"Janet Baraclough.." wrote in message
...
The message
from "Rachael of Nex, the Wiccan Rat" contains
these words:


"Jane Ransom" wrote in message
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We have friends of friends who had a big dog.
The burglars put poisoned meat through the letter box and broke in
once
the dog was on its last legs ((((((


I'm sorry to hear that. I saw that trick coming years ago (my dad used
to
fit security systems to houses and commercial properties, so I'm aware
of a
few such nasty techniques) and got an outside (metal lockable) letter
box.
Fifteen quid from the local diy shop, shove it on the wall outside, no
more
concerns !

Don't count on it; professional thieves these days make it their
business to become highly effective dog handlers, using some horrible
control-methods.

As I said, I am aware of a few of the tricks (dad heads a company that fits
security systems, amongst other things, after years of hard work he now
doesn't have to be so hands on but he still knows what's what), but
confident the training my lot have recieved (well, the two gsd's anyway)
prepares them for most eventualities. The third dog is a Springer who is
just nasty when cornered - she came from an abused home and the slightest
hint of unrest in the air makes her likely to bite. I've been bitten in the
past by her when trying to keep her out of trouble with other dogs, so I
know this.
That's another perk of having family in the security business - training for
your hounds. When you've seen your gsd bring a shouting, yelling sixteen
stone man waving a chunk of stove wood down from a standing start and pin
him to the carpet, you sleep better at night. ;-)

Most burglaries are commited in just five minutes from entry to offsky - and
it would take about that to poison a dog if you had to get in first to do it
(which has it's disadvantages - you don't know the dog or dogs will take the
food, you don't know it won't rip your nuts off beforehand, whatever). Other
methods, like pepper spray or tasering or stabbing or beating with a bat or
whatever need you to be able to first get in to the house or to get close to
the dog to do - problems again. The stick with loop things that the RSPCA
and dog wardens use to get hold of dogs aren't fool proof either - I've seen
dogs have them out of experienced people's hands as quick as you like.
The quickest way to disable a large dog is to shoot it, and the habitual
burlgar likes quick and easy - so I'm not sure that these methods of dog
control you describe are quite a wide ranging as it appears. Maybe you're
just in a black spot.
I think an active large dog with either real fire in his or her belly or the
suitable training is a match for most situations, short of gunfire, and
luckily armed burglary is still quite rare - in the big picture of crime
this is - in the UK.



A neighbour's house was guarded by a truly terrifying and downright
dangerous 11 stone Akita guard dog. It was fed meat taken from the
fridge by intruders, after they came in through a window.

How did they even get through the window if this Akita was so dangerous ? My
neighbor has an Akita GSD cross - if you tried to enter her house uninvited
she'd rip your face off the second you appeared. I've seen her go for people
before (one being my bf, who is a security guard - he came over to the
neighbor's house to fetch me one evening still wearing his uniform - which
apparently she has an issue with - and the dog took a dislike to his
enthusiatic greeting of me, and bit him on the nose ! Poor old bf - and poor
old doggy, too - she thought he was hurting me !), - it doesn't take much to
bring it on.
Alot of dogs posture - barking, snarling, whatever, but many of the large
dogs I know (and I know a fair few) would really follow it through too. Perh
aps your neighbor's unfortunate Akita was one of those dogs who don't really
want to hurt anyone, despite the posturing. Good for children and family
situations where their tails may get pulled or roughed up in a kid's scrum,
but bad for unfriendly situations.
I'm not dissing the dog - I just find it hard to imagine how they got in the
window unmolested in the first place if she/he really meant business.
Of course, as I said, this sort of thing is in the family business so maybe
my dogs are not the norm - I'm confident in them, anway. That isn't what I
have them for, but it does happen to be a useful side effect of having dogs
who are traditionally trained to protect.

Sadly the law these days punishes dogs for protecting their owners or their
property - if someone breaks into your house and your dog bites them, you
can be prosecuted and the dog put to sleep if the scumbag who tried to rob
you presses charges. I've known this to happen to a couple of friends. Don't
get me started on that though cos it does my head in, to coin a phrase.

Other
neighbours found their two dogs cowering under a bed shaking with
terror, hours after the raid. The use of dog-defying techniques was so
common among criminals in that area, that one of our friends whose house
was frequently burgled would never leave her bulldog alone in it in case
he got hurt or killed.


I'd move house if I were her - or buy a weapon (wide ranging and not always
the obvious items) and lie in wait - you might risk prison but what else is
there, if you're afraid to leave your fairly robust dog alone ? I wouldn't
give a rat's bum about my stuff at the end of the day - it's just junk when
it gets right down to it, but if I thought my dogs were in danger if left
alone in their own homes on a regular basis I would have to do something
about that. But then again, I am a dog lover who would protect her dogs in
the same manner they would protect her - to my last breath. I am aware that
*I* am not the norm. wry smile


You must be aware you are talking about a fairly extreme situation with
regards to the burglary / dog problems - that sort of problem isn't the norm
for the UK. Most burglaries are still commited by opportunists who are
deterred by windows locks, deadlocks, burglar alarms, etc, good neighborhood
watch systems and large barking and snarling dogs. Pro burglars go for
specific things - they find out what you've got from various sources
(friends of friends of friends, bods selling lists of addresses that bought
big or valuable items from your local currys or whatever, looking for
packaging in your bins, that sort of stuff). A good rule of thumb is not be
be attractive to burglars by a) having good security - which is a wide
ranging thing and b) not having much that the pro burglar would want to risk
getting caught (either by said security systems or by a group of large dogs,
for example) for. IME, and in the experience of my dad's business interests,
anyway.

On the up side (if you're not a car owner anyway) - apparently domestic
burglary is being overtaken by theft from vehicles (probably because that is
so much easier and quicker).


Rachael