Would your dog prevent a burglar from entering your home?  I know mine wouldn't, there'd a lot of noise but not much else! 

http://www.lifewithdogs.tv/2012/05/beware-of-dog-hired-burglar-puts-pets-to-the-test/

Nope.  They'd welcome people with open arms.. or mouths - purely to lick to death! lol
I say this from experience, had a couple of tradies rock up in the garden the other day (mistaking my house for the house they should have been at!).

According to the media though, they'd 'savage' or 'maul' everyone if they could. 

I know mine would not. but it would have to be an idiot that came into a house with barking dogs. my dogs do not have access to the letterbox, sothrerfore no one could poison them. 'quiet'

> They'd welcome people with open arms.. or mouths - purely to lick to death!

Boxers often behave like this....until the intruder tries to leave -  then a cold stare followed by a low-held head emits a deep rumbling growl.

Ive seen this on a number of occasions, once as a child when we came home to find a burglar held in the hall by an adult male who was standing his ground, not allowing the man to leave.
And once when I offered to pop around to a friends house to let her girls out for a while, I found a boxer I didnt expect, a visitor!
He played and made a fuss of me - then when I made to leave he stood at the back gate, hackles up, low bass grumbling. Any move I made he came closer lifting his lips and staring me down.
I moved back into the garden and he relaxed so I had to ring the friend and wait till she came home to relaese me.

Boxers are famous for it...they let strangers in...but not out!

Mine wouldn't - they wouldn't even bark unless they thought the burglar was going near the biscuit tin! But then you don't get Cavaliers with any thought of having a guard dog, lol!

I wonder if a 'normal' person instead of somebody suited up had done this experiment would the dogs have behaved differently, they all looked afraid of him initially which I suppose was mainly to do with the shape of him.  I laughed at the first two dogs, one who was seen as the protector then hid behind the little one the whole time. 

Don't think I'd like to burglar a boxer home lol..

Not a hope in hell of Daisy doing anything, not even a bark, even when I had "the boys" I doubt they would have done more than barked, which is fine by me, my dogs are my most precious possessions and I'd rather they kept themselves safe than get a kicking.

Brooke would lick them to death, Mia would go mad with barking and probably try and nip their heels allthough she has only done this a couple of times with tradesmen and although I have stopped her has  it seem deliberatley not actually made contact just trying to chase them away. Whispa I think could be completley different apart from looking the part I have a suspicion he would chase them off the property not sure he would actually attack thank god.. Just hope he never gets tested , prefer to feel the look and noise from a big fluffy solid black gsd would make people think twice. I would hate any of them to get hurt

The video does not shock me at all.

TBH it is the barking and uncertainty of what a dog may do that keeps many dog owning households from burglars, a burglar should always think twice.

Most of our dogs who are well socialised are used to humans and most would never view a human as a threat, how do they know the difference? They are used to other humans coming into our homes, from family, friends, acquaintances to trades people. There may be the odd territorial bark but they are not trained as attack dogs and generally a well socialised dog is not afraid unless not used to visitors in the home, (which I guess some aren't) they may well become unsettled as they do not know the person, but are more likely to appease than attack.  Someone walking in and then out with the tv, what does a dog care about that? :-D

It may be different if a home owner is home and they can detect stress and fear, that they may well react to, or if an intruder tries to hurt the dog or acts aggressively towards it, that will warrant a response,  an undersocialised dog feeling fear or a very territorial dog (who is most likely like this with anyone who comes to the door anyway) would probably bite an intruder, but alas for most of us, if an intruder talks nicely to our dogs or throws them a treat our tv is gone. :-D  But shhhhhh......... don't tell the burglars that. :-)

We can only hope that the initial barking alerts someone to call the police. :-)

Daisy's got a terrific bark, and sounds very impressive when something's alerted her. I've never had a vocal dal before, so it's something of a novelty!

Talking of vocal JG, one of my friends has a very handsome Dal he is a really big boned boy and looks very impressive and he is a good deterrent outwardly looking but, your right he is a useless barker and extremely friendly, but oh boy does that dog talk, he would absolutely talk an intruder to death, I've never met a more vocal dog than him, especially if my friend is chatting on the phone. :-D

What really concerned me about the video is that they were talking about increasing a dogs usefulness at protection in a follow up.

Dangerous.  What do we want from our dogs for goodness sake, on the one hand any show of aggression and anti social behaviour gets them into hot water, ties owners up in restrictions, and in the same breath we expect them to be able and willing to protect us and our homes.

How many scammers/con artists pull the wool over peopels eyes and gain access to their homes, and a dog is supposed to inately know the difference between friend or foe.

Your right Brainless it is very dangerous, a dog would not know the difference between an emergency service like an ambulance/fire person breaking in to help and a burglar.

Acting on instinct is one thing, (I love your Boxer stories Tooolz) but being trained to attack or hold is quite another. (If that is what is meant by increasing usefulness.......... unless it is teaching a dog to use the phone and dial 999....... now, that would be good :-D )

We have plenty of burglar alarms and security technology in this country, we don't need to try and train our dogs to make important decisions on what is right or wrong as their perception and logic is very different to ours. (And ours is all over the place anyway. :-) )