Poll for dog owners

[gummybear]

Do you think your dog would defend you if you were in a situation where you needed protection?

[gerberdaisy]

My dog would jump on an attacker and try to lick them to death. If it was an animal, maybe, but doubtful.

[gummybear]

My dog is super sweet and loves people. I am certain he would protect me from a wild animal/other dog though. I also think he'd attack if a person tried to hurt me outside of the house. The jury is out if he'd attack an intruder. He generally loves visitors but I have seen him get his hackles up with certain people (which gives me pause).

[TR]

I’m really not sure. They both will react to someone approaching us on a walk, but they’re on leash with me and I think that emboldens them. If someone were to try to attack me, I don’t know if they’d continue to just bark aggressively from a distance or actually go after the person.

[wildrice]

Dogs have such good instincts that I think any dog would protect their person in true danger, no matter how friendly they are in normal situations.

I don't know my dog super well yet but I suspect he would try. He gets very barky at strangers, though he is wagging his tail so he is just being awkward friendly. But I can see him snapping at the wrong person. Sadly he is only 13lbs so his damage might be minimal lol.

[circa1978]

Ummmm, I'm fairly certain the girl dog would at least bark. She barks a protective bark if she hears something or sees a shadow and she does manage to sound pretty scary for being 35 pounds (we call this "doing a defend"), but I'm fairly certain she would just flop over on her back for pats if a person actually entered the house. Boy dog does not bark or growl and is basically scared to leave the house, but I did once see him get scary on 1 out of the 10,000 delivery people who have come to our door in his life. He DID NOT like him for whatever reason and growled through the glass of our front door until he walked away. It's the only time I've seen him even show interest in someone in six years.

[donutsmakemegonuts]

I would hope so, but she is very anxious and submissive normally. On the other hand, I am her person so maybe??!

[lavenderblue]

I have 3 dogs and my answer would be different for each of them.

Ivy - is afraid of everything and everyone and would probably bark and then run and hide.
Katie - would lick them to death
Piper - is fiercely loyal and would rip your face off for looking at me wrong.

[rachers]

I think he’d defend my daughter but probably only bark if it were me or DH.

Hes also kind of a big baby so who knows.

[janegold]

Definitely. Our dog passed away last year but she was very protective of us, and especially of the children. When they were babies, she would even give warning growls to my husband or other family members (never me) if she thought the baby was in a vulnerable position. She was a Great Pyrenees, which were bred to be livestock guardians, and I think she saw us as her herd.

[candreco]

I think so- our girl tries to herd the kids away from things she's suspicious about. Example, we have an electric patio heater on our porch that she has some issue with, and she will NOT let DS get near it even though it's not going to hurt him (he's 11, not a curious toddler or anything!).

She'll also alert if she notices someone else out walking at night, especially if she hears them before we can see them.

[followyourarrow]

Mardi - she would. When someone made me uncomfortable, she got between us and barked at them to warn them.

Finn - I think so. He takes on a guarding role. Most nights he sleeps in the hallway, between me and FI's daughter, so he can watch over both of us.

Bella - doubtful, she's 13 and mostly likes to nap. She might surprise me though!

[ssmjlm]

My current dog would at least bark at them to death, I don't know if she would bite anyone. If she was going to protect someone, it would be the kid. She's very protective of her.

[icedcoffee]

When I slammed my hand in the door yesterday both dogs came to look and see if they could help.

They'd do something if they felt we were in danger. When we go on walks and one of the kids goes too far ahead they bark until we catch up.

[lostrn]

My dog loves everyone who walks down our street, comes to our door, anyone we encounter when out on a walk. He frequently pulls this move where he stops mid walk and just stares at people walking by while wagging his tail, trying to get them to stop and pet him. It works lol
Having said all that, he will bark like crazy at my dad if he comes inside wearing his winter coat and hat. When I had bunion surgery and had a dog walker coming for him, he would bark at her if she tried to come inside on her own. Even though he had met her already. I had to hobble down the stairs and say it was ok. If I'm alone when a repair guy comes by he will bark at them. (Except for the contractors we had coming in for our remodel, but he got to know them. And he met them when DH was home). So ultimately I think if we were in danger he would react.

[sarahsays]

I'm going to be a bubble burster here - almost every dog will flee if the option is available.

There is a reason that attack trained dogs have to go through significant training.

[basilosaurus]

When I had one she might have rolled on their feet and broken then with her weight.

But she looked fierce when she smiled so when I opened a door to the at the time Japanese religion peddlers I would hold her collar (she just wanted pets), and they'd scurry away. Good doggie.

There was one time when she was serious. I went to pp where I volunteered to pick up some mailers. They didn't even perform abortions. There was a crazy ass protester (the rest knew this clinic was not their target), and he was yelling and screaming at my car calling me a baby killer. I had never seen her so spun up, angry, snarling, barking her head off. In that moment I knew she would truly defend me. I had the car vs his body, so I felt relatively ok even if I [would have] had to run him over, but it was so surreal.

[fivechickens]

Another animal:

Our 60lb lab: Absolutely not. She would hide behind me. A pug barked too loudly at her and she refused to walk past that house for months. But then she was furious when a turtle walked across our patio. So who knows.
Our 12lb poodle: maybe? but he’s 12lbs so not sure how much protection he would be but he’s sure give it a try. He charged our neighbors German Shepard who was on it’s deck….would he have been that brave if the GS was in it's yard? 🤷🏼‍♀️

Another person:

Our 60lb lab: I am not sure, part of me thinks she might but then part of me thinks she will act like what I described above….unless the attacker is in a turtle costume then WATCH OUT.
Our 12lb poodle: Again maybe but he would annoy the attacker more with his barking.

[devonpow]

Yes. She’s a doodle and a huge anxiety ridden wimp (with a threatening bark though ) but I have no doubt she would go full berserker on someone trying to hurt me.

There’s a video I’ve seen on Twitter or TikTok or something of someone breaking into a house and the dog goes up to the guy all friendly and tail wagging. Then the mom comes into the room and sees the guy and screams. The dog instantly changes behavior and goes after the guy. That would be Millie. She won’t read the danger herself but if she sees me freak out she would go crazy.

[mel]

He 10000000% will, and sort of does. He has a whole personality shift when DH is traveling for work. He is on super high alert and turns on his mean bark at everything. I am also his person, so that heightens his awareness if it's just him and me. DH playfully smacks my ass a lot and 9 times out of 10, my dog will come put himself between DH and me.

[cmeon]

I have a Great Pyr mix who is enormous with a bark to match and very protective instincts- he would fight off an animal, sure. A person? Nope.

My little 35lb chicken butt mutt would never.

I put a lot of effort into training our dogs to have gentle mouths, I would not want a dog who would readily bite people.

[docholly]

I doubt it. He would probably just bark. He would defend from an animal though because he has that terrier drive.

With our last dog, she actually was afraid to go out for a month after a drunk man wandered into our yard confused from a party and startled my husband, so she would have been no use either.

Our dog before that DID protect my husband. A man ripped the screen door open and tried to get inside when my husband lived in Texas and the dog jumped on him and knocked him to the ground and bit his arm. It was an “obvious” situation though because it was so violent and aggressive from the intruder. My husband was also aware and was shouting at the guy, so the dog picked up on that.

I am fine with my dogs just being good “alerters” though. You don’t necessarily want a dog with strong guarding vibes because it could lead to a bite in innocuous situations.

[mrsukyankee]

Not sure. He's an anxious dog so I know he'd scare the shit out of the person by barking and jumping at them. Would it be enough? Would he bite? I'm not sure. And I hope to never find out.

[pandorica]

5+ years ago our older dog (12) would. H said she has shown those tendencies before we got together, and she got super worked up if we playfully fought or anything. She's old and more chill now though, so I don't think she would.

"my" dog... She is way too friendly and submissive, so I doubt it.

[lessel]

I had a dog in my 20s/30s that I think probably would have. Our current dog is blind and mostly deaf, so that's a definite no.

[tacokick]

At least 2 would. They fling themselves between me and the window or the door if they hear a noise. The beagle, maybe not.

[nicolewi]

I would’ve said yes, but there’s a video where they have a guy fake attack the owner, to see what different dogs will do. Most of the dogs barked and looked alarmed, but eventually ran away! So I don’t know.

[lo]

My dog has passed, but thinking back I’m not sure. She was abused by humans before we got her and it took her literal years to get brave enough to bark, so I’m thinking her instinct would be to hide. No clue though, she was also very protective of our babies.

[nicolewi]

youtu.be/NZ74oFctP_g?si=dMDYoJZ4s_DtQsjh

Dog video link!

Maybe if you have two dogs, it makes a difference, about whether they feel like they could take someone on??

[wambam]

One is blind, deaf, and only has one tooth - he probably wouldn’t notice.

The other is 9.2 pounds of sweetness and light and would lick someone to death.

In a word - no.