyone which they do, lol. But my cousin a LONG time ago was over for Christmas and Jack just kept barking at him and barking, three days later he passed away. They have an excellent sense.

Georgia absolutly freaks out if she sees someone outside while she's out there. Hackles up, jumping with her front feet off the ground, lunging, growling, snarling. But all it takes is 10 minutes and she'll wake her tail a little. But, most people won't wait 10 minutes. If she sees an unusual dog on out property she'll attack it. If she's inside and hears someone outside she'll growl and snarl and at one point broke the blinds on the window trying to see out.

Kenai, if he sees someone outside (he's scared of the dark) will high tail it into the house. If he's inside and hears something outisde, he'll bark and growl but then go back to lying down. If he sees another dog outside, he runs away.

Thankfully we havn't. Our lot would NOT tolerate it, Harry imparticular is NOT good with strangers at the best of times let alone if they wandered in uninvited. Our current yard is really not ideal, we prefer to be able to fence off the backyard so if someone needs to acces the front door they can approach without issue.
Our current house is set right at the back of our 1.5 acre houseyard, its behind a double carport and a triple LUG so you can't see the road from the house/house from the road. We now have a sign on the gate that says "dogs loose on premises. Sound horn or cal xxxxxxxxxx for access) hopefully that will keep them out, but people are stupid so we tie Harry up when we're out.

The problem is people can get halfway through the yard before the dogs even notice someone is there and by then they are so far from any gate/fence they'd have to be bloody fast to get out of the way.

OK Check this out. You all know that I have a GSD, whom I have trained in every aspect. Last summer my good friend showed up at my house and walked right in without knocking. Gunnar saw him and ran over and bit him on the knee cap, and held on. I finished washing the dishes (I was almost halfway done and had a sink full of suds I didn't want to waste) and then went over to Gunnar and in my kindest training voice, told him "no no no Gunnar, you mustn't bite my friends". Gunnar, being trained in every aspect, promptly let go. I ushered my friend out and gave him a severe tongue lashing, telling him he had no right to walk into my house without knocking, even though we've been friends for 30 years and I walk into his house without knocking. I said it was his own fault he was bitten and he's lucky Gunnar is so well trained in evey aspect that I could even get him to let go. Then I picked up my friends kneecap with some tongs and put it in a cup of ice, and drove him to the hospital where they reattached the kneecap using tendons from his other leg, much like they repaired my son's ACL when he tore it wrestling.

I haven't seen my friend since then, I don't understand why. But the other day he called and asked if he could visit, and I said of course. Guess what? He knocked on the door this time! He sure is a smart guy, and clearly not one to make the same mistake twice! My friend said he'll be off his crutches by spring, and will probably only have a slight limp for the rest of his life after that. I'm so glad I have a dog that I have trained in every aspect, who knows what would have happened otherwise!

Good thing Gunnar didn't swallow.

That's one of the aspects of his training Renee- don't eat things that are not given to you by me. I did say all aspects...

Hmmmm . . . maybe I should rethink the "eat what you kill" rule at my house . . .