Is it True That Dogs Can Recognize a Bad Person Just by Smelling Them?
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Oh, yes. From my own long experience as a dog owner, I have many instances to illustrate this, but here is just one of them. Freya (above) was a Keeshond. Bright, engaged, friendly, welcoming, and polite — but always quietly vigilant and wise. Some people she loved, some people she liked, some people she merely tolerated, but even if she wasn’t 100% in favor of someone, her typical reaction was just to keep her eyes on them. Anytime I saw an unusual reaction from Freya, I took it seriously.
I was a well-known figure in a bustling safe neighborhood and it was not at all unusual for me to have workmen of various sorts come into my home to do maintenance or repairs while I was at work. They knew I would leave the door unlocked, the dog would bark when they entered, and they would just ignore her while they did their work and she watched them. (There was never any danger of thievery, by the way, because Freya had established a rule of her own that anybody could bring anything they wanted into my house, but they couldn’t take anything out that they hadn’t brought in unless I said so, a rule that occasionally caused some complications, but was overall not a bad idea. The workmen were all advised of this rule.)
I needed to have my carpets cleaned, so I called a friend of mine who owned a carpet cleaning company and whose workers had been in my home many times. We set up the date and I left the usual note on the door reminding the workers of the protocol with the dog and when I went to work. Later that day I received a call at work from the owner of the carpet company to say that they couldn’t do the job because my dog would not let the men in. This was weird, but I apologized and said I would stay home the following day and be sure they could come in. The next day two guys arrived as planned. One of them had been there before and he knew Freya, but the other one was a new guy with the company. Freya was instantly fierce. I have never seen her behave like this. She went full-on Rambo and she made it clear that she would bite ME if I tried to let them come in, so, with a little embarrassment, I told them I was sorry, but I had faith in my dog and if she said something was wrong, something was wrong.
Needless to say, the owner of the carpet cleaning company was more than a little irritated with me, but I held my ground. All I could say was that I trusted her judgment. Maybe three weeks later, the guy called me back to apologize to me. It turns out the new guy who had come to my house had just been arrested and charged with multiple counts of home invasion and rape. He used his job to find women who lived alone that he could later attack. I have no idea how Freya knew he was a bad guy, but she did.
Via Quora.
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Most of you have read some of my stories about Rascal who passed on in March of this year. On our property there were very few good people. In his opinion, they were all up to something bad. The exceptions were some of the workmen that regularly did work around the house or if they were females. Off the property, he was a friendly guy unless he was with Shirley my 2nd ex. He guarded her like she was a queen and God help any male that tried to walk too close to her or get between him and her. When she traveled with him he had a habit of claiming the entire hotel as his territory and he had the right to determine who came and went anywhere on the premises. She used to go over to Meridian and stayed at one particular hotel where he had made friends with a young black assistant manager. Shirley said it was like they were long lost brothers or something. When they walked into the hotel they instantly started playing with each other. She said one night she went out to dinner and Bobby offered to keep Rascal with him at the desk. While she was gone two “redneck” good old boys started to give Bobby a hard time. At least they did until Rascal came out of the office and around the counter. Rascal was what called a Labor Dane. About 2 1/2 feet at the shoulders and 110 lbs at the time and put his 2 or 3 cents worth into the conversation. They both backed out of the hotel and Rascal came back for his treat.
Some BUT not all dogs are protectors. My two dogs watched me get beat up by two irate tenants in my driveway. One a pit bull mix the other a Blue Gummed Dane. The dogs were found hiding in the back room.
Forget the dogs BEWARE OF OWNER!
I’ve had similar experiences with several dogs I’ve had the privilege to love. Most of my life I’ve lived in the country on large properties. I can’t remember having a dog hitched. Most of them have been free range, out when they want to be, in when they want to be, independent farm patrolling working dogs.
The most recent was my last dog Valentine, a larger than average border collie. Val very seldom barked. If he did you wanted to look into why. He would always appear to welcome any arriving visitors. Delivery people, meter readers, utility repair people, even the Jehovah’s Witnesses were generally greeted with a sniff and a wag of the tail whether we were here or not. While I can’t say how many times it happened when I was not here, I know of several times that he wouldn’t let “visitors” out of their vehicle. They all drove out before I got to them. Since I never heard a complaint about it I have to assume they were people who didn’t belong here.
One day I caught some people running a four wheeler ATV through my corn crop, grabbed one off the back of the machine as it was stuck on top of too many stalks and found they were kids. I took their info, advised them how much the restitution would be and sent them home. Their dad called a little while later to tell us he was on his way up to kick some ass for grabbing his son.
He got here, Valentine barked and growled before the truck ever stopped, when it did his hackles went up and he began to charge at the door snapping and growling. The guy yelled some – I couldn’t hear much of it over the barking-, but he never tried to get out of the truck. The dog chased the truck half way out the lane.
The check arrived a couple days later.