Indy has only been "guardy" against strange males when I'm home alone. And I do NOT mind that at all.
And I prefer her "gaurdy" over Ozzys. Ozzy will spin like a fool at the door or in his crate or in the back ground machine gun barking, but if he's allowed to greet, he's fine. He'll still bark, he can't help that part, he's half JRT, I think they were bred to be able to bark without taking a breath.
Indy's "guardy" is much more dangerous/civil/real than Ozzys. I would only ever expect Ozzy to bite if you breached the PROPERTY line uninvited. And he's proved that he will guard property at my mothers and at my house, he's bitten in defense of my mothers home a few years ago in the middle of the night. We're still not sure who he got, but he got their calf pretty **** good, I saw him and then I saw the blood in the driveway, and if I had been more awake (it was about 3am) I would have done less screaming at Ozzy and more grabbing of guns
. He won't really guard people per say (like if I was walking him down the street, he's not guardy against people.
Indy on the other hand is silent. She's "guarded" me about three times, all with strange men, and no pattern to what they were wearing or race. Once at a gas station I had a very raggedy man come up and look like he was going to stick his hand in my window while I was sitting there with my gas pumping. She was up, out of the back seat, over my head rest and showing him every one of her teeth. No growling, just the snarl/smile, which is somehow more scary than straight up growling. She wasn't afraid of him, her ears were forward and her eyes were extremely hard. I believe that if he'd pressed me, or hurt me in someway, she would have gone after him, and hard.
The other two times occurred at home. We get packages a lot. DH is always ordering something, so FEDex, USPS, UPS or DHL is at my house AT LEAST once every two weeks delivering things to the door. Usually we have the same driver every time, and he or she is always friendly, but one time it was a sub driver and the same thing happened. She just pulled all her lips back and showed him her teeth. He was wearing shorts too
I stepped outside with her in a close heel, he was considerably nervous of her (understandable, but I wasn't going to correct her. It's not normal behavior out of her and I listen to her) and kept asking if she was going to bite him. While I was signing his little pad thingy. All I told him was that she wouldn't as long as he didn't do anything stupid.
Then finally the last time it was a Jehovahs Witness who knocked on the door, I was sick, for some reason Ozzy didn't leave the bedroom (it was some ungodly hour like 830am or something) and just Indy came to the door with me. It was just one guy, in a suit, and he starts his shpeel and Indy just exploded at him. She hit the door and started frothing and barking and just generally acting like she was about to break through the glass and f*cking EAT HIM RIGHT THERE. I grabbed her around the torso that time, threw her back and slammed the door shut. She immediately calmed down, and shook off and then came over to check me out because I was having a miniature heart attack on the floor by the door.
So, I deal with it depending on the situation. I trust Indy enough that I can bring her out, even with a snarl frozen on her face and eyes cold and hard enough to freeze water on a tag collar and tab leash and trust that she will not launch herself unless I am am attacked or harmed in some way.
I'm not sure what set her off about the two visitors to the door, they were both different set-ups and she usually LOVES delivery drivers because they know us at this point and have beef jerky or some sort of treat for her lol. She always comes outside with me to accept packages because she's intimidating looking and she's the only one who's well trained enough to stay put when I tell her too.
She especially loves our UPS guy. He loves her too, so I'm not sure what it was about that one guy, and usually for a JW she doesn't even get out of bed, but for some reason she was alerted that morning. She was the only one to get up with me, (the other two are lazy bums) and then she pulled that.
So, in summary, I have no clue lol. She usually is wearing a tab leash if we're expecting someone, and if we're expecting lots of someones they're all crated.