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Fake Dog for Home Security

t0.vc

151–160 of 373 posts

Re: Fake Dog for Home Security

#151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People like to hate on suburbs for a lot of valid reasons but moving back to one as an adult after spending my 20s in the city was profoundly calming.

Same. I've left my garage door open on the way out so many times (in a quiet, unremarkable cul de sac -- neither upscale nor rundown) without consequence that I no longer worry about whether or not I closed it.

If I leave my garage door open, the mice come in and set up shop. Takes a couple weeks to trap them all. Sometimes I even see them running in.

I don't leave the door open unattended even for 5 minutes.

Re: Fake Dog for Home Security

#152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have owned four litters of labs and some goldens. They behave the way you train them, with one or two personalities being more "out there" than others. Ours were incredibly loving to new people, but barked at anyone that approached our house, attacked people who entered without us. One golden was so well trained we loaned him out as a therapy dog for people who were scared of dogs. He nearly attacked a mailman runnin…

I’d say you’re both right. A Labrador is more likely to have been trained to be a sociable, a Rottweiler to be aggressive. It’s reasonable to assume the breeds will behave in a particular way because they’ve probably been trained that way. Even when we don’t think we’re training them, our expectations cause them to behave in a certain way.

I didn't think I was disagreeing with them, just pointing out breed dispositions. :-)

Re: Fake Dog for Home Security

#153
post #149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Dont over estimate how dumb they are. Somehow, I can't parse this.

Imagine dumb is on a scale [0, 10] where 0 is “not dumb” and 10 is “dumbest a person could possibly be.” Now on this scale estimate how dumb someone is. If you say 2 (a little dumb) but in actuality they’re a 7 (very dumb) you underestimated how dumb they are.

Yes, but the OP was talking about overestimating dumbness, and it being bad for protecting against home invaders. It still doesn't make sense to me.

Re: Fake Dog for Home Security

#154
post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I doubt it. A dog and a sign send different messages, and the message of the sign is “the resident is afraid of being robbed”. EDIT: I want to make explicit that I am comparing something that gives the impression of a dog without a sign vs a sign with no other evidence of a dog. I am explicitly not commenting on the message sent by a sign combined with other evidence of a dog, just “fake (but, for the sake of argumen…

Interesting. I put up such a sign to try to reduce my liability if someone tried to get into my yard and encountered my 150 lb dog.

[deleted]

Re: Fake Dog for Home Security

#155
post #149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Dont over estimate how dumb they are. Somehow, I can't parse this.

Imagine dumb is on a scale [0, 10] where 0 is “not dumb” and 10 is “dumbest a person could possibly be.” Now on this scale estimate how dumb someone is. If you say 2 (a little dumb) but in actuality they’re a 7 (very dumb) you underestimated how dumb they are.

Exactly — it's about underestimating how dumb people are (which your comment refers to), not overestimating (which GP refers to).

Re: Fake Dog for Home Security

#156
To add credence to this post, I once heard an interview with an incarcerated burglar who claimed that dogs where the one deterrent that scared him off. He said that an alarm as only as good as the response times of the police and he's usually in and out of there in five minutes anyway. But who wants to risk it with a dog? Better to just move on to the next house.

A few more tips:

- Best place to hide valuables is in the kitchen pantry. Master bedroom is the most common place, but who is gonna think to go through your snack food.

- A lot of burglaries happen in the winter in the late afternoon or early evening when it is starting to get dark out, but before the homeowners get home from work.

- Your house is only as strong as the weakest link. Fancy locks can be bypassed by breaking a window. Design your security system to handle low level burglars (who probably don't know how to pick a lock), not foreign spies. For most people, this also holds true for online security.

Re: Fake Dog for Home Security

#157
post #9
post #7

If the OP was in Europe he could be sued by the trespasser due to the GDPR for posting the trespasser photo on a website without his consent.

You'd have to convince me that anyone in the EU has to basically get a model release from everyone they take a picture of in public before posting it anywhere on the web.

In Switzerland (Europe but not EU I suppose) it would be illegal to have a home security camera in a public area like this - dashcams aren't legal for the same reason, they invade privacy without a justified lawful reason.

Being in the background of someone else's holiday photo isn't a problem, but you can't just post publicly identifying photos of people where they are the subject of the photo if you do not have consent.

Re: Fake Dog for Home Security

#158
post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are many variations, near my place there is a sign with a picture of dog saying: "I don't bite, I amputate." I also saw a sign with a picture of a Gun: "Forget about the dog, I rule here."

In case this isn’t common knowledge, advertising you have a gun on premise makes you a more attractive target for burglaries

Is this actually true? It makes some kind of sense, but it is hard to guess at what percentage of thieves will be deterred, versus what percentage of thieves will be encouraged.

Perhaps we have a natural experiment, since California recently accidentally leaked a bunch of details about gun owners in the state: https://www.newsweek.com/gun-owners-personal-info-leak-outra...

Maybe in a year we can see if those owners experienced higher or lower than expected breakins.

Re: Fake Dog for Home Security

#159
post #91
post #69

How about barking and a door shaker mechanism to rattle the door as if the dog is throwing itself against the door in an effort to get to the intruder?

Now that is scary! My partner's parents had a doberman pincher years ago that often went crazy to try to get through the front door to attack whoever was on the other side - that is, if they were not a family member/friend - and one time he cracked the door, and very nearly broke through. He was just overall crazy and crazy strong for a dog. I can only imagine anything like that, even if only a little door shaking ,…

So, add the sound of splintering wood?
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