Something very freaky happened to me on Thursday night.  My fiance was away that night so I was alone in the flat.  We live on the first floor but our flat is the top half of a converted semi, so we have a half flight of stairs outside which lead to our front door, then another half flight inside which go up to the flat. 

About 2am I woke up really suddenly, which is odd in itself.  My capacity for deep sleep is legendary among my friends.  To give you some frame of reference, in my life I've managed to sleep through three separate earthquakes!  I lay in bed wondering why I was suddenly awake when I heard the floorboards in the hall creaking.  I thought it was probably the dog or one of the cats until I heard a banging noise.  I thought "that's definitely not the cat flap", and tried to think about what I should do.  I decided that I had to investigate so climbed out of bed (wearing only a pair of pants!) and crept to the door.  The bedroom was pretty dark and unfortunately offered little in the way of weaponry!  Forced to improvise, wearing my pants I crept into the hall armed with a hairdryer... 

There was nothing out of the ordinary to be seen until I realised that the front door was open.  Our door has a deadlock (which we never use) and a Yale lock, but the Yale lock is a bit funny; it can be closed from the outside only by using a key.  I think the idea is that it's impossible to lock one's keys in the house.  I'm 99.9% certain that I wouldn't have gone to bed with the door open.  I'd left a window open in the living room and the only (non-supernatural :-) )explanation I can think of is that someone got in through the window and the noise I heard was them leaving through the door.

Nothing has been taken which is obviously a good thing, although I can't help feeling slightly miffed that a burglar would turn up his nose at our belongings!  We don't have lots of expensive stereo equipment or a big television or anything like that.  Apart from my clothes, shoes and jewellery, which are all in the bedroom, the only thing we have which is really worth any money is my electric piano, which would be difficult to fit into a swag bag.

During all this, Cashie was on the sofa in the living room.  He'd been sleeping on the bed earlier that night but he was very fidgety so I turfed him out of the bedroom.  When I went into the living room he was awake but rather than protecting me and my home, he was lying on his back with his legs in the air, grinning at me!  When he was a tiny pup he developed a funny habit which I've seen in a few dogs.  When he's trying to be ingratiating or when he's feeling particularly relaxed he raises his lip to show his teeth.  According to a behaviour textbook, dogs sometimes learn to associate exposed teeth with friendly actions rather than aggression and "smile".  Cashie tends to do this to visitors regardless of whether or not he knows them.  If someone comes round to read the gas meter they're treated like a long-lost friend!  It's a horrible grimace, actually, but as he does it while simultaneously lying on his back wagging his tail, luckily nobody could construe it as aggression!

I digress, and while I would never want him to be aggressive towards anyone, I cannot believe that when a complete stranger comes through our window in the middle of the night Cashie doesn't even bother to get up!  He's worse than useless!  I think that even if someone came in to murder me all they'd have to do would be to give him a piece of chocolate and he'd happily let them get on with it!  I do wonder if perhaps he barked and that's what woke me but I wouldn't bet on it.

I can sort of laugh about the whole thing now but nonetheless it was frightening at the time.  I'm going to be very careful about shutting the windows from now on, that's for sure.  I'm also considering making my cat Monty sleep in the bedroom as he's far more vicious than any guard dog!

M-C

OMG how scary.  I have to say that as far as our dog is concerned no one would get in without a lot of noise, she still barks at our neighbours :rolleyes:   Mind you if anyone got past her they would definitely run a mile if they saw me in just my knickers :D :D :D

A few weeks ago a friend of my next-door neighbour was burgled. The people got into the house, took her purse, credit cards and car keys, then drove off with the car! And all through this her Rhodesian Ridgeback sat on the sofa and watched them. So much for being brave enough to hold a lion at bay!

There's a big drawback to training a dog to be friendly to visitors ...

My OH was out last night and when he came in (rather early @11.20pm, but he had been out since 4pm) the front door Tyson went mad.....He didnt recognise him at all (probably due to him bouncing off the walls :rolleyes: ) He was growling and barking......in his big deep bark!! I have never seen him like that before. It took me a good 10 mins to convince him that it was 'dad' and not an intruder. He didnt try and bite him or anything, just a lot of noise.....then ran behind my legs and barked from there. ;-)

That's where a tiny Tibetan comes in.  Boy can they bark and they look the part even though they are quite small.  Nuba always lets me know when the bed and breakfast guest come back in, the Beardies just roll over for a tummy tickle - well the boy does anyway.

If someone broke into our house Abby would do the same, sit there and not do anything. When we had the fire she was happy to let the neighbours come into the house and both the police and the firemen said she looked the part but wasnt a very good guard dog.
Im glad though if someone broke in I would prefer if Abby went and hid under my bed rather than maybe get hurt defending stuff that was insured.
The sight of me in my Knickers would be enough to frighten anyone off lol
Mary

It would be nice if they barked and woke you up, though.

I think my dog would be the same, he gets upset when strangers come to the door and we don't let him out to say hello, plus my friends and family come and go all the time even when we are not in.

My Basenjis wouldn't be of much use really being as they don't bark, but I'm sure they would give someone a nasty fright.

I'm pretty certain that if anyone broke in they would be a deafening racket, although the dogs sleep upstairs with me with the door shut, not much good really! I saw this on beat the burglar a few weeks ago, the programme where they stage a burglary to help improve home security. The 'burglar' climbed through the bathroom window, ransacked the house and the staffy sat on the sofa snoozing. Eventually he got up for a fuss and hte burglar walked off down the road with him. Not the sort of thing you expect from any dog!