I’m mostly interested in personal accounts of dogs who were not specifically trained for such situations defending owners against attacks by other humans. However, I will also accept stories of other types of canine heroics (defending owners from other dogs, other potential threats, etc.) provided they meet my stringent criteria of being a really cool story.
Oddly, it wasn’t my dog.
I remember when I was a kid (About 13 or so). I was walking home from a friends house one night. On my way home, I happened across a friendly dog that I did not know. He looked like a German Sheppard.
Anyway, I petted him for a while then continued to walk home. I guess the dog took a liking to me as he started to follow. Shortly after that I ran in to these two bullies from my school. They started talking shit to me. My new friend didn’t like this and started to bark and growl at them.
This was enough to put the fear of god in these kids as they backed off and went their merry way.
When I got home, I was practically in tears, begging my parents to let me keep the dog. But no dice, the dog already had an owner. Mom called the number on the dog tag and he was returned.
I asked that last month, and got absolutely no responses (and my thread was more open-ended, as any pets and any sort of heroism would apply). Good luck.
Well, our dog defended our home when we were out.
There had been a rash of break-ins in the neighborhood and we came home one day to find a window open and the screen removed. However, there were no signs anyone had actually entered the house and nothing was taken. We figured our newly acquired greyhound had scared the burglar off. He was the sweetest, gentlest dog you’d ever meet, but he did let out the most hair-raising growls if anyone came too close to the house.
I was sitting in a chair with my beagle Quincy on my lap. My wife wanted to sit there for some reason. She kicked me on the bottom of my foot and said get up… Quincy jumped off my lap and nipped her.
No, but, lol, EVERY dog I’ve ever owned cowered BEHIND me in dangerous sitations!
It wasn’t my dog, but she protected me just the same.
When I lived in a dodgy neighborhood in East Nashville, I had a neighbor with the biggest, most beautiful German shepherd I’d ever seen. Michael was able to spend a couple of hours a day outside with her, but that big of a dog was not meant to live most of her life inside a one bedroom apartment.
I was power walking for exercise back then, but in that area, it was something best done before twilight, which during the winter came about the time I got home from work. Enter Roxie.
With Michael’s permission, I began to take her with me on my evening walks. It gave us both needed exercise and fresh air and added protection for me.
I’d always considered two legged predators my most likely problem, but one evening, we came upon a pack of feral dogs roaming the street. When they confronted us, all it took was Roxie’s body language and a couple of well timed growls for them to take off for points unknown.
Without her, who knows what damage these critters would have inflicted.
Thanks, Roxie!
I didn’t see your thread, John DiFool, or I would have shared my little story, actually my cousin’s. She lives in the woods and has a small 12 year old white poodle the size of a cat. Fifi has attacked and killed two snakes and recently went charging out onto the deck and sank her teeth into a possum’s neck. So my cousin has some protection from small wildlife!
When I was a kid, we had dobermans. Some neighborhood punk had a habit of rattling a stick against the wooden fence we kept them in to harass them, and generally enjoyed being an annoying shit to them as much as possible. One day, said neighborhood punk decides to break into the house and see what he can get while the gettin was good.
We came home to find him lying still on the floor, with a doberman’s teeth wrapped around his neck. He said she’d held him there for the better part of the last hour.
Good doggy 
Scylla has a thread about his dog. Its a good read. Too lazy to do the search my self at the moment.
My parent’s have two lovely dogs - an elderly retriever/collie cross, Skye, and a slightly less elderly border collie, Isla. Isla is often in a world of her own chasing balls, but the Skye is much more observant, and always on the lookout for swarthy black mongrels to flirt with (it’s her thing). She is also, I think, quite protective, and we’ve always assumed that if push came to shove, she would throw off her cuddly exterior and prove her worth.
Luckily, she’s never had to do this in a serious situation, but on a number of occassions has shown that she isn’t to be messed with. My husband and I often dogsit them for a couple of weeks at a time, and when they’re with us, they get taken out to the park every morning, when ususally the only other people out are other dog walkers or joggers. It’s often pretty dark, and while it’s pretty safe, I’m always glad of having two dogs with me.
Several times, we’ve encountered a rather strange man out at the same time. He’s not a dog walker or a jogger, and seems to go to the park for the express purpose of running up wildly to people with dogs, and trying to roughly play with them without asking, and generally being a bit weird and unstable-looking. I doubt he’s dangerous, but the dogs do not like him at all. As soon as Skye spots him, her hackles go up, and she rushes towards him barking. This usually sets Isla off too.
It deters him enough to stop him in his tracks and make him back off. I wouldn’t normally encourage them to bark at strangers, but there is obviously something off about him, and I don’t blame them for their reaction.
It wasn’t actually in dangerous situations, but when I was little, we had a small wire-haired fox terrier (rather like the top photo on the left in that link) who was extremely protective of any baby or child in our house or yard. She would turn from cute little doggie to “holy crap!” if a stranger would drive into the driveway if us kids were outside, snarling and barking, positioning herself between the kids and the apparent threat. If one of our parents would happily greet the person or tell her to knock it off, she’d immediately stand down.
Apparently the dog once thought my aunt was supposed to be dropping off and leaving a baby, as she came over with her new infant and put the baby to sleep on my parents’ bed while she visited with Mom. (At that point, IIRC the only kids she’d seen be brought home were my sister and I, so we can excuse her confusion.) When my aunt went to retrieve her baby, the dog went into snarling defense mode, and Mom had to chastize the dog, then go get the baby and hand her over to my aunt, seemingly reassuring the dog that this was all right, as that was the only incident that I’d heard about.
She would always sound like a terrible attack dog if anyone came to the door, but if they were welcomed in, she was fine, but obviously still watching.
When I was out shoveling snow one day my little australian cattle dog chased down a big german shepherd and ran him off. But I wasn’t really in any danger and I told her she was a bully.
I wasn’t actually in any danger, but my dog thought I was, and he acted appropriately.
I was taking my 2 Gordon Setters for a walk through the neighborhood. These dogss are the sweetest, friendliest dogs you could ever want to meet. They love everyone.
There was a man jogging toward me in the street, and my male, Nick, did not like this at all. He stepped out in front of me and positioned himself across the sidewalk so I could not move forward. His eyes never left the approaching man, and when I tried to ‘bump’ him to move, I swear it was like trying to bump a concrete dog. He seemed to grow, every muscle bunched. He didn’t growl or bark, but never took his eyes off the man, and as he jogged past, Nick shifted his position, always keeping himself between me and the man.
I have absolutely no doubt that Nick would have defended me if the need would have arisen.
Kharma, on the other hand, was wiggling her butt at him the whole time. Of course, this is the same dog that was loose in the house when I had someone break in and she did nothing… I’m sure she led the intruder right to the jewelry box and said “The ring’s in HERE! Now… pet me!”
Not my story, never met the dog, but…
A friend got a visit from one of her students, a guy who was a little off. Apparently he had legitimate business coming to her apartment, but he overstayed his welcome. He tried to force himself on her, when in lept Mike, barking and snapping. Sexual assault averted.
Sure, I have a story. Wasn’t even my dog. It was Poonther’s dog, as a matter of fact. He and I have been BFFs for a long time. Many, many years ago, he took me to Universal Studios in Orlando for my birthday (another friend of ours was along for that trip). He had a little Boston terrorist named Buster at the time, and Buster came with us on the trip. (Buster went along for all road trips. He loved that.)
The morning we were getting ready to leave, the guys were primping or something, so I took the dog out for his morning constitutional and to smoke. (The dog smoked Camel lights – no, just kidding. :D) Our room was right in front of the stairs to the second level of the motel, and my cigarette wasn’t finished yet, so I sat down on the bottom step. Buster jumped up in my lap to hang out. So there we are, a smoking girl and her step-dog, sitting on the stairs, minding our own business.
Pretty soon, this guy comes down the stairs from, presumably, his room up there. He says hello to me, politely, and asks if the dog bites. I tell him, “I’ve never seen this dog bite anyone, but there’s a first time for everything. You can pet him at your own risk; I can’t predict how any dog will react to someone.” (Trying to CMA in case Buster gnawed his arm off.) Strange Guy reaches down to let Buster sniff and Buster snarls and snaps at the guy. Guy draws his hand back in a big friggin’ hurry, apologizes to me, and takes off. My friends hear Buster’s vicious-sounding warning to the guy and run outside to make sure I’m okay. Buster and I are still innocently sitting on the stairs, cool as cucumbers, as if nothing happened.
That dude didn’t attack me, but I don’t think he was going to get a chance to. Buster was not normally very territorial, and I never saw him do something like that before or since. Either it was because he was sitting in my lap, guarding and protecting the alpha female of the pack, or the strange dude pinged his little doggy creep-o-meter. Either way, that dog was not letting that guy anywhere near either one of us, bless his furry little heart.
I miss that dog. He died at the decrepit age of 15 a few years ago.
Once or twice I’ve responded to masses of barking in the back yard to find a meter-reader cowering in a corner, but that’s about it with humans.
My bigger dog will come to my smaller dogs’ rescue if they’re being harassed at the dog park.
Well I’m a big guy, so I don’t really need a lot of protection or rescuing, but…
I was keeping my sister’s dog for a few months. German Shepherd. Ordinarily he is very friendly to strangers. He will walk right up to someone, tail wagging and with a big doggy “nice-to-meet-you” grin on his face.
I used to walk him late at night, and well, my neighborhood can be a little edgy sometimes. We’ve had some armed robberies. Anyhow, once we were walking in the wee hours and a shady looking dude came suddenly out from behind a dumpster right into our path. The dog jumped right in front of me and went into full “protection” mode, growling and barking at this guy until he wandered off.
Good dog. Good dog.
My parents have a Jack Russell, who when me and any of my four brothers play fight, the dog will protect whoever he likes more. He has a clear pecking order with me being number 2.
I don’t think there was any real danger, but I once had an angry relative show up at my door, and when I opened it, my dog, and the dog staying with us, who are friendly and usually wag their tails and look thrilled to see any visitors, silently got up, and stood on either side of me in the doorway. They didn’t bark or growl, or approach him, but they didn’t take their eyes off the guy, or relax until he was gone, and the door was closed.