Dog keeps burglar out of home

By Ed Runyan

Some neighbors don’t appreciate the barking that comes from the dogs.

WARREN — For a Northfield Avenue Northwest family, the early Monday morning appearance of a person in the backyard is the reason they have a trained German shepherd.

Amanda Hall was talking on the telephone to her husband, Robert, at about 2:20 a.m. when she heard one of her four dogs, Jag, a 12-month-old German shepherd, growling outside.

A second later, she heard a man yelling and screaming and told her husband she needed to hang up to call 911.

It was difficult to see into the backyard where the noise was coming from, but she could make out the figure of a person with Jag clamped on tight, shaking his head side to side.

Amanda was concerned for the safety of the person, so she yelled “off” and then “here,” which commanded the dog to let the person go and return to the house.

The person ran off, she said, most likely bitten by Jag, who had blood on his face.

She later discovered that the garage door was open by about 12 inches, and one of her children also told her he had heard his window open and slam shut at about that time, she told police.

The Halls believe Jag scared off someone trying to break in to the garage and home. Police wrote up their report as an attempted burglary. Nothing was taken.

To the Halls, the situation is exactly the reason they have Jag, who is the dominant dog of the four and guardian of the family.

“He’s an excellent form of protection,” Robert said.

“At night, he’s like a prowler. He walks the grounds,” said Amanda. All four dogs — two are Dalmations, and the other is a female German shepherd — are on an electronic fence system that sends a shock to the dog if it travels outside of the yard.

The Halls’ yard is not fenced.

Detective Mike Currington of the Warren Police Department said he hasn’t had a chance to begin his investigation into the case, but he knows something in general about using a dog as protection from intruders: It works.

“They’re an excellent deterrent” to break-ins, Currington said.

“We’ve talked to to burglars who say they’ll knock on the door, and if there’s a dog or a burglar alarm, they’ll avoid that house,” he said.

Jag seems to feel that protecting the Halls’ four children is his mission, Robert said, because he goes into the front yard if the children are there and goes to the backyard if they are there.

“He [doesn’t] care about nothing but the kids,” Robert said, adding, “If he could cook, he’d be a great baby sitter.”

Jag has been working with a professional trainer for about six months, Robert said.

Robert said he doesn’t believe his neighborhood is especially dangerous, but his home was broken into about two months ago and many valuables were taken while the family and dogs were staying elsewhere because of a fire.

His neighbors don’t always like him having dogs in the yard at night because they bark, Robert said.

But because the dogs are on an invisible leash, they never leave the yard. People generally stay out of the yard because of the dogs. Some people even use the sidewalk on the other side of the street to be safe, he noted.

But because he works late sometimes, Robert feels better knowing that Jag is on duty 24 hours a day.

“You never know what’s going to happen,” he said.

runyan@vindy.com