What do you do with your dog when..

[Doberluv]

There is no food delivery where I live but if there were, I would probably have to crate Charlie to answer the door. If someone actually came and knocked on the door with pizza, he would probably tear their arm off to get it.

Heh, heh....too funny. Yeah, my dogs would probably be more concerned with getting a slice of pizza to worry about the guy...once they got a whiff of that sausage and cheese.


TM...next time just tell the guy, "Ok...no problem" and anwer the door with your Glock .9 mm in one hand and your money in the other.

 

[Doberluv]

Seriously though, I never lock up my dogs to answer the door. Lyric will sit/stay behind me but the Chi's...well, they pretty much are the front line in defense. LOL. Lyric doesn't bark much once I'm opening the door. And I don't leave it to him to make any judgement calls unless I were unconscious. He watches me to see my demeanor. Unless something were a situation that he had never been socialized to, that wasn't "normal," he just sits and watches for a moment, then is friendly enough.

I have had a few untoward experiences with intruders or "intruders" and he acted appropriately.....vicious without actually attacking and in one case, a low, throaty warning. That was before the person came inside.

I don't have food delivery here either. But if someone I didn't know told me to lock up my dog or they wouldn't deliever, I'd tell them, "forget it. I'll just reach my hand through the 6" that the door is opened."

 

[sparks19]

I step outside and close my door behind me..... so the dogs are still loose in the house but not being a nuisance to the visitor.

 

[shazbot]

Out of all my dogs, my golden is the most protective and the most unassuming. He's happy go lucky and LOVES new people. He's got the best instinct when it comes to sizing people up. I refuse to put him in another room when a delivery person comes to my door. He's shown me that he knows what he's doing when it comes down to it. He's protected me when some guys came up on me while I was walking him. I had never seen him with all teeth bared and all his fur standing up from head to tail until then. I have never seen to men run so fast either.

 

[Renee750il]

Well, I figure it's my house, my dogs, so I ignore their request if it's not someone I have specifically called to deliver something. If it's something like a pizza delivery, I step outside anyway. It's not, after all, like mine can't open the door on their own - or crash right through it, for that matter

 

[Brattina88]

Oh, no way

with my experiences in the past, good luck getting me alone!!
I understand and respect people's fear of dogs. If its someone I am expecting (for example, the pizza guy) I would have the dogs inside with me, and would step outside to exchange money for pizza. I understand/respect that a GSD may look very intimidating. Do they understand that they *may* appear the same, to me?

 

[Red_ACD_for_me]

Great question TM! Caiza is VERY protective and barks and growls when someone comes. I usually gate off my hallway to my front door where the delivery guys come so if they ever did pose a threat Caiza would still be able to reach me and get the bad guy :lol-sign: After that home invasion in Connecticut where a mother and two children were murdered and the husband in critical condition it is pretty scary to think of but we have to always be one step ahead of ourselves in this crazy F'd up world!

 

[SisMorphine]

Currently if I am expecting company I crate Teeny as her obedience isn't good enough yet to have a protective dog loose when someone she doesn't know comes to the door. I used to have Mike out because he would lose his mind when someone came to the door (sliding glass door, you could see all 93 pounds of dog daring you to enter). If it was a friend Mike would go in his kennel then I would open the door (once inside Mike could be safely let out, but he didn't like anyone to cross that threshold). If it was a delivery person he would be put in a down stay a bit back from the door and I would leave the door open but step outside to take care of it. Wally doesn't bother to get up when people come over so he's not an issue.

I am currently teaching Teeny to "alert" so that her protective tendencies are kept in check. When someone knocks I let her bark a couple times and then I lead her away from the door into a sit and treat her. Last Saturday she started to bark twice and then come find me. It's working!!

 

[BostonBanker]

I've got to say, I must live a very sheltered life. If some whom I had actually asked to come over (ie pizza guy) asked me to put Meg away, I would close her in separate room in a heartbeat. Granted, I'm pretty sure someone could torture me to death, slowly, and she would be trying to sit in his lap and get cuddles, so it's not like she'd do me much good in any situation.

I'm amazed at the number of discussions that come up here about dogs protecting people/wanting to get a dog for protection/will a dog actually protect, etc. I've never considered myself an optimist, but this is either a very paranoid group of people, or you must live in some scary towns! I mean, I know "it" can happen anywhere - we had a murder on our street last year. But I'm pretty sure I meet a lot more people who are scared of dogs genuinely than people who want to harm me.

I'm not judging people who feel the need for the protection, just surprised.

 

[shazbot]

I've got to say, I must live a very sheltered life. If some whom I had actually asked to come over (ie pizza guy) asked me to put Meg away, I would close her in separate room in a heartbeat. Granted, I'm pretty sure someone could torture me to death, slowly, and she would be trying to sit in his lap and get cuddles, so it's not like she'd do me much good in any situation.

I'm amazed at the number of discussions that come up here about dogs protecting people/wanting to get a dog for protection/will a dog actually protect, etc. I've never considered myself an optimist, but this is either a very paranoid group of people, or you must live in some scary towns! I mean, I know "it" can happen anywhere - we had a murder on our street last year. But I'm pretty sure I meet a lot more people who are scared of dogs genuinely than people who want to harm me.

I'm not judging people who feel the need for the protection, just surprised.

Unfortunately in this day and age you have be a bit paranoid of the person coming to your door. I would much rather go a little over board making sure all my bases are covered than find myself asking what if.

 

[shadowfacedanes]

So I am asking, if a stranger is at your door and is afraid of dogs, and you know his purpose there, what do you do?

Meet him on the front steps, knowing full well that Hannah could and would knock the storm door down if necessary. She's no dummy. She knows where the latch is and how to paw it open (found this out when the neighbor walked up our driveway). Mercy to the fool guy who tries to hurt me. She would not have it. She will, however, tolerate an accepted stranger. Don't want to make her out to be a monster - she's not. She's just VERY protective of her family and property.

 

[Doberluv]

As far as paranoid....I think it depends where you live. Here, I'm not worried at all about bad guys, but if I lived in the city, I'd be more cautious. I've had lots of workmen and such come here and I didn't lock up my dogs but they weren't afraid of them. I guess I'd say I still feel better with my Doberman around.

 

[ACooper]

I DO NOT answer the door without my dogs if I am home alone........PERIOD. If they have a problem with that, I will trade the money through a crack in the doorway and they can set the pizza or package down on the porch.

There are too many freaks out there, and if my dogs can detour one of them BEFORE they make a bad decision, well that's all the better for me

 

[Buddy'sParents]

If you ask the person to come to your house (and deliver pizza) I don't think they should have to rely on your ability to train your dogs to stay safe. I know from reading everybodies posts for the last few months, that the people posting above wouldn't expose the pizza guy to their dogs if there was any danger. But the pizza guy doesn't know that.

Think of all the 'bad' dog owners who aren't nearly as responsible as us Chazzers. It only takes one or two to make a delivery person very afraid, and with reason. If you are uncomfortable with the pizza guy, go pick it up instead of having it delivered.

However if someone comes knocking on my door and I am alone, all dogs will go with me to the door. But if I have invited them, I will respect them if they fear dogs.

Perhaps it comes from me living in California- very much near Oakland, which is a gang-run city, but it makes no difference whether I asked someone to come to my front door or not, to me. I italicized someone because- sure, I ordered pizza and it's going to be delivered- but I have NO IDEA what the delivery person is like. Is he/she a shady character? I don't know this, therefore, my dog will answer the door with me. He is an excellent judge of character and if- for any reason- his hackles were to go up or he were to let me know that this person was not 'cool' the door would be slammed in their face and the lock would be turned.

In this day and age, no one is 100% safe, if a delivery person is afraid of dogs, they shouldn't get a job that requires them to go to people's homes.

And hey- they should be thankful Bella doesn't answer the door with me.

 

[Southpaw]

I've never really thought about it. Both of the dogs usually just stand at the top of the stairs when someone is at the door (with Lucy barking her head off), unless they recognize the person, then they come down and greet them. Although whenever my brother has friends come over, Lucy usually chases them down the stairs barking at them lol...but she's small, she poses no threat.

If a stranger comes to our door, I think in most cases it's too late to put my dogs somewhere else. They can be afraid of dogs, but I know my dogs aren't really going to go near them. We had some sales guy go on about how he didn't want Molly to attack him... er, okay.

 

[ToscasMom]

I tell you, if I had known that a dog would be the ticket to getting rid of those pesky JW's, I would have gotten one long ago.

 

[shadowfacedanes]

LOL, I haven't had a JW in over ten years. Most solicitors don't even bother walking up the drive when they hear Hannah raising hell.

 

[Toller_08]

If the person is afraid of my dogs, I'll put them in a down stay a few feet behind me. I definitely don't make them leave though.

 

[DreamDoby]

I don't answer the door at all without my dogs. They beat me to it looking to see who it is and if they know who it is. I think they just hope it is the UPS guy with more treats and toys myself and they don't care if it is anyone else. I just feel better having them there beside me.

 

[TheWholePack]

I have 3 dogs in the yard (chain link fence) and 3 inside. Who needs a doorbell?? Not me!

The inside dogs stay in the house. The outside dogs have been taught that "thank you" means they stop barking.

No delivery people out here in the boonies, so that's never been a problem.

A couple of weeks ago I had a team of guys working on the fence, and my Italian Greyhound absolutely hated one of them! I've never seen her hair stand up like that! As it turned out, he stole my drill!!! I guess she's a better judge of character than I am.

I never lock the door, even at night. Six dogs are enough to keep strangers out on the road. I walk out to the gate to greet anyone that comes to visit. If I'm relaxed my outside dogs lose interest and watch from a distance.