09/29/2025
Here's a little story for anyone wondering if a Decker would/could make a good guard dog. We had a very eventful Saturday night...technically Sunday morning I guess as it was about 2:00 in the morning. Our dogs stay outside on most days (we have 4 acres we put inground fence around and they have access to some woods, the whole yard, shade trees, the carport, and the creek) but come inside at night to sleep in their individual crates. This particular evening was kind of warm and muggy so when our girl Annie decided she didn't want to come in I was not horribly concerned about her staying out. She sometimes likes to sleep under our front porch or in the carport. Then usually in the morning when everybody else is headed out for the day she likes to come in for a few hours. Whatever. Not a big deal. Well Saturday night I got up to use the restroom and as I said it was warm, so the bathroom window was open. As I am sitting there, I hear a dog barking but it's way off in the distance towards the back of the field here behind the house and definitely not Annie's bark. I at this point am thinking it's probably the neighbor's dog or something but then all of a sudden I hear a bunch of ruckus coming from the carport and my stainless steel bowl I use for the dogs goes flying up against the wall and Annie starts going absolutely nuts barking and growling-the kind that puts chills throughout your entire body. I thought oh s**t there's a racc**n in the carport. Well for those of you that don't know c***s are nasty when cornered by a dog. They will tear them apart. So by this point the commotion has my son awake and he comes busting out of his door asking if he should get the gun to which I was like yes! Hurry before that thing tears my dog to pieces! No wait! Annie won't come to you. Do not accidently shoot my dog! All this is going on whilst I'm trying to hurry up and pull my pants up and get down the steps without going ass over tincups. Now my husband is awake from the commotion. My son heads to the basement for shells for the gun while my husband and I sprint out the front door to get the dog. Now imagine my surprise, everyone's surprise really, and probably the look on my face when I run around the corner of the house expecting to find a c**n, fox, or opossum and I find Annie has a deer cornered. It was a fawn from this year, and it was clearly stressed. It was panting heavily, disoriented, and stumbling around. We got the dog contained safely in her crate and chased the deer into the little patch of woods by the house. We have been having trouble with coyotes and have been seeing them on our trail cameras so we think the dog in the back of the field I heard was a coyote and it was chasing that fawn. I don't know if the commotion I heard in the carport was the deer coming in or the dog going out but I do know Annie didn't hesitate to spring into action. This dog amazes me! She is timid partly because of how she was raised (I mean no disrespect to the person who raised her, it's just a fact) but she has the sweetest personality(always happy go lucky, tail wagging), clearly has the instincts to protect her home, and knows what she was bred to do(she will and has killed critters who venture into the yard with a swift, quick shake). Believe me when I tell you that if anyone or anything is on your porch or around your house and has ill intentions, they are going to think twice about bothering you once they hear those growls, snarls, and barks coming from the other side of the door.