# Robbed!



## Chris Michalek

I have no clue how this could have happened to me. I've bragged enough about my dogs etc but tonight my wife's purse was stolen out of the house, while I was in one room and she was in the bed room. 

I have SIX dogs, trained or not trained how the hell does somebody sneak into a house to steal a purse? The dogs lit up and chased two people out and over my back wall. They ended up throwing the purse back over the wall with nothing missing but cash and xanax.

I'm still baffled how anybody can get into a house with all these dogs, especially a Mal. That ****er barks at air most of the time and didn't bark then? Weird. 

Now I feel totally crazy. I've my gun out and loaded. **** I hate this.


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## Julie Ann Alvarez

It must have been the gost


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## brad robert

chris you must live in one messed up town your always talking about crazy shit going on.Oh and lmao of at the ghost


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## Chris Michalek

brad robert said:


> chris you must live in one messed up town your always talking about crazy shit going on.Oh and lmao of at the ghost



The thing is, I don't live in a messed up part of town. This is a decent neighborhood with a couple of NFL players that live here. In fact, I bought this house from an NFL player. It's nothing super fancy but it's a "good" neighborhood.

I can't tell you how screwed up I feel knowing somebody was in my house and then think about having to leave my wife alone for a few months.

These bite sport dogs don't do shit!!! Maybe I should get a yorkie.


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## Chris Michalek

Julie Ann Alvarez said:


> It must have been the gost


We seriously had that discussion with the cop. He was baffled too as how somebody could jump a six ft wall like that. The dogs did bark and chase something in the backyard but it's hard to imagine a person is quicker over that wall than the Mal is getting to the wall.

I took a drive around the block. On the otherside of my wall is a little green way with a sand volleyball pit. There is also a pretty big party on the other side of the greenway. Lots of young kids. I think it was one of them.


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## Meng Xiong

I find it hard to believe that someone would just enter your house and snatch a purse. Was the purse in plain view, like right in front of a window? You'd think they would snoop around for more valuables since they've already taken the risk to go inside.

Did you let the cops know there is a party behind your house?


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## Chris Michalek

Meng Xiong said:


> I find it hard to believe that someone would just enter your house and snatch a purse. Was the purse in plain view, like right in front of a window? You'd think they would snoop around for more valuables since they've already taken the risk to go inside.
> 
> Did you let the cops know there is a party behind your house?


The cops let me know there was a party back there. I have a rather large home so it's easy to be away from the middle of the house. There are french doors that lead to the back yard and from there is a straight line view to the breakfast bar where the purse was. 

I still have a hard time believing somebody was in the house too. I didn't know somebody was in the house and until we found the purse tossed back into our yard. How nice of them... ****ers!

This is all I have to show. The grass was freshly watered and I took pics of the footprints leading from the grass to the house. You can see there were at least two people that came up to the house.


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## Jim Nash

This is a possiblity of what might have happened based on my experiance as a Police Officer finding myself often on other people's property then finding myself confronted by a dog or dogs . It's one thing to attempt to cross their boundries when the dogs are already there guarding it . They look very impressive and I rarely have tested them to see if they meant business or not . 

But many times , and it has only happened to me when I didn't know a dog was on the property and encountered and suprised them well inside there territory that I find they don't react (as long as I don't either). They just look very suprised , some follow me around and some just go away . 

The best example of this is actually when I was a teenager . I was invited by a friend to come over to help him rebuild an engine on his employers trash company's lot after hours . I intially told him I wasn't coming . I later descided to go but didn't let him know . Unknown to me , figuring know one else was coming he let the 2 guard dogs out . It's was a huge fenced in lot with plenty of space for the dogs to roam . 

I pulled up squeezed between the locked fence gate and walked to the back garage . 

Half way there an oh sh*# moment . I walk up on the dogs and they look confused . I know better to run and I know I can't make it to safety anywheres anyway so I just (as calmly as I can) continue to walk to the garage . When I walk into the gagage with the 2 dog following me my friend almost crapped his pants . I think I already had . 

I didn't know these 2 dogs but had seen them before barking aggressively at the main gate . In my opinion ,knowing what I know now . Those 2 would have eatin me if they encountered me at the gate . Most dogs I encounter I believe won't do much more then bark . But that's just my opinion and I don't usually test that belief when the price of being wrong could be painful .

I've had similar experiances on the job but this is the best example . 

My feeling is dogs are real good at protecting the boundary lines of their territory. Often there are 2 boundary lines . The edge of the property and the boundaries to the house , most often at doors and windows . They are great and some get lots of practice guarding these boundary lines . Some are just all bark and others will fight to one degree or another at these boundary lines . 

But I think these boundary lines are a que for their aggression and or protectiveness . Unless the dog has had previous training guarding or protecting the inner parts of their territory , most dogs never on their own have to or get practice protecting this area so there are no ques for these dogs to go into the barking protective mode. The person they come across may trigger an aggressive response if they descide to run or act aggressively towards the dog but if they don't produce these triggers and stay calm the dog just might not know what to do . 

Many of the dogs I've dealt I've learned later are very protective and guard their boundaries loudly and aggressively .

This may have been the case here . My bets are the burglars didn't know their were dogs , came across them once past the boundaries of your home , the burglars didn't react in a way to trigger the dogs' protective or guarding behaviors so the dogs , never having been in this position before , simply didn't react . At some point they may have made a run for it and triggered the dogs prey drive or protective behaviors .

One more example . I tracked a suspect after he fled in a car from Officers . They found the car abandoned and I started a track . My dog got on a very strong track and we went a couple of blocks then he pulled me right up to a fenced in yard containing 2 huge very loud aggressive dogs (Mastiff type dog) barking at us . 

I wasn't too happy thinking the dog got distracted off the track by these dogs . Something he never did when on a strong scent . At this time the homeowner came out and asked if I would check her garage (inside the yard with the dogs ) for the suspect because she leaves it unlock . I'm thinking ; "Yeah , right lady , this guy is going to jump in that yard with your dogs ! '' .

After confirming that the dogs had been out there the entire night I tell her I'll come back and check it later . I start checking other yards with no luck and I'm getting really pissed at my dog . Sure enough here comes this lady again and I'm about to let her have it when I hear her say "You better come check my garage cuz my dogs are both sniffing at that door ! '' 

We secure the dogs and have to force our way into the garage and lo and behold the dirtbag is in there ! 

At the hospital he explains to me that he jumped over the fence not know the dogs were there . He said once in the yard and 1/2 way to the garage he saw them get up and figured he woke them . He said he just kept walking to the garage and they just looked at him . Once inside he said he baricaded the door mainly because of the dogs .


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## Jeff Oehlsen

This is a good lesson for those that have the Walt Disney outlook on what a dog is capable of. 

Sorry that it had to happen to someone on this forum, I am glad that no one got hurt.


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## Gillian Schuler

Chris Michalek said:


> I have no clue how this could have happened to me. I've bragged enough about my dogs etc but tonight my wife's purse was stolen out of the house, while I was in one room and she was in the bed room.
> 
> I have SIX dogs, trained or not trained how the hell does somebody sneak into a house to steal a purse? The dogs lit up and chased two people out and over my back wall. They ended up throwing the purse back over the wall with nothing missing but cash and xanax.
> 
> I'm still baffled how anybody can get into a house with all these dogs, especially a Mal. That ****er barks at air most of the time and didn't bark then? Weird.
> 
> Now I feel totally crazy. I've my gun out and loaded. **** I hate this.


Swap 'em all for geese!!


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## R Janssen

Reminds me of a story that happened to a college KNPV handler.

He was an elderly man living just half a mile away from me.
His dog was a PH1 great with kids at home, but on the field a mean SOB.

One day the handler did go visit his grand children and the dog stayed at home in the living room like always.
At that point someone did decide to break in the house by the front door.
The dog did hear the burglar but didn't go up to the door to check it out.
He stayed sneaky waiting for him in the living room.
So the man walks down the hallway into the living room and in a split second he see's a big Mal staring him down,
and before he realizes it the dog engages him on the upper arm! And damn hard!
The dog wouldn't release the bite or give up the fight, it went on for minutes.
The only way he finally got the dog of the bite was to put the dog's head between a door and smash it a couple of times.
That did give him just enough time (before the dog could reengage) to close the door and so separating himself from the dog.

However i saw some pictures of the living room that where taken just after it, 
and that room needed a good cleanup for sure... 

It is a good story to tell with a couple of beers, then it sounds even better. :lol:

Dog was fine btw.


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## Mike Scheiber

Gillian Schuler said:


> Swap 'em all for geese!!


We have 2 little Rat Terriers if they here a mouse fart they bark. I have a sign on the back gate with a GSD head stating I watch here and of course Jett is lose in the yard or house.
My wife has this POS Mazda Tribute that I leave on the street with the keys in the ignition every night with hopes it will go away. The first thing I do when I get up is give a look see if its still there.
Its there:x


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## Dan Long

Our pug barks at everything, and, so does our Dane. The GSD rarely barks. I think the 2 barkers are more of a deterrant. Well, the Dane has that size thing and a bark that shakes the rafters so that's a little bit extra help. 

I like the theory about the boundries. Once the person is past the boundry and acts normal, the dogs accept them as a "guest".


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## Gillian Schuler

A lot of dog people over here say, for the "early warning system" get a Yorkie, JRT???, etc. 

They warn because they have more to fear (size) (hence the ???? with the JRT - they just ignore thier size) and thus warn quicker alerting the real dogs!!


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## Jennifer Coulter

Wow. Have you considered moving to Canada?


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## Gillian Schuler

Wow! do you mean because of the geese \\/\\/\\/

Or because of the lower crime rate :-o


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## Chris Michalek

Gillian Schuler said:


> A lot of dog people over here say, for the "early warning system" get a Yorkie, JRT???, etc.
> 
> They warn because they have more to fear (size) (hence the ???? with the JRT - they just ignore thier size) and thus warn quicker alerting the real dogs!!


I've always believed in the two dog system. Long before I got wrapped up in taking in rescues we had two pugs and a Rottweiler. We still have the pugs but the original rottie was PTS two years ago.

I didn't sleep at all last night and did nothing but think about this. My wife was in the room (closed door) with one pug and our most anti-social dog. The other pug was underneath my desk at my feet. The Mal and one Rott was in the room with me. My male rott, the one that alerted everybody and chased something was in the hallway. I don't know what he heard or saw but it was that bark that says get your ass over here now. By the time I got to patio doors, three of my dogs were jumping up at our back wall. 

That's when I saw the footprints in the cement and knew somebody was at least in the yard. They were almost dry but you can clearly see there were at least two people in the yard. After a few minutes of what was going on, I decided to call the police. I assumed at that time, nobody got into the house but was just looking around. While I was on the phone with the police dept, I noticed a black bag in my yard by the back wall that WASN'T there when I initially called the police a few minutes before. An officer was at my house in abou 5 minutes and he looked around but found nothing but footprints on the other side of the wall and said there was a big party on the other side of the greenway on the otherside of the wall.

I think perhaps my dogs are too social and too accustomed to regular household noise. Somebody could have been rummaging though the kitchen and even breaking dishes and I don't think the dogs would have done anything but continue to sleep.

I need to rethink this stuff. Maybe I'll put a couple of dog outside and make them live out there. Always locking the french doors would help and possibly prevented what happened. I keep thinking about how while I was in here, somebody could have been in the room with my wife and I wouldn't have known. The master bedroom and this room are on opposite ends of the house.

Overall, I think I need less social dogs. For all I know, a dog or two saw the buglars as Jim Nash suggested and did nothing but wag their tails. 

Anybody have ideas? What happened to me could have happened to anybody and has Jeff suggested, many of us have too much faith in our dogs. I know I did.


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## Chris Michalek

Jennifer Coulter said:


> Wow. Have you considered moving to Canada?


Being a MN boy I would love Canada but Italy is on my mind at the moment.


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## Daryl Ehret

When I go to training, I have the dogs ride in the cab of the truck with me and when I get there, and place the one I'm not training in a non-walled welded wire crate in the pickup bed.

Yesterday after training, I stopped at the dealership to have them examine something for maintenance, and placed the dogs in the crate in the back of the pickup. Normally, from the cab, they'll bark at anyone who comes near. I was curious to see how they reacted, and a bit surprised watching from the window when the mechanic was able to approach my vehicle in the parkinglot, get in, start it up, and drive it over to the shop without the dogs making any kind of fuss at all.


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## Gillian Schuler

I have no idea, apart from locked doors. Ours are always locked as our dogs can open "inward opening, as well as outward opening" doors. Plus we have some nicely "ignorant" neighbours.

I certainly don't live in a Walt Disney world but am still surprised that not one of the dogs alerted.

That's all I expect of our dogs - to alert me.

Maybe you could describe it in more detail. Where were the dogs - with you - your wife, etc.? I know it's difficult to recount, I often have no idea where my dogs are until they start coughing.

How far was the purse from the open door?

I know dogs have what I call a "Bermuda Dreieck" where my last 2 dogs guarded as though it were sacrosanct and otherwise guarded the garden (back yard, as you USesses call it) with normal territorial aggression but I'm stumped.

Just glad you're both safe.


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## Gillian Schuler

Chris Michalek said:


> Being a MN boy I would love Canada but Italy is on my mind at the moment.


Oh yes, then you can come to our Jam sessions


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## Chris Michalek

Gillian Schuler said:


> I
> Maybe you could describe it in more detail. Where were the dogs - with you - your wife, etc.? I know it's difficult to recount, I often have no idea where my dogs are until they start coughing.
> 
> How far was the purse from the open door?


male pug and POS female rott (very anti-social) were locked in the bedroom with my wife while she was listening to iPod music.

I was in my music room, female pug was under the desk as my feet. Mal was sleeping underneath a table at the back of my music room. Another female rott was laying at my feet by my chair. My male rott was sleeping in the hallway just outside the door to my room. 

Our house is designed with the masterbed room on one side of the house, the living room, family room, dining room and movie theater are all in between the four rooms on the other side of the house were I was jamming away with loud music. The kitchen and breakfast area is in the back of the house. The burglar would have to walk about 15ft or less from the back french doors to the breakfast bar. You can't see the breakfast area from either the master bedroom nor my music room.


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## Kadi Thingvall

I think in a situation like this it's very possible any noise the dogs heard they attributed to it being the other familiy member moving around. IE the dogs with you thought it was your wife, and the dogs with the wife thought it was you. How many times have those of us with house dogs yelled at the dogs for barking because it was another family member who came home, or came indoors, or walked into the room, etc? I think we sometimes teach them to ignore normal household noises.

It's quite possible what your Rott heard and alerted to was either the thieves talking to each other (hey wait, that's not a normal voice) or when they snatched the purse they may have taken off running, another non-normal household noise. Until then it was just someone moving around the house, and they were to far away to smell it wasn't your wife.

I had a similar situation a few years ago with a stranger coming into my house and going to sleep on my couch (He thought he was going to the house of some friends he'd been partying with, who said he could crash on their couch, and we hadn't locked our front door). When the dogs realized there was a stranger in the house they went postal, but they let him come in and crash on my couch first. I thought about it long and hard trying to figure out how/why they allowed the person in and that's what I came up with, since he just walked in and crashed on the couch, at the far end of the house from the bedrooms, he didn't make any unusual noises. The dogs in my bedroom are used to my teenager moving around the house after I go to sleep, including in/out the front door to let his dog out to potty, and are corrected for barking or growling if they hear him coming and going. Same for the dogs that sleep in his bedroom. Since we were both actually in bed at that point, any of the dogs who heard him would have thought it was another family member and kept quiet (I don't take kindly to being woken for stupid reasons LOL). My dogs for the most part are social though also, I have a sharper dog who will alert to most anything, but honestly IMO on a day to day basis that's a pain in the butt.

Something else I've noticed with my own dogs, if I'm not home or I'm outside they are MUCH more alert to strange noises, even going nuts when they hear me moving around outside if they can't see me. When I am home I think they look to me, if I'm not reacting to a noise outside, they don't either. Usually, sometimes they still do, but they aren't nearly as likely to, they take their cues from the "pack leader".


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## Gillian Schuler

15 feet, barefooted, or stealthily, is no big deal, if someone were to walk past, out of curiouslity and see the purse, 

It still leaves a bad taste in your mouth. But, on the other hand, I guess "small town thieves" are less dangerous than Amoklläufer ( criminals who shoot wildly in the ciivilian crowds.

I guess your big problem is if you're going away for a few months and are worried about your wife and here I'd suggest locking, checking, locking. And having the telephone at hand. Six dogs, in a locked house, should be able to alert any unusual incidences.

If the police know of the break-in, can you ask them to keep an eye on your property whilst you are away??


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## Gillian Schuler

Kadi Thingvall said:


> Something else I've noticed with my own dogs, if I'm not home or I'm outside they are MUCH more alert to strange noises, even going nuts when they hear me moving around outside if they can't see me. When I am home I think they look to me, if I'm not reacting to a noise outside, they don't either. Usually, sometimes they still do, but they aren't nearly as likely to, they take their cues from the "pack leader".


I've encountered this, too. My Landseer was rather a quiet dog where strangers, visitors were concerned but one night, we came home and I walked in thick snow to the garage door and was surprised to say the least that he went apeship in the garage.

I don't think one can underestimate the independence most dogs have on their "leader", i.e. if you don't react, they don't.


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## Howard Gaines III

Chris is it possible that the person is a "friend" and knows your dogs?


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## Chris Michalek

Howard Gaines III said:


> Chris is it possible that the person is a "friend" and knows your dogs?



That's one thing that doesn't seem possible. I have very few friends in AZ and aside from one neighbor and his family, two music friends and my immediate family nobody else has ever been inside my AZ home. 

This is a "nice" neighborhood and generally need to have a few bucks to live here. There are more and more foreclosures in my neighborhood. The cop said they often catch squatters in the empty homes and that only adds to the local crime rate. He also said most of the petty burglaries seem to be from the teenagers who live in the area and are doing it for fun or dare. Last night the officer was certain it was a couple of kids from a party behind my home but there wasn't anything they could do especially since the purse was returned. 

I think its time for more home invasion training sessions.


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## Becky Shilling

Since we do have so many dogs, it's really a pain in the ass to have people over, so we rarely have any company in our home. The neighborhood we live in is NOT a good one and though all our dogs are social and approachable "out", we don't let them socialize with any of our neighbors; we don't socialize with them (since we speak different languages, that would be tough). 

I know that even when my husband is home and I unlock the front dog with my keys, there are a few alert barks. When I am home alone, and my husband pulls into the driveway, all hell breaks loose. There is always drinking, partying, loud crap going on around us, especially next door to the west of us, and the dogs don't often bark at that unless it gets unusally out of hand. They are, however, very sensitive to our boundaries. 

Since our entire neighborhood well knows that we are packed out with German Shepherds, it's unlikely any of them would ever try to break in; certainly not _sneak_ in, but I suppose some stranger might try it someday. Since a person other than Steve or I in the house, regardless of their behavior, would be a highly unusual thing, I don't think it would go well for them. Might be a good idea to put a suit on someone and have them try it just to see.


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## Courtney Guthrie

I guess having a tempermantally unsound APBT/AST comes in handy sometimes. Red alerts to everything and anything to the point of annoyance. Recently, my cousin who nobody had seen in years came to grandma's house(I live with her) and entered the house without knocking etc. Red was at the door before I said her name, snarling and barking at him. Had I not been there, I have no doubts that he would've gotten bit. She does this to anybody that enters the house without knocking, if she knows you, you can say her name and she stops. Not a good thing esepecially since she is an APBT but it does come in handy. She has also held the neighbors off our property when they tried coming over. A little too much defense and bad genes but still manageable thus far. 

My GSD doesn't really bark a lot even at strangers and I doubt he'd do anything if someone were to come in the house and act like they belonged. 

Courtney


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## Al Curbow

This is exactly why i posted this, 

I think 99% is the dog and 1 % is training for PP. The dog should have cellophane thin thresholds and high drives, anti-social and quick to bite, who cares where on the body or how full the grip is. For me the right dog for the job needs lots of OB but not a ton of bitework, if the dog is tested the weekly "real" bitework stuff is for the humans ego, the dog will bite, it's been tested. If i needed a PPD this is what i would want,"


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## Chris Michalek

I'm pretty sure the mal will be quick to bite but he's still young(11mo) He normally alerts to everything and I'm surprised he wasn't the first one. I think there was too much noise in the room for him to notice.
My problem last night is just as Kadi and Jim described earlier.


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## kim guidry

Well there you go Chris. NFL players get in trouble ALL the time! :-k Don't laugh about getting a yorkie, mine barks more than my GSD 




Chris Michalek said:


> The thing is, I don't live in a messed up part of town. This is a decent neighborhood with a couple of NFL players that live here. In fact, I bought this house from an NFL player. It's nothing super fancy but it's a "good" neighborhood.
> 
> I can't tell you how screwed up I feel knowing somebody was in my house and then think about having to leave my wife alone for a few months.
> 
> These bite sport dogs don't do shit!!! Maybe I should get a yorkie.


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## Konnie Hein

Sorry this happened to you and your wife, Chris. One thing I like about my alarm system is that I can put the doors on "chime" mode. That way, any time a door to the outside is opened, I hear a chiming noise. (I can also set the alarm on the "boundaries" only - meaning doors and windows, but not the motion detector, which also would make a heck of a lot of noise if somebody came in through a door or window!) 

You probably wouldn't hear it over loud music, but if your wife was in the bedroom, she might have heard it and been alerted to the fact that somebody opened a door (esp. if you have an alarm keypad in the bedroom, as I do), or they might have stopped at that point, knowing they were making a bit of noise after hearing the chime themselves.

I'm a little obsessive about locking doors too, so making that a habit sounds like not too bad of a thing.


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## Howard Gaines III

I would get rid of the dogs and get fowl. Guinea fowl, Canada geese, and a wild turkey. All three have nice alarm and protection qualities. Kinda "fowl" mouthed too! #-o


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## Adam Rawlings

Sorry to hear about the break in, but it could have been worse, if that's really any consulation. Konnie's advise is good, I have my alarm set the same way at my shop. In no time at all, your dogs will equate the chime to someone being at the door.


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## todd pavlus

Put bells on the door handles. I did this when my pup was young, now he jiggles them when he needs to go out. If he hears those bells jiggle at any point he knows that door is opening...and he is there about a 1/2 second later


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## Edward Egan

I wonder if the party going thieves brought over some hot dogs or whatever for the dogs?


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## Tina Rempel

That's really the pits. Good they only took a couple things and threw the purse back. A lady I know at work had a similar thing happen, somebody walked in her unlocked back sliding glass door and took her purse. The family was home and in the front room, did not hear a thing. She had to cancel all credit cards, debit cards, checking account, get a new drivers license and have her house and all her vehicles rekeyed.

One thing drilled into me during various defensive classes is always keep all doors locked even when I'm home. I admit I'm a bit more lax when the dogs are in the yards with the gates locked, but most times the doors are locked. I also have the alarm system but mostly use that when I'm not home. 

It really sucks to know somebody has been in your house. I was burgerlized years ago, gross feeling. :-#


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## xxxxxxxxKarina Scuckyte

Those are very interesting stories, I didn't thought about such situations earlier. Well, it's good to know that my Caucasian wouldn't act that way. One night he saw my dad in an old uniform he didn't see earlier walking by the house and run to him growling ready to attack. My dad was lucky to see him until the bite, then dog recognized him and stopped. If it would be a real burgler, the dog would attack. I am sure about it. 
I don't know, what my new GSD would do. She's only 1 year old and now she doesn't seem to defend her territory, but she's less than a week with me, so maybe it's just too early.


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## Connie Sutherland

Gillian Schuler said:


> A lot of dog people over here say, for the "early warning system" get a Yorkie, JRT???, etc. ... They warn because they have more to fear (size) (hence the ???? with the JRT - they just ignore thier size) and thus warn quicker alerting the real dogs!!



Border Terriers, JRTs .... it is not fear about size that sets them off. Trust me on this. They don't have regard for personal safety, and, in fact, are crazy. :lol:


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## Connie Sutherland

Howard Gaines III said:


> Chris is it possible that the person is a "friend" and knows your dogs?



My very first thought on reading the O.P.

Chris, even though you say that few people have been inside your house, have your dogs ever met people you may not trust completely?


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## Chris Michalek

Connie Sutherland said:


> My very first thought on reading the O.P.
> 
> Chris, even though you say that few people have been inside your house, have your dogs ever met people you may not trust completely?



My dogs have only met other dog people and a couple of neighbors. I like to teach my dogs that nothing good comes from people or other dogs. I think this helps in keeping neutrality when other people and dogs are around. I'm not a very social person, I don't have many friends in AZ and there are only two dog people that I know who have been to my house. If there is one person I thought would have the balls to come into my house like would be a former bassist in the band but end then he's not met my new set of dogs. 

I feel more at ease knowing that I wasn't targeted. My next door neighbor is missing a tool box from his back yard. He was home too but his doors were locked. He was very surprised to hear somebody actually entered my home but he also pointed out that my dogs are very quiet and he wouldn't have known we have six dog if I hadn't told him.


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## Gillian Schuler

Chris, I keep my front / side doors locked at all times. Not only to be warned of intruders but to avoid the risk of Big B & Co., racing through the village on rampage. 

All I can think of is that a teenie ran the 15', grabbed the purse and ran back without your dogs noticing.

Why was your wife locked in the bedroom wit the pugs? Just healthy curiosity on my part


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## Dan Long

I leave my front door open but lock the screen, since my office is at the other side of the house. That way I get good air circulation but no one can open the door and grab my t**** key or something. Plus it gives the dogs a good view and if someone fiddles with the knob they are on it quick.


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## Anne Jones

Like Konnie, my alarm system is always set so that the chime goes off if a window or door is opened. My dogs always look up when the chime goes off. They know that if a door is opened someone has entered the house. My son has sometimes come over to help with something & may unlock & enter the basement door (he has keys to my house)to get a tool, while I am upsatairs in the house & my dogs immediately look up & over at me if the chime goes off & I am standing with them, as if to say....who's that? If I say something like what or who's that or look surprized, my female goes nuts & starts to run toward the doors or windows to see what is going on. Then my male will start up. I do think that it is different if you live alone, the dogs are more sensitive to noise that is coming from somewhere else in the house other then were you are.


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## Jennifer Coulter

Chris Michalek said:


> Being a MN boy I would love Canada but Italy is on my mind at the moment.



Ah yes, Italy. I would move to northern Italy in a heartbeat. You just made me go and look at my pictures of the trip, I LOVED it when I visited. *Awesome* mountains, great food, wine.... 

Can't remember any alarm systems, doubt if people lock their doors when they are home let alone out....

Is your gig on for sure? Is your wife worried about being home alone now?


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## Anna Kasho

On the flip side, I'm not sure you'd want the hassle of some idiot underage kids being bit... Stealing or not. 

I suppose for this kind of situation it would help to work a couple of scenarios of you and your dog(s) coming in and surprising a "burglar" who is already in the house?

I honestly don't know what my dogs would do, but seeing that I am alone in the house, they are more alert to strange voices, footsteps, etc. Two of the indoor dogs, I think, would at least bark coming face to face with a stranger in the house. Two would probably bite (one I am sure would, the other not so sure). One might smile and wag his tail and ask if you might need help carrying out that TV set... Though I hope not... LOL... I tested them, so I know that my outdoor dogs raise hell over someone they hear/see/smell in the back yard - I have the two reactive alert ones that rotate out there, to watch and bark.


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## Mike Scheiber

Get out of that AZ shit hole after 1 1/2 year I was ready GTF outta there. Scammers, shysters, pissy wages, dirty and hot F*cker.


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## Bob Scott

My dogs all have a strong barrier aggression (car/ house/ fence) but it wouldn't supprise me if they found someone in the middle of the yard and didn't bite. 
I haven't trained for it and I don't have overly sharp dogs except for the JRT. He HAS bit for real. He's also the first one to bark when someone is walking down the street. The GSDs don't pay much attention until someone actually walks onto the property. 
I think I have two very good GSDs but I'm not blind to the fact that, without proper training, they are alarm dogs, not PPDs.
With my older GSD I can say maybe, probably, could be all day long. I just don't know!


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## Anna Kasho

Bob Scott said:


> With my older GSD I can say maybe, probably, could be all day long. I just don't know!


That is very true! Without having trained for and/or been in that situation, it's all just guesswork...


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## Ian Forbes

Jennifer Coulter said:


> Ah yes, Italy. I would move to northern Italy in a heartbeat. You just made me go and look at my pictures of the trip, I LOVED it when I visited. *Awesome* mountains, great food, wine....
> 
> Can't remember any alarm systems, doubt if people lock their doors when they are home let alone out....
> 
> Is your gig on for sure? Is your wife worried about being home alone now?


As a working dog person, I probably would not move to Italy due to their current ridiculous 'Dangerous Dog' legislation (which would include Chris' Rottweilers).

There are moves afoot to repeal the BSL and actually make people responsible for the behaviours of their pets (regardless of breed), which would be a welcome bit of common sense....


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## Ted Efthymiadis

Chris Michalek said:


> I have no clue how this could have happened to me. I've bragged enough about my dogs etc but tonight my wife's purse was stolen out of the house, while I was in one room and she was in the bed room.
> 
> I have SIX dogs, trained or not trained how the hell does somebody sneak into a house to steal a purse? The dogs lit up and chased two people out and over my back wall. They ended up throwing the purse back over the wall with nothing missing but cash and xanax.
> 
> I'm still baffled how anybody can get into a house with all these dogs, especially a Mal. That ****er barks at air most of the time and didn't bark then? Weird.
> 
> Now I feel totally crazy. I've my gun out and loaded. **** I hate this.



I never expect my dog to do something it's not trained to do. 
Unless you train these kinds of scenarios, chances are the dog will not know what it should be doing. 

Because my dogs have been trained to only bite on command, how could I expect them to randomly bite someone who jumps over the fence into my yard, unless I pay some dude on the street to put on a hidden sleeve and jump over my fence, in which case I would send the dogs. 

Sport is sport
Real life is real life, it's not often a sport dog will do what we assume it should do in a real life situation.... unless the robber is wearing a full bite suit, or sleeve hahahaha.


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## Chris Michalek

Ted Efthymiadis said:


> I never expect my dog to do something it's not trained to do.
> Unless you train these kinds of scenarios, chances are the dog will not know what it should be doing.
> 
> Because my dogs have been trained to only bite on command, how could I expect them to randomly bite someone who jumps over the fence into my yard, unless I pay some dude on the street to put on a hidden sleeve and jump over my fence, in which case I would send the dogs.
> 
> Sport is sport
> Real life is real life, it's not often a sport dog will do what we assume it should do in a real life situation.... unless the robber is wearing a full bite suit, or sleeve hahahaha.



All I expected was an alert. Not a bite, not a bark and hold... just a bark. I think the bottom line is the dog are too used to routine household noise, add the addition of me playing live music that's quite a distraction. I also think the dogs were too far away to smell anything. The Rottie did alert as soon as he detected something and gave chase to the back wall. Maybe something else would have been stolen but it's likely they peeked over the wall, saw the purse on the counter that was just inside a glass door. Maybe they didn't see any dogs and thusly attempted the theft. I does seem like there were a couple of people doing this as myu next door neighbor had his tool box stolen from a table in his backyard.


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## Chris Michalek

Ian Forbes said:


> As a working dog person, I probably would not move to Italy due to their current ridiculous 'Dangerous Dog' legislation (which would include Chris' Rottweilers).
> 
> There are moves afoot to repeal the BSL and actually make people responsible for the behaviours of their pets (regardless of breed), which would be a welcome bit of common sense....


Ian, the issue is, I have a European job opportunity for the next 20 months. My home base would be in italy. The problem is, that means my wife is left alone in another country with few friends, no family and a pile of dogs.


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## Ted Efthymiadis

Chris Michalek said:


> All I expected was an alert. Not a bite, not a bark and hold... just a bark. I think the bottom line is the dog are too used to routine household noise, add the addition of me playing live music that's quite a distraction. I also think the dogs were too far away to smell anything. The Rottie did alert as soon as he detected something and gave chase to the back wall. Maybe something else would have been stolen but it's likely they peeked over the wall, saw the purse on the counter that was just inside a glass door. Maybe they didn't see any dogs and thusly attempted the theft. I does seem like there were a couple of people doing this as myu next door neighbor had his tool box stolen from a table in his backyard.



Maybe the people through a bunch of food over before they jumped the fence. 
This would keep most dogs hush hush.

I know that's what I would do if I was a thief!
Look for kongs filled with peanut butter hahaha


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## Chris Michalek

Ted Efthymiadis said:


> Maybe the people through a bunch of food over before they jumped the fence.
> This would keep most dogs hush hush.
> 
> I know that's what I would do if I was a thief!
> Look for kongs filled with peanut butter hahaha


I would think that too except all of the dogs were sleeping at my feet. The Rottie did aleart for all I know he did it the second the back door was opened. the purse was only a few feet inside the door. Regardless, he gave chase to somebody and by the time I got over there to see what was going on, three of my dog were out and barking at the back wall. At that point I had no idea somebody was even in the house.


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## James Degale

Think about it what if your dog had bit? They might have got away or got caught. You'd have to endure a courtcase. The perps might be out in 1 month and come looking for revenge, poison or shoot your dogs, trash your car or worse, you know what I mean. The way I see it they got some cash, did not take the important stuff, like cards and they are unlikely to come back now they know you've got dogs. 

The dogs you have need to be taught their duty. I do teach barrier aggression, be it fence or house. Set up scenarios. As soon as anybody ventures over the boundary their job is to go mental. Some find that too much hassle with the neighbours. But if you can then prevention is better than bite. Better to get perps to look elsewhere and teaches the dog to be more alert and watchful of the actual boundaries. Also, bloody lock your doors next time.


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## todd pavlus

James Degale said:


> Think about it what if your dog had bit? They might have got away or got caught. You'd have to endure a courtcase. The perps might be out in 1 month and come looking for revenge, poison or shoot your dogs, trash your car or worse, you know what I mean. The way I see it they got some cash, did not take the important stuff, like cards and they are unlikely to come back now they know you've got dogs.
> 
> The dogs you have need to be taught their duty. I do teach barrier aggression, be it fence or house. Set up scenarios. As soon as anybody ventures over the boundary their job is to go mental. Some find that too much hassle with the neighbours. But if you can then prevention is better than bite. Better to get perps to look elsewhere and teaches the dog to be more alert and watchful of the actual boundaries. Also, bloody lock your doors next time.


This is all true...BUT why the hell would anyone train there dog to bite. With your theory you could just buy a big dumb lab that has a loud bark, and that should be enough. :roll:


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## Gerry Grimwood

James Degale said:


> The dogs you have need to be taught their duty. I do teach barrier aggression, be it fence or house. Set up scenarios. As soon as anybody ventures over the boundary their job is to go mental.


If you need to_ teach _your dogs to bark from *behind *a fence or screen/closed or open door, you are in trouble.


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## Don Turnipseed

I think all that bite training has has covered up those intuitive senses a dog has. These could have been two home invasion people that meant bodily harm. I have seen dogs that could sense something when they came over the wall. Or...hang some sleeve on the wall with a note that thes are trained dogs, please put these on. All kidding aside(not the first part) sorry for your experience Chris....both with the intrusion and the dogs.

I had an incident when I lived in a place that was inset into the side of a hill. Kitchen windows were at ground level on the outside. I was fixing breakfast and hadn't seen or heard anything and I was in front of the windows. I had one dale at this time so it has been a while. No barking or anything but I knew something wasn't right. She was frantically pawing and scratching at the door. I had a feeling I better but a leash on her then we headed outside with her walking on her hind legs dragging me. She rounded the corner of the flatbed I had parked there and all you could hear were those teeth slamming shut. The guy that was crouched out there was suspected of killing two women several years earlier but it could never be proved. This I didn't know at the time or I may have just shot him.


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## Frenk Delacroix

If you come to Europe, you must let those of us living here know.

And of course robbery is much rarer than in your Arizona!


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## Chris Michalek

Frenk Delacroix said:


> If you come to Europe, you must let those of us living here know.
> 
> And of course robbery is much rarer than in your Arizona!


your Europe is more and more doubtful as the days progress. :-(


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## Frenk Delacroix

Chris Michalek said:


> your Europe is more and more doubtful as the days progress. :-(


In what way? Please come have a look, you may be impressed!


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## Chris Michalek

Frenk Delacroix said:


> In what way? Please come have a look, you may be impressed!


*mod edit*. Great for a samich and a picnic but not for real life.


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## Frenk Delacroix

Chris Michalek said:


> *mod edit*. Great for a samich and a picnic but not for real life.



I can tell you have never visited Europe!


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## Chris Michalek

Frenk Delacroix said:


> I can tell you have never visited Europe!


right. You know I have a home in Paris right?


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## Frenk Delacroix

Chris Michalek said:


> right. You know I have a home in Paris right?


Right.


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## Chris Michalek

Frenk Delacroix said:


> Right.


yeah I bought it after I sold my place in meunster


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## David Frost

Chris Michalek said:


> yeah I bought it after I sold my place in meunster


Love the cheese.

I haven't been to Europe is many years, always did enjoy it. Lived in Italy for three years, Turkey for 3 and Germany for 3. Traveled a bunch while I was there.

DFrost


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## Julie Argo

We have five dogs at our house too. Now only one is in the house, my female bloodhound. She is not your typical idea of a bloodhound. She isn't social unless she is looking for a lost person. In the three years since we've had her, only one person has come up to our house that she didn't try to bite. My husbands friend walked right up to the side door and by the time we got out to him he was standing next to her petting her head. WE told him to be careful but he didn't seem to be concerned. He isn't the sharpest tool in the shed anyway. Everyone else that has ever come to our house will not come to the side door if she is in the yard. We live in the country and before we got our door fixed I used to leave the door unlocked all the time. I guess I have a lot of faith in my dog. I hope that if push came to shove she would defend my family. I can tell you that no one or no thing can come into our yard without us knowing. We have 2+ acres and the dogs have a clear view of it all and they let us know if a bunny, groundhog,frog,whatever come into the yard. 
I'm sorry about what happened to you and your family. I do think that putting at least one dog outside would most likely deter anyone from coming in, if not it will at least alert you.


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