Who Says Cockers Aren't Good Guard Dogs?

[louisamoss]

Hi,

Holly is mad!! If she is asleep and there is the slightest noise, she wakes up and starts barking and running up and down looking around!!

She even does it in the middle of the night and wakes me up-who knows what she  hears because everything is quiet when I listen!! It also takes me quite a while to calm her down again-I lift her up to the windows and show her there is nothing outside and then she settles!!

It all started when my mums dog was over one evening and she did the same thing and Holly copied and now she won't stop!!

I don't actually mind because she sounds quite fierce and it makes me feel quite safe!!!

Does anyone else have this behavour??

Louisaxx

[Cob-Web]

Molo has grown into this - he barks if he hears someone at the door, or sees someone he doesn't know in the neighbours garden    He let us know that there was someone at the back of the houses at 4 am yesterday morning; it was our neighbour starting his early shift  

A few months ago OH came home in the early hours (he was working on the election count) and all he heard as he walked in was this really fierce growl - he said HE was scared and he knew it was Molo  

I always praise Molo for his warning barks or growls, as long as they are not excessive and he stops when I tell him its OK  

[Barney]

yes barney does this too.

for me its great as my dh works nights - my house being in a big park a bit out the way .... i don't what id do without barney's warnings - makes me feel very safe

although - when there was a cat in my front garden at 4am - the hysterics from barney were quite scarey in the middle of the night!

[Gilly]

Buttons does it to she'd bark at a crisp bag blowing past the house     NOBODY walks passed my house without getting a good old barking at! funny though she doesn't bark at next doors dog, she completely ignores her, but then again she's a Westie and rather yappie. She comes to a part in the fence she can see through and yaps and growls and Butty puts her paw up and says "whatever!!!" and walks away  

[Penel]

Yup both my cockers are like this - the setter and lurcher barely wake up at a noise in the night !

[flossysmum]

oh yes, all my dogs do this. i dont really mind because i feel safe they bark at everything and anything usually

[louisamoss]

What a great package you get with a cocker...

beautiful friendly dogs
great with children
not too big
excellent guard dogs(!)
Holly even cleans my windows for me with her really long tongue!

Couldn't ask for more!!

[Em - Oscar's mum]

Oscar doesn't make a very good guard dog as he doesn't even bark!  My hubby thinks we have got the only dog without a bark!  He doesn't even bark at the window cleaner and he HATES the window cleaner - poor man!

[clairep4]

funny though she doesn't bark at next doors dog, she completely ignores her, but then again she's a Westie and rather yappie. She comes to a part in the fence she can see through and yaps and growls and Butty puts her paw up and says "whatever!!!" and walks away 

[snapback]140261[/snapback]

   That sounds like Bella - we moved into a new house a month ago and there's a yappy little Yorkie 2 doors down that just yaps and yaps whenever it's in the garden (and growls at the old lady if she tries to make it go inside!). Bella joined in to begin with but now she completely ignores it.

She has started doing more guarding barking though and yesterday in the car, a guy on a moped pulled up next to me and she looked at him long and hard (this was at the traffic lights) and then started really barking at him - obviously weighed up his character and decided he was a bad one!    

It's quite sweet though because she'll do her guarding bark and then come over to me as if to say "please will you check it out for me, Mum?"

[fudgesmammy]

Yes- our Fudge does this. She even sits on the window sill in the lounge like a cat watching when the bin men, window cleaners, workmen next door, kids across the street etc are out. She does it at my parents house too. On the plus side she once alerted us to next door's little boy who had fallen off his bike and was unconcious in the middle of the road- saved his life probably!
Harry doesn't do it but then he can't hear noises. He just follows Fudge and attempts to look mean!

[~Jilly~]

Bella's such a big softie she'd make a completely useless guard dog

I thought all dogs barked at the postman, papers coming through the door etc but Bella rarely even raises an eyebrow. If she's comfy and sleepy and obviously hears some kind of noise she lifts her head slightly, opens half an eye, and then plonks her head back down and goes off to sleep again

Next door's cocker is the complete opposite and barks at anything and everything, even something as daft as a bird or a butterfly. She never seems to completely settle either and always seems to be 'on guard' and the slightest noise and she's up investigating. Not that she'd make a great guard dog either as she wouldn't say boo to a goose ::

[xxkatensweepxx]

Mine does this, he also does not like anything coming into the house eg. newspapers or letters so barks if there is any noise by the letter box, though weirdly he never rips anything up

[PennyB]

A friend managed to jam my hall door on the way out so I warned him that he'd have to go over the back wall of the yard to get back in when we came home. He duly climbed the wall for me to go through the back door and Ruby came flying out really fiercely barking and snarling even though Jon is a friend who she knew, so I now know she would do the same for a burglar and hope it was enough to stop them.

[Looking for Speedy]

Joey only barks if someone comes to the door. Its usually four warning barks as soon as I open the door he stops. Other than that he almost never barks.

[Mo]

Yes both ours do this - they sleep in the bedroom with us so we're woken up quite often.  Even after we've calmed them down you can still hear Joey doing a low belly grumble  

We've talked about going camping but the only thing stopping us is the fear that the slightest sound will set them off and wake up the whole site