I have no doubt that Max would protect me but I would not want him to put himself in that situation.

When we first got Max we lived in a flat so had to walk him last thing at night. Dave used to work away a lot so it was often me that did it. Max was very undersocalised when we got him and would try and lunge at everyone, especially in the dark, so I used to take him to footpaths out of town. Dave used to say to me 'What if you meet a weirdo?' and I used to reply 'I am more worried about meeting a normal person!'

I would hope that Max's size would deter anyone as I would be more worried about my boy getting hurt than me and would worry about what it could mean for Max if he took a chunk out of someone for protecting me.

I spent the whole winter tramping around the woods in the dark (without a torch so as not to attract any attention) believing if push came to shove it would be me protecting the dogs..............not so!

My OH (bless him ) was out on his mountain bike and saw us before we saw him. He hid behind a bush and came running out shouting and waving his arms to make me jump. Ollie (GSP) had him pinned up against a tree snarling and growling because he didn't recognise him at first in a helmet and goggles. OH was terrified that Ollie wouldn't realise it was him and would bite him (hehe!! serves him right!!).

On another occasion I was walking through the woods and a lone male (without a dog) was walking towards me. Ollie stood on the path and wouldn't let the male get between him and me. As the male got closer he moved slightly. No aggression by Ollie just absolute determination that he was going to stay between the male and me. The male had to step into the brambles to get past Ollie, which suited me because I wasn't very comfortable about him either.

I was quite surprised at how fearless and also perceptive Ollie was and this was all at the tender age of 14 months. Bless him! The other 2 dogs were nowhere to be seen on either occasion! Bless them too!!

I've got Dobermanns it's in their genes and I have no doubt they would protect me if push came to shove. I hope they never have to, three of them should be enough to make anyone think twice.
They're a watchful, protective breed by nature and are quite suspicious of strangers until told it's ok. They're also extremely vocal so hopefully the racket they make would be enough to make anyone leg it.

I would like to think Jess would protect me, but to be fair, a lot of people cross the road when they see me with her, so not too sure if the matter would arise.

She has protected me when she pulled me over (when she was training with a tracking lead) when Lennox (her "boyfriend" GSD) came over to check I was ok. She stood over me and growled at him. It is the only time I have EVER heard her growl.

I think in a perfect world, It would be nice to have a dog that would come to my defense, but the reality of it is, if my dog attacked a human, even in defending me, she would be risking her life and thats just not a risk I'm willing to take. Either the attacker can kill her, or the courts can declare her vicious and have her put down. Life isn't worth living without her, so I'd rather have someone kill me than her. I couldn't live with the knowledge that my dog died for my sake.

Exactly how I feel - completely agree.

Having golden retrievers, they're a bit soft and more likely to lick you to death and therfore perhaps more likely to get hurt.
They're to precious to me, I couldn't bear it if anything happened to them.

Mine wouldn't nor would I want them to. I think they would make an awful lot of noise but that would be more out of fear rather than wanting to protect me. They usually come to me for protection not the other way round!
Becky

I have gsds, so yes. But I've done some protection work with them and it has left me in no doubt that they would protect me.

I wish the public recognised that guarding breeds are hard-wired to guard. I have to be so vigilant for joggers! Daisy just can`t get it into her head that some great fat sweaty guy rushing at me grunting and waving a bottle is allowed to it because he`s wearing trainers.

I have gsds, sadie im 100% sure would protect me from human or animal attack, but yoda, im not so sure, he is the softest soul but i think if push came to shove he probably would.

And to answer the question of whether i would want them too, then yes i would if it was a human attacker. If i ever got into such a situation that i could not control my dogs from 'attacking' a person that was threatening harm to me then that is a valid enough reason in my view to use the dogs in a self defence way. Although i wouldnt ever encourage my dogs to protect me...if they are going to look after you they wont need any encouragement to do so.