Not a watchdog

[Cheesewoman]

I have a 3 year old male boxer who rarely barks, he may bark once if someone rings the doorbell. Sometimes we will be laying in bed at night and we will both hear my fiancé coming through the front door. When this happens, he doesn't even get up to check things out, he just stays in bed. Isn't it normal for a dog to go to the door to see who's entering his home? Someone told me he probably knows it's the fiancé so doesn't bother to get up, but I would feel a little safer if he was atleast a bit interested in whoever is walking in. He is very sweet and friendly, but very attached and wants to be near me all the time. Is this why he doesn't want to get up?

 

[Sansal]

He can probably tell its your fiance. Happy and Sky are very alert and bark sometimes too much but they can tell by the sound of the car, the door shutting, the footsteps.... that it is me or my husband coming home and then they don't bark. Sky might run to the door for a greeting but Happy usually stays in bed and just wags her tail a little, .

 

[SillyTucker]

I think boxers are relatively quiet dogs. Not really known for their barking. My Tucker only barks if he wants to play and you're ignoring him, or during play with people or other dogs. Not once has he barked when someone is at the door or when out on walks.

 

[Gatorblu]

Arabella barks at everything! A leaf can blow across the yard and she will let you know. Thor on the other hand hardly ever barks. My dh has contended that he would never protect me. I have always told him he was wrong. Then one night while dh and I were watching tv someone cut across our front yard. Of course Arabella was up and barking, but so was Thor. His bark was low and he meant business. DH asked who belonged to that bark and I told him Thor. DH was shocked! I know when it comes down to it Thor will protect me. He just knows I don't need protection from everything.

 

[jacquim]

Raiden can't hear so doesn't get up if someone comes to the door unless he sees my other dog go running by to the door but my border collie gets up to check it out for everyone except me and my husband. She stays where she is, tail wagging when it is one of us coming home. For guests that she knows, she runs to the door tail wagging, and for strangers that give off a bad vibe, she lets out some low barks and even the odd time raises a lip at them.

Raiden usually only barks when he is trying to get Sadie to play. I haven't had anyone totally creepy show up at my door yet though since I have had him so I'm not sure how he would react or if he would feed off of Sadie at all and bark/growl at anyone.
I figure between the two of them, they make a good protective team. Sadie jumps up to the slightest sound and can get pretty mean sounding when she is uneasy about a situation and Raiden looks a little bit more intimidating than my ball of fluff and when he does bark, he has a very deep bark (even though he is all tail wags and bum wiggles).

 

[Roge]

Like Arabella Roge is very vocal. We live in the country side and if Roge is outside and starts to wiggle his butt I know that some of my family will arrive within a few minuites as he knows the sound of everyones car ( there are 4 cars in my house) but will bark his head off when a stranger car pulls in.

 

[xJazerx]

He very well may know its ur fiance. My husband prepares to open the door in the same way everytime. His keys always make the same sound, etc. dante, who barks at almost every noise Outside our door in the hall... Never barks when my husband gets home and comes through the door. The other part of it is that he hears our car (which has a unique sound being a sports car)... And perks up when he hears it and is then expecting daddy to walk in. Maybe your dog experiences either, or both, of these as well.

 

[MillysMom]

Milly although vocal with us, she likes to talk like her mom is pretty quiet in the house. Ryan travels for work and that dog will not bark or get up when he comes home if it is late -she will just chill in bed. However if she hears something outside of the norm, she does a low muffeled bark and than is on high alert. If we say watch em or who is it she will bark Overall not a watch dog. Every bark is complimented by a wiggle

 

[BoozerBaby]

My boy wasn't a barker but we taught him at about 1 1/2 yrs because he won't bark at the door we would whisper " who is it " then he would do his stance at the door and we would repeat the phrase until he barked then give him lots of praise and treats even though he wasn't much of a food dog sometimes he loved the praise more than the treat he was a funny boy.My boy Boozer never even barked until he was 1yr old before we heard his 1st bark.We were so excited.

 

[pcaro]

Max is the same he is 2 years old and rarely barks, if me or my husband get home late and he is in bed with the other he usually will not get up, but a couple of time we have heard a low scary sound comming from him, and he looks very alert, I wouldn't like to be an intruder and face him.