# Do you think my dog would protect my family in an emergency? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [August 28, 2010, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-think-my-dog-would-protect-my-family-in-an-emergency/551831 "2010-08-28T22:44:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Sailboat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sailboat/32/461_2.png) [@Sailboat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sailboat)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2010, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-think-my-dog-would-protect-my-family-in-an-emergency/551831/21 "2010-08-29T18:22:03Z")
> [@Justin\_Bailey](#): > > 'm not sure if she’d defend the house or not, but she once defended me from a zombie monkey. > > She was still a young pup (about 7 months) and I was a playing a video game with zombies. She didn’t really understand what TV was yet and a zombie monkey jumped at the screen to attack my character. It growled and Maya leaped between the TV and me and starting barking at the digital monkey. > > I was very proud and await the zombie apocalypse. I know I’ll be safe. Amazing! Simone once growled and bristled at a paper silhouette of a mummy, arms upraised, in a neighbor’s window during Halloween season. They are indeed apparently on the alert for a rising of the undead! ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2010, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-think-my-dog-would-protect-my-family-in-an-emergency/551831/22 "2010-08-29T18:49:12Z")
Captain is the world’s biggest fraidy pants. I mean, he might come tell me so I can get my gun and protect _him_, but that’s about it. He _looks_ real scary, though. Hopefully people see him and think twice about trying to rob the place. ---
**Author:** ![lindsaybluth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/90db22/32.png) [@lindsaybluth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lindsaybluth)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2010, 3:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-think-my-dog-would-protect-my-family-in-an-emergency/551831/23 "2010-08-30T03:32:08Z")
> [@Sailboat](#): > > As a generalization, pit bulls (and presumably this extends to mixes) are very people-friendly dogs. I’ve read that pit bull breeders keep other kinds of dogs to protect the pit bulls, who would happily get into a stranger’s car. :smack: This reminds me of the time my dog…did just that. Within a few weeks of adopting him, he got loose and was gone for hours. My parents were heartbroken, thinking he ran away for good. They mope around the house and hours later, my dad goes to pick up a pizza. On his way back, he spots our dog _being walked by someone else_. He opens the car door and calls to him, but Weezy is already pulling at his leash towards the car. “Oh, is this your dog? He jumped my fence and became friends with my dog today.” Staffordshire bull terriers and pit bull terriers just wanna be friends! ---
**Author:** ![Gulo\_gulo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bcef8e/32.png) [@Gulo\_gulo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gulo_gulo)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2010, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-think-my-dog-would-protect-my-family-in-an-emergency/551831/24 "2010-08-30T16:59:24Z")
I have a Doberman rescue that would be thrilled to bits have burglers break into our house to play with her. She does bark when people are near our front lawn & goes berserk when someone knocks at the door. (I don’t think she really understands what to do at that point other than run around in circles and scream happily that she has company.) My guess is her presence is more of a deterrent when I walk her. I know that she’d dearly love to run up to that strange man and lean on him for lovins so that’s why she’s staring so intently at him. Hopefully strange man is looking at that very attentive dog and thinking to go somewhere else for mischief. Oh, and she’s a fawn & her ears didn’t stand so everyone thinks she’s a Weimaraner or a greyhound. She doesn’t scare off people by her looks, I think it’s her size. (She’s an oversize Dobie.) She did bark menacingly the other week when my husband came home late and was messing around in the garage. That made me feel just fine about having her around. I just want her to sound like she knows what she’s doing. But if a toddler broke into our house wielding an ice cream cone she’d take that critter _down_! ---
**Author:** ![otternell](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ecc23a/32.png) [@otternell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/otternell)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2010, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-think-my-dog-would-protect-my-family-in-an-emergency/551831/25 "2010-08-30T18:18:42Z")
I have 3 and they hate it (and intervene) when my husband and I wrestle. I have no doubt that they would do their damndest to protect me. the only problem is waking their sorry butts up. Husband was working out of town, injured himself and came home in the middle of the night. At 2am, I hear pounding on the door, and am trying to get out of bed and get some pants on, and the dogs are laying in bed, looking at me and clearly thinking “wtf - its 2am - go back to sleep!” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-think-my-dog-would-protect-my-family-in-an-emergency/551831.md?page=1)