The Unofficial P64 Resource Forum

what you'll choice for the home security. if you have three option
A. Dog
B. Gun
C. CCTV security system (or other electronic products)
and Must mention the reason why you'll prefer to one of them.
Must share your views because it's time to share to experience.

Gun is always my first choice because when seconds count the police are minutes away.

Statistically speaking, a dog is more effective at preventing robberies and home invasions, but they're also a lot more expensive and a lot more work.

Peace favor your sword,
Kirk

First thing you come to at my house is a fence. Make it past the fence,waiting in the house is two indoor pitbulls. We sleep upstairs so as soon as the dogs bark (if your like me,you realize your dog has different barks for different things) I hit the table light to head for the 12ga. So I would consider my first choice, my dogs. Most people won't enter a house with dogs especially two pits. That is fine by me because I am in no hurry to have to confront someone in my house in the middle of the night and possibly use deadly force. Wouldn't trade them two dogs for nothing.

I agree with the Kirk, and Blizzard, a dog is my first choice. Home invaders will walk right by a security system sign, but as stated won't even go near a house with dogs. Additionally most burglars don't want a confrontation, they will go after the house they think is empty. A house with dogs is never empty, even if just in the yard.

Hate to say it, but really in most cases the gun may do you no good. If the burglars have made that decision to come in while people are home, they've probably been watching the house already. They know what lights have come on, what rooms people are in. If they're coming in to harm they will come straight for you. This can all happen in in under 5 seconds. If you aren't right by your gun, or have it on you, you will never have the time/chance to use your gun.

So first choice is the deterrent; Dogs, second the gun, third the CCTV security system.

Also some people may not have option of having dogs. If you know you will be away for an extended period of time, it could be a good idea to use light timers, etc. Try to think of what lights you turn on at night and when. If the house looks like someone is home the burglar will likely move on to the next house.

Depends on the dog. If it's got a good guarding instinct and is large enough to successfully engage a man (german shepard, yellow lab, doberman, pitbull, etc), I'd take the dog if I could only have one. A good bark will scare away a lot of intruders, and few men want to engage a dog big enough to take them out.

Reminds me of back in the day in college. A roomate of mine had a german shepard. She was actually a small german shepard, but she had what is still to this day the loudest meanest bark I have ever heard. If you heard the bark without seeing her, you'd think it came from some 250lb monstrosity that was drooling with rabies and chomping at the bit to kill you. And she had a very good guarding instinct. Never worried about anything then -- soon as you stepped on our properly, she would start barking, and I think it would take an EXTREMELY dedicated burglar to decide to approach after hearing that bark.

I currently have an ankle biter dog with a good guarding instinct. He'd be useless in a fight, but he still has a dog's senses, and a loud shrill bark. Nobody is getting in the house without him alerting me as they're trying -- his bark isn't scary but it sure is an effective alarm. Ankle biter + gun is therefore not a bad combo.

But if you only had 1 choice as in the OP you don't have a gun if you choose a dog.

When the rubber hits the road I want something that goes bang.

Home invasions from what I read and it happened here just recently "...opened the door when somebody knocked..."

I or my wife never open the door unless I know who it is, even during the day my doors are locked if I am home.

The wife is a very light sleeper if she says somebody is breaking in and I do have ADT, then the weapons will be out pretty quick.

A big dog is probably best. I don't have one, but I am trained in Krav Maga and have my P64 close by.

So was there supposed to be a story to follow or no?

I posted my experience on another board a day after the following instance so thought it might be of interest here..

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My wife and I really were wild and crazy last nite . we celebrated New years eve by watching a good movie till at least 1030 pm then went to bed.. at about 300 am she wakes me up ands says there are a bunch of young guys yelling and screams and cursing, and fighting or pushing and shoving. pre fighting. in road in front of our house and a couple of cars there blocking road...Now I know this might seem a little long at this point but bear with me as there is a lesson here..I tell her keep lights off in house so we can see outside and they cant see inside. and to call 911.. she calls 911 and tells them whats going on and of course gets all the silly questions of who what when and etc before they really ask about situation. then say they will send some one out. well only about 5 to 6 minutes a patrol car arrives and then another. they quiet em all down .then the patrols leave. seems they must of had car trouble or something else... they had dumped the beer cans and bottles in to the shrubs when the patrols arrived..
the crowd stayed about an 1/2 hour and then all drive away.. now the lessons. Not for nuttin(jersey slang) and not knocking the cops remember I was one but I pointed out to Lynne from the time she woke me up and decided to see what was going on till the cops arrived it was almost 10 minutes.. asked her how long it would take for a door busting entry to go from our door to our bedroom or our grand daughters rooms.. maybe a mere few seconds baring getting past dogs. and what was our defense besides the alarm system..
Best couple of things from the lesson is she said she knew that I would have my bedside gun ready during this thing.. I asked why she didn't have hers (shrugged). and not knocking response time which was actually pretty good now a days it isn't good enuff.. you have to take care of selves.. So since we were safe and no real problems all our preparations were tested or lack there of were proved..

+1 with Curly1 & anjdrifter, a gun, for me time is the most important issue.....no way a LEO's can get to you in time. Having said that, I had a home invasion back in the late 70's, I had a dog, a alarm system and a gun; power was cut, phone lines cut and patio door broke open late at night, but it was my wife that work me up, dog was use to me coming in late after work may be reason he didn't bark. Long story short because I've related this story some time back here, I had to shoot intruder, mistake I made was not killing him, shot him with a .357 in the leg [knee] to stop him, he was on drugs and really high, I was dragged through the courts [criminal & civil] for 18 months before I got my gun back, legal cost back then was over $4000. I still have the S&W mod 13-1 today and its still keep loaded. I will say though, that now I appreciate the two small dogs I do have now because they bark at anything that moves near the house, so they are a deterrent for someone "thinking" about breaking in, but also for fires, they have awaken us once when we had an electrical problem before the smoke alarms went off.

The answer to your main question is all of the above because they work together as a system. Having been a police officer for 20+ years and chief of detectives for ten of those I can tell you that in order to safeguard your family and yourself it takes a combination of all three and more. it's called "hardening the target". You can't narrow it down to just one thing. You need layers of protection to be proactive and It's been proven that a dog alone is of little use no matter how big or vicious. I'll take three well trained "ankle biters" over one or two Pitt Bulls any day of the week In a home invasion scenario because a determined criminal will simply shoot the dog at which point he becomes useless The idea that you can pick just one is foolhardy at best and deadly at worst. The single most important asset you can have is a plan. We have one and drill on it at a random times of the day of night. Everyone wants a one size fits all plan of action and there simply isn't one. When it comes to dogs, in my humble opinion, two or three small "ankle biters" as they are called are worth a dozen pit bulls. The important thing is that they raise the alarm an they're much harder to hit in the dark. I can't tell you how any home invasions/burglaries where I had to step over the dead dog to get inside. An example of "hardening the target" would be when I remodelled my home I placed all of the light switches on the wrong side of the door. The intent is not to stop the criminal, it's just to slow him/her down and contrary to the popular TV shows of the day most criminals don't come well equipped. While they're looking for the light switch I'm putting our plan into action. General Yamamoto once said "You cannot invade the mainland United States. There would be a rifle behind every blade of grass.". The same holds true for my home. Every member of my household is trained on every weapon we own and is quite skilled at low light combat shooting. Burglar alarms: expensive and nearly useless unless they include a loud noise making device both inside and outside the residence. Criminals hate having attention drawn to themselves and all but the most determined will flee rather that taking the chance of being caught and to repeat the most often used phrase "when seconds count, help is only minutes away" and that's if you're lucky. My departments average response time was about 8 to 10 minutes which was pretty good but most times when we arrived the perpetrator was long gone and we we're left to secure the scene and collect evidence. TV shows: I think the show that does the most disservice to the public is CSI, The majority of the tools they use don't exist and the turn around time for blood/DNA analysis is about 6 to 8 weeks, if you're lucky.An alarm hooked up to an alarm company is another waist of money, by the time they get around to calling the appropriate law enforcement agency the crime is long over. 911 is another waist of time and tax dollars, most times you'll be rerouted through two or three dispatchers leaving you to repeat the same story over and over again while the suspect rapes your wife or daughter. All new phones have speed dial, learn the direct number to the local PD and Fire Department and put them on speed dial. It takes about 10 minutes and a phone book to figure out the appropriate number. Once the alert has been sounded here every member of the family knows exactly what to do and our home is designed to catch the bad guy in a crossfire without shooting each other, sort of like a roach motel, they check in but they won't be checking out, well not alive anyway. Once set in motion he has no way out and when the police finally arrive all they'll find is a dead criminal(s). I could ramble on but I like to keep a few surprises for my own safety. If you have home security questions you can PM me and once i determine who you are I'll be happy to share. At the end of the day your personal security and safety is YOUR responsibility.

Accidentally double posted, sorry.

wlockridge wrote:The answer to your main question is all of the above because they work together as a system. Having been a police officer for 20+ years and chief of detectives for ten of those I can tell you that in order to safeguard your family and yourself it takes a combination of all three and more. it's called "hardening the target". You can't narrow it down to just one thing. You need layers of protection to be proactive and It's been proven that a dog alone is of little use no matter how big or vicious. I'll take three well trained "ankle biters" over one or two Pitt Bulls any day of the week In a home invasion scenario because a determined criminal will simply shoot the dog at which point he becomes useless The idea that you can pick just one is foolhardy at best and deadly at worst. The single most important asset you can have is a plan. We have one and drill on it at a random times of the day of night. Everyone wants a one size fits all plan of action and there simply isn't one. When it comes to dogs, in my humble opinion, two or three small "ankle biters" as they are called are worth a dozen pit bulls. The important thing is that they raise the alarm an they're much harder to hit in the dark. I can't tell you how any home invasions/burglaries where I had to step over the dead dog to get inside. An example of "hardening the target" would be when I remodelled my home I placed all of the light switches on the wrong side of the door. The intent is not to stop the criminal, it's just to slow him/her down and contrary to the popular TV shows of the day most criminals don't come well equipped. While they're looking for the light switch I'm putting our plan into action. General Yamamoto once said "You cannot invade the mainland United States. There would be a rifle behind every blade of grass.". The same holds true for my home. Every member of my household is trained on every weapon we own and is quite skilled at low light combat shooting. Burglar alarms: expensive and nearly useless unless they include a loud noise making device both inside and outside the residence. Criminals hate having attention drawn to themselves and all but the most determined will flee rather that taking the chance of being caught and to repeat the most often used phrase "when seconds count, help is only minutes away" and that's if you're lucky. My departments average response time was about 8 to 10 minutes which was pretty good but most times when we arrived the perpetrator was long gone and we we're left to secure the scene and collect evidence. TV shows: I think the show that does the most disservice to the public is CSI, The majority of the tools they use don't exist and the turn around time for blood/DNA analysis is about 6 to 8 weeks, if you're lucky.An alarm hooked up to an alarm company is another waist of money, by the time they get around to calling the appropriate law enforcement agency the crime is long over. 911 is another waist of time and tax dollars, most times you'll be rerouted through two or three dispatchers leaving you to repeat the same story over and over again while the suspect rapes your wife or daughter. All new phones have speed dial, learn the direct number to the local PD and Fire Department and put them on speed dial. It takes about 10 minutes and a phone book to figure out the appropriate number. Once the alert has been sounded here every member of the family knows exactly what to do and our home is designed to catch the bad guy in a crossfire without shooting each other, sort of like a roach motel, they check in but they won't be checking out, well not alive anyway. Once set in motion he has no way out and when the police finally arrive all they'll find is a dead criminal(s). I could ramble on but I like to keep a few surprises for my own safety. If you have home security questions you can PM me and once i determine who you are I'll be happy to share. At the end of the day your personal security and safety is YOUR responsibility.

Well said and the MOST important piece of advise

At the end of the day your personal security and safety is YOUR responsibility.

When I was repoing dead beats veh I use to carry tootsie pops ...... People would leave the dog in the car and,well dogs can't refuse tootsie pops luring the dog out of the car and the center keeps them busy ....... Poor dogs looked dumbfounded as I was drive the car away ...... Oh well hope the owner didn't take it out on the dog!

Concertina wire and claymores.