Do you think dogs make good burglar deterrents?

My friends had a crossbred that barked like hell whenever someone came in the house. When they did get burgled she hid under the bed.

I shouldn't admit this but a few months ago I pulled into a popular chicken restaurant on a long journey home from a meeting, where I had collected some money to pass on to someone else.
When I got back to my car, the folder was lying open on the passenger seat and there were notes and forms spread all over the seat and the footwell.
I can only imagine that in my tired/absent minded state, I left the door unlocked, someone tried their luck and didn't see the cage behind the driver's seat. I bet they heard what was inside it, though!!
All monies accounted for....
 
Gypley said:
Im in two minds about this depending on the situation.
In terms of your average Fido in the home, yes. I think this is a deterrent as the dog will potentially make a lot of noise before someone can gain entry.
However, I would NEVER have guard dogs running loose on property or leave them on the yard over night to protect property. Having heard stories about dogs being poisoned, I could never forgive myself.
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I would much rather people cleared the house out rather than hurt the dogs.
Our older lab though has a hell of a woof on her, and won't even let friends in when we aren't here, she gets really fierce.
 
CorvusCorax said:
My friends had a crossbred that barked like hell whenever someone came in the house. When they did get burgled she hid under the bed.

I shouldn't admit this but a few months ago I pulled into a popular chicken restaurant on a long journey home from a meeting, where I had collected some money to pass on to someone else.
When I got back to my car, the folder was lying open on the passenger seat and there were notes and forms spread all over the seat and the footwell.
I can only imagine that in my tired/absent minded state, I left the door unlocked, someone tried their luck and didn't see the cage behind the driver's seat. I bet they heard what was inside it, though!!
All monies accounted for....
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I love that.
We had a dobe x kelpie in Oz. He was a strong minded character and always sat in the passenger seat, then when I got out he hopped over to the drivers seat until I got back - no mud there of course. I never closed a window or locked the door. Once I had to get a man's arm out of his mouth, who had apprently decided to pat him while he sat there - WTF!?
 
We had a working JR stolen from the garden in Worcestershire. Finally found him in Manchester and got him back. However in the six weeks he had been gone he had been used for fighting and was in a terrible state. He never recovered and spent the remainder of his life in my husbands landrover, he never worked again and was too frightened to leave the vehicle unless he was lifted out and carried.
 
Gypley said:
Im in two minds about this depending on the situation.
In terms of your average Fido in the home, yes. I think this is a deterrent as the dog will potentially make a lot of noise before someone can gain entry.
However, I would NEVER have guard dogs running loose on property or leave them on the yard over night to protect property. Having heard stories about dogs being poisoned, I could never forgive myself.
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I agree - nothing I possess is worth more to me than my dogs.

Regarding guard dogs, the Law states that a guard dog must be accompanied by a handler at all times, the exception being when he/she is secured so not at liberty to roam loose around premises. This could still leave the dog vulnerable to some kind of attack, poisoning etc :(
 
AdorableAlice said:
We had a working JR stolen from the garden in Worcestershire. Finally found him in Manchester and got him back. However in the six weeks he had been gone he had been used for fighting and was in a terrible state. He never recovered and spent the remainder of his life in my husbands landrover, he never worked again and was too frightened to leave the vehicle unless he was lifted out and carried.
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Oh gosh, that is awful! How did you manage to get him back from Manchester - was it his microchip?
 
WorkingGSD said:
Oh gosh, that is awful! How did you manage to get him back from Manchester - was it his microchip?
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No, it was quite a long time ago. Working terriers were often targeted and several had been picked up before ours. The hunting world worked together alongside the Police to identify the gangs that were stealing the dogs and ours was one of very few that was found.
 
I used to think so, but my OH assures me having a dog is no longer a deterrent and tells me some of the burglaries he attends have injured dogs. Apparently (sorry, tmi) the burglars tend to use iron bars. If a burglar targets a rich house, he will persist, regardless. We live near a very rich area, part of his patch. Cheryl whatsherface has just put her house up for sale there. I reckon we're OK, the cars are old enough not to encourage burglars!

My lot would be epically useless after initial barking from the youngsters. They lick my hand if I put it through the letterbox. Don't know what they'd do to a stranger's hand. The worst they'd get once inside would be a sulky Zak and an attempted snap if they tried to touch him without us being there.
 
With my dog yes, he barks when someone comes into the house etc. My girl however doesn't make a peep and I don't think would put anyone off at all.
 
My dog sounds about 5 times bigger than he is. I've never had reason to test him but I do think that he probably would use his teeth if the house was being broken into.

He certainly didn't like it (growling and lunging for the door) when the police had to force entry to my house because I had fallen down the stairs, destroyed my ankle and couldn't move to get to the door to unlock it for the ambulance crew. Thankfully I had hold of the dog (who came to call for once).

He is a Beagle but has such a deep growl that he sounds like we have a mastiff of something else huge in the house.

As an aside, our area has suffered a lot of break ins recently, including my next door neighbour. So far no houses with dogs have been targeted.
 
I have asked a house burglar what puts him of breaking into a house (I work in a men's prison) & he said "a big dog" nothing else would put him off - even an alarm would not stop him, as he would be in & out before the police got there.
But he did say that the dog had to be big & staffies are no good as they are too small, he would not hesitate to break into a house with a staffie in it
 
turkana said:
I have asked a house burglar what puts him of breaking into a house (I work in a men's prison) & he said "a big dog" nothing else would put him off - even an alarm would not stop him, as he would be in & out before the police got there.
But he did say that the dog had to be big & staffies are no good as they are too small, he would not hesitate to break into a house with a staffie in it
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staffies would want to kiss the burgler :)
 
I would imagine that breed would make a difference - and the attitude of the dog, if the house had been watched prior to the burglary.
 
I think they are a deterrent, we only have 2 dogs now and the larger one will happily tell people entering isn't a good idea. We have just lost our st Bernard to bloat and he has the best characteristics. Extremely large and would intimidate people with his size and take them off their feet but not bite.

We used to have signs up at the parents house when we were kids Saying "Beware of the dogs, they bite" (and they would) but in this day and age it is not worth the risk. We shut the dogs away upstairs if we go out. The animals are the most valuable things to us they can have anything else it can be replaced.

I must order a new loose dogs sign for the yard gates tho because our current dogs will not hesitate to take on someone entering especially if our baby is wandering around.
 
No! I got burgled when I took the dogs for a walk! They were watching the house and saw me leave with the dogs.

I had had a new DVD player delivered that morning, when I phoned the company to say it had been stolen - they told me I was the 4th person that had rung to say the same thing! Some naughty people following the delivery van, I would say!
 
The problem here is if you jump every time you hear a noise outside you're going to have a very unhappy dog, some feed off their owners emotions worse than others. I see fear biters are making a comeback, unfortunately they are used for protection because they will go forward every time. However in a heightened state of excitement the fear biter is just as likely to come up the lead and nail you!
Do I think dogs make good burglar deterrents? No, I think burglar alarms make good burglar deterrents.
 
Fellewell said:
The problem here is if you jump every time you hear a noise outside you're going to have a very unhappy dog, some feed off their owners emotions worse than others. I see fear biters are making a comeback, unfortunately they are used for protection because they will go forward every time. However in a heightened state of excitement the fear biter is just as likely to come up the lead and nail you!
Do I think dogs make good burglar deterrents? No, I think burglar alarms make good burglar deterrents.
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Not sure exactly what you are meaning in your post? The type of owner who feel their dogs offer them a certain level of protection from burglars are all quivering, nervous wrecks? :D Fearfulness is instinctive and how it manifests itself in behaviour is controlled by the dogs personality, which is determined by his genetics. Like you, I also believe that some dogs react negatively to their owner's emotional response to certain stimuli - such as an already nervous dog may react fearfully which can manifest itself in fear aggression; but I don't believe that a confident, social dog would become fearful and reactive in the same situation with the same owner.

ETA: Sorry for going off topic a wee bit!
 
Having just gone through the above "top guard dogs" ... I can safely say the article is trash, and don't bother reading it ;)

It mentions Huskies - who are well known for being useless guard dogs, as well as wolf-dog crosses!!
 
Lol. No fear here. My dog has ignored my neighbour next door chopping up wood with a chainsaw and trimming the hedge just metres away. Plus the grandkids having a shouting completion on a Saturday morning ;)

The one night that someone was messing about outside the house and I was asleep on the sofa, the whole neighbourhood knew about it lol.
 
Fellewell said:
Do I think dogs make good burglar deterrents? No, I think burglar alarms make good burglar deterrents.
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then you are naïve in the extreme! Burglar alarms are not a deterrent, nobody pays them any notice as they give so many false alarms so it is unlikely that anyone will call the police and even if the police are called by the time they get there the burglar has been in, cleared the place out and is likely 10 miles down the road! the average burglary lasts between 8 and 12 minutes, generally by the time someone has tracked down which house is alarming, called the police and the police have turned up it is 20 to 25 minutes.

The house opposite me the alarm is forever going off in false alarms! we no longer react to it at all.
 
Conniegirl - you must live in a fairly urban environment? You can call the police here about a crime in progress and they don't come out at all.
 
WorkingGSD said:
Not sure exactly what you are meaning in your post? The type of owner who feel their dogs offer them a certain level of protection from burglars are all quivering, nervous wrecks? :D Fearfulness is instinctive and how it manifests itself in behaviour is controlled by the dogs personality, which is determined by his genetics. Like you, I also believe that some dogs react negatively to their owner's emotional response to certain stimuli - such as an already nervous dog may react fearfully which can manifest itself in fear aggression; but I don't believe that a confident, social dog would become fearful and reactive in the same situation with the same owner.

ETA: Sorry for going off topic a wee bit!
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Well, nervous wrecks or drug dealers as you explain so well on the dog attack post #6 ; 'dogs can be kept as weapons or to intimidate others, it's not the fault of the breed or type who by the wrong ownership are gaining an undeserved reputation' I'm paraphrasing but that's pretty much what you said. So you should know what I mean? I don't breed dogs because I've always had plenty given to me that were ruined by other people. So I assure you it can happen, even with overly confident dogs.
 
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conniegirl said:
then you are naïve in the extreme! Burglar alarms are not a deterrent, nobody pays them any notice as they give so many false alarms so it is unlikely that anyone will call the police and even if the police are called by the time they get there the burglar has been in, cleared the place out and is likely 10 miles down the road! the average burglary lasts between 8 and 12 minutes, generally by the time someone has tracked down which house is alarming, called the police and the police have turned up it is 20 to 25 minutes.

The house opposite me the alarm is forever going off in false alarms! we no longer react to it at all.
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Who needs a burglar alarm with a neighbour like you. Well done on being so vigilant.
 
Pip has an good track record, 4am shed break in she went spare I thought she was busting for a wee so rather sleepily went downstairs, opened the back door, she shot out and seconds later heard 'them' vaulting the back fence, she came in pleased as punch- shed door was broken but nothing taken. Couple of years later living in a flat some oik tried the front door at two am, other half sprang out of bed as did dog- needless to say the choice language and barking dog soon had oik running from the block! (They 'escorted' him out as we were second floor in a locked block)
Also used to run at night with her and every time a bloke was nearby she barked like she was 5 times her size being black they probably thought she was, more than one apologised for coming 'too close'. (Within 20 metres!)
Whenever OH came back from nights her default position was always outside the kids rooms at the top of the stairs- set to destroy until she's addressed by name.
Unfortunately now she's as deaf as a post and sleeps like a stone.
I do think pip has always protected us rather than the house. Rather long winded but in short yes I think dogs do put criminals off or at least alert you to potential danger which is half the battle.
 
Fellewell said:
Who needs a burglar alarm with a neighbour like you. Well done on being so vigilant.
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We used to call the police, but now as the alarm goes off a minimum of twice a day we don't bother.
Boy who cried wolf syndrome. There is only so much police time I am willing to waste.

mind you there were several times when we did phone the police about the alarm going off and they were not interested at all. no one turned up. Police have more important things to do than to turn up to every false alarm.
 
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