11 ms·

Fake Dog for Home Security

318 points by tannercollin 4y ago

CoffeeOnWrite 4y ago
I met an older Australian woman that sailed around the world solo, and swore by the fake dog for scaring off opportunistic pirates. She didn’t carry a gun or other weapon. Just a cassette tape on repeat when anchored.
- the_only_law 4y ago
  Why would pirates be scared of a dog though? They could just shoot it.
  - registeredcorn 4y ago
    I would imagine a burglar would see two issues: 1) If there is a dog on the boat, maybe there's people too. 2) Plenty of other boats, why bother killing a dog and make lots of noise?
    - Cthulhu_ 4y ago
      Yeah that's exactly it; it only takes a little uncertainty for burglars to be like "yeah nah".
    - reaperducer 4y ago
      2) Plenty of other boats, why bother killing a dog and make lots of noise? Exactly. A lot of people seem to forget that a gun discharging is even louder than a dog, so a would-be amateur pirate would be solving a small problem by creating a much bigger one.
  - CoffeeOnWrite 4y ago
    For sure. I’d bring a gun, personally.
    - Xylakant 4y ago
      A dog is an audible warning before the fact and may scare off thieves/robbers before an attempt. A gun is in the best of all cases helpful once the thief or robber has already decided to act.
      - dymk 4y ago
        That's why I have a solenoid triggered rifle in my backyard that shoots off a round every two minutes. It used to be full auto 24/7, but ammo got expensive :(
    - throw__away7391 4y ago
      All other issues aside, even assuming you can get the proper permissions, bringing guns into foreign ports is a major hassle and involves significant legal paperwork. Companies that provide armed security for cargo ships for example will keep the weapons on a boat at sea in international waters, transfer them to the cargo ship at the beginning of their security detail, then take them off with another boat before the cargo ship proceeds.
      - closewith 4y ago
        During the height of the piracy in East Africa, seaborne armouries were used to distribute weapons which were thrown overboard before entering territorial waters, as it was cheaper than collecting them. I also think some (almost certainly American) people underestimate how big an issue importing a firearm or possession of an unlicensed firearm can be in most of the world. It’s either many months of paperwork and almost guaranteed refusal, or risking many years in prison for an unlicensed firearm.
        mellavora 4y ago
        Also, the difficulty of bringing a gun back into the US if you take it out of the US.
  - DonHopkins 4y ago
    To scare off pirates at sea, I'd play Jaws Music. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nb8t3Lt8iJw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nb8t3Lt8iJw
  - madaxe_again 4y ago
    They could, or it could chew up a hand pretty well, or turn a robbery into a multiple murder, or any number of things. A dog doesn’t respond predictably or rationally. Criminal doesn’t mean stupid - and you’re not going to bother with a risky target when there are other, less risky targets nearby.
    - mywittyname 4y ago
      Angry guard dogs are fast and being low to the ground makes them difficult targets. One could easily cause serious injuries before being neutralized. If one knocks you down (which is very likely happen), then you also risk shooting yourself instead of the dog.
  - olalonde 4y ago
    I read "opportunistic pirate" as a regular unarmed person who might just be tempted to steal stuff from a seemingly unguarded ship.
    - the_only_law 4y ago
      That might be it. Tbf I don't know much about modern piracy. I just imagine guys with AKs and RPGs coming up and boarding you, but that could easily be a media depiction only.
      - lupire 4y ago
        I don't think those guys are taking single people in small boats. They want $5M insurance payouts from corporations, not killing random people for their clothes.
  - teknopaul 4y ago
    Outside the US most people don't carry guns, even pirates.
    - andai 4y ago
      When I Google "somali pirates", almost every photo has automatic weapons in it. What do pirates typically use?
      - nradov 4y ago
        In that region, mostly AK-47s and RPG-7s, plus whatever other random weapons they managed to scrounge. Same as every irregular paramilitary force throughout the Middle East and Africa.
    - fooker 4y ago
      In large-ish cities, sure. People have guns in rural areas everywhere. There are some exceptions like China where guns are very uncommon but if you are traveling through Eastern Europe, or Africa, or rural parts of south Asia you are going to encounter a lot of people who have guns. There isn’t a gun culture like in the US in these places though, so you’ll have to know what to look for.
      - reillyse 4y ago
        People have some guns in rural places worldwide but you almost never encounter them. Gun ownership rates drop off fast after the US (I think the 10th highest country is 1/4 of the US rate) and the rates keep dropping from there. Also while rural farmers may own a shotgun or a rifle they mostly leave that locked up at home, the chances of you meeting someone with a gun is pretty tiny. Only exceptions I can think of are perhaps some Central American countries.
        teknopaul 4y ago
        Agreed. Just got back from Marrakech there is very little crime there and certainly no baddies who would consider shooting your dog to rob you. "gun culture" and people waving hand guns around for crime or "self defence" is, thankfully, limited to a small number of failed states, and the United States.
- mellavora 4y ago
  Generally speaking weapons are a problem on boats. Many countries will require you to have a permit for it, which can be problematic to obtain. At the very least you have to declare it, which probably also means handing it over to the harbor authorities. Which means you don't have it when you would be most at risk and most need it. Second, say you solve the above and decide to deploy the gun. You don't have a lot of time, and you don't know if the approaching boat is a pirate or a local fisherman who wants to sell you a fish. Make the wrong call, and bad things happen. Say you solved the permit/registration issue by hiding the gun and then you deploy the gun. Bad things happen. Ok, it might have been justified and might have saved your life, but you are still probably going to jail for not declaring the weapon.
  - willcipriano 4y ago
    > say you solve the above and decide to deploy the gun. We're talking about a handgun not a artillery peice, "deployment" is taking it out of a biometric gun safe, 5 seconds max. Also you wouldn't open fire on someone just beacuse they are near your boat.
    - mellavora 4y ago
      ok. So you are on your boat. Small craft with three people is rapidly approaching on a direct course. You are nervous so you grab the gun (probably more than 5 seconds because you are out on deck and the biometric safe is fixed in the cabin, but I'll give you a pass on that). Where do you aim the gun? At them? At the deck? They see you are holding a gun, get a different look on their face, and one starts to reach under the seat. What do you do? Remember you are in a foreign country and don't speak the language, don't know the customs, cannot read the body language, ...
      - anonred 4y ago
        I would shoot a warning shot into the air. But maybe at that distance it wouldn’t be clear enough and that’d just escalate the situation..
omginternets 4y ago
I saw a rather comical sign posted in the first-floor window of a Philadelphia apartment. It had a silhouette of a German shepherd and text beneath, which read: >I can get from the second-story floor to the front door in 1.2 seconds. Can you?
- blowski 4y ago
  My labrador would run to the front door in 1.2s, but then roll over and demand to be stroked.
  - ushakov 4y ago
    a Golden Retriever would be happy to show you around and help you pack the loot
    - runjake 4y ago
      I say this tongue-in-cheek, here but I feel like you're being "breedist”, here. I have a <1 year old male golden retriever and I was surprised to learn that he has a very strong guard instinct and will not STFU with his loud, deep barking any time he hears a strange noise, or some stranger is walking by. That said, this is a feature, not a bug. "Early warning system" was in the top two features I was looking for in a dog.
      - loloquwowndueo 4y ago
        Your dog may behave uncommonly for its breed but dog breeds exist precisely because of common and predictable physical and behavioural traits. Great Danes are famously couch potatoes but mine could not stay still and demanded a ton of exercise - still it was the exception rather than the rule for that breed.
        0xbadcafebee 4y ago
        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 running towards us (sorry mailman!). One black lab in particular, Princess, she was a... well, a bitch, and kind of a bully. Animals have personalities too. The myth of breed behavior is not good. It's the reason so many pitbulls are put down. They are absolute sweethearts until you abuse them and train them to fight.
nano9 4y ago
>A Python script kept alive by Supervisor I laughed a little. Sometimes the job needs to be done quickly and in a familiar way, I suppose.
- uhtred 4y ago
  Why is that funny? (asking genuinely)
  - 89vision 4y ago
    OP should have used k8s to scale their workload
    - pwdisswordfish9 4y ago
      Or K9s
      - sgt 4y ago
        Is K9s compatible with supervisord(og)?
        goodpoint 4y ago
        No, it's monitored by datadog.
      - Tao3300 4y ago
        Solid pun! I'm gonna leave this here though for anyone who ever has to deal with k8s: https://k9scli.io/ https://k9scli.io/
- hgazx 4y ago
  I liked supervisor but I disliked how slow it was. Systemd is doing the same job for me now at lightning speed.
dvtrn 4y ago
> The dog has a lot of false positives from the cameras being triggered by car headlights or small animals. My real dog has the same feature, so you’re at least doing a good job mimicking nature, heh.
- kleer001 4y ago
  Interesting! They might be both working from a similar algorithm.
- smsm42 4y ago
  The dog also doesn't come with an off switch in case you have an important meeting with your CEO, taking it in your home office and there's a squirrel running around...
  - dvtrn 4y ago
    Oh dear. Can’t say I’ve had that problem...really ever. How many squirrels have you had to chase/escort out so far?
    - andrewflnr 4y ago
      Oh, I'm sure a squirrel outside is plenty to cause a problem. My dogs have historically not needed anything at all to actually be moving outside to trigger an endless barking spree.
      - dvtrn 4y ago
        The barking sure (though I set up my office in the basement because FAMILY LOUD and so when they go off, it's pretty well muffled and people on zoom calls don't even hear it), it was the "bringing a squirrel inside and then setting it loose in the house" part that I was wondering about, ha.
        boomboomsubban 4y ago
        I think you're confusing some awkward phrasing from the poster. They were taking the meeting with the CEO in their home office, and the squirrel was running around presumably outside causing the dog to bark. But I can see how you read it as thet were having a meeting and the dog brought a squirrel into the home office and ran around.
effnorwood 4y ago
[dead]
spapas82 4y ago
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.
- tiborsaas 4y ago
  Door needs a hint. "By entering this property without prior approval from the owner you agree to the terms and conditions (see link)". But seriously, that's not how GDPR works, people are using it as a replacement term for privacy. GDPR is aimed at companies, not individuals running a blog. You could still sue just under regular civil law.
- smcl 4y ago
  Ha, it sounds possible but I'm not a GDPR expert. However one thing I do know is that you'd basically be publicly outing yourself as a burglar and the press would have a field day. Streisand effect - maybe better to just keep your head down and hope nobody recognises your blurry face :)
- ghaff 4y ago
  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.
  - scrollaway 4y ago
    Yeah, this isn't how it works at all, and GP is not a lawyer.
  - eertami 4y ago
    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.
mallomarmeasle 4y ago
"The dog has a lot of false positives" Wow, just like my real dog!
- jvanderbot 4y ago
  > The dog has a lot of false positives from the cameras being triggered by car headlights or small animals. To my dog, those are not false positives.
  - the_gipsy 4y ago
    The dog has eliminated 100% of threats so far. Pretty effective.
- Cthulhu_ 4y ago
  Better false positives than a burglary I guess. Plus it's probably off when you're home... unless it's on at night as well. Anyway, improvements can be made, I'm fairly sure there's off-the-shelf "is this a person" detectors out there.
- sharkweek 4y ago
  A sampling of things my lovable labrador has barked at over the last 48 hours: - Birds - Packages being delivered - My neighbor, who he knows well, working in their back yard - Me banging a door closed too hard - A neighborhood cat taunting him on the sidewalk - My kid dropping a toy on our hardwood - ??? (He was barking at a closet door) - Anytime I touch the hook where his leash hangs - etc. Still, love having his big bark around, even if when someone actually broke in he’d immediately befriend them.
  - pxc 4y ago
    When it's really, really windy, my dog likes to stare out the window and bark at the trees for moving too much. (It took me a long time to even figure that one out.) At the same time, he likes it when trees drop little pieces of fruit or seeds, like mesquite beans or pine cones. So on windy days sometimes he gets into a loop with a tree where he * stiffens up and barks at a tree for shaking its leaves * cautiously approaches the tree, sometimes growling * snatches something the tree has just dropped and runs away with it * runs around in circles with the tree debris, pausing and play bowing wvery now and then, batting it around with his paws, etc. * ... cautiously approaches the tree again and so on, where he gradually gets bolder and more casual about approaching the rustling, swaying tree on each iteration. (He's pretty suspicious of wind-related movement generally— he'll also yell at flags and banners sometimes.)
throwaway894345 4y ago
Man, was really hoping it was this one: https://nypost.com/2022/07/21/robot-dog-with-submachine-gun-is-dystopian-nightmare-fodder/ https://nypost.com/2022/07/21/robot-dog-with-submachine-gun-...
- jansan 4y ago
  That would be the second (and more persuasive) line of defense.
mberning 4y ago
I can not stand thievery. And the brazen nature of it is so irksome. The fact that people need a fleet of security cameras and a fake dog to protect their home is ridiculous. These people should be caught and sent off to labor camps for a very, very long time.
- tristor 4y ago
  One of the challenges of our modern society is that we've eliminated so much self-respect, after all look at social media. Without self-respect, you cannot build respect for others and their property. It is no surprise then that these types of incidents have become more brazen and more common. Any self-respecting person, then must determine how best to deal with this, because you cannot rely on others whether that be the police, the government, your community, or the would-be thieves themselves.
  - dymk 4y ago
    Breaking News: Facebook Causes Increase in Burglaries But in all seriousness, all forms of crime have just about monotonically decreased throughout all of human development. To say that "modern society" has an increasing problem with burglaries due to a "lack of self respect", there's no evidence it's true, and there is evidence to the contrary. Before you point out the bump in some crime types in recent years, let me remind you that recent years have not been typical, nor easy on our generally monotonically-improving social safety nets. Compare burglary rates in America from 1980, 1990, 2000, 2010. Lower, lower lower. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crime_in_the_United_States#/media/File:Property_Crime_Rates_in_the_United_States.svg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crime_in_the_United_States#/me...
    - tristor 4y ago
      To not put too fine of a point on it, while crime is decreasing in aggregate over time, it's also spreading into areas/communities where it historically has been lower. It's still generally true that if you avoid going into the bad parts of town or engaging in social relationships with known criminals you are unlikely to be a victim of crime generally, however upper class neighborhoods and quiet suburbs are now seeing an increase in property crime and general anti-social behaviors that are occurring due to shifts in social mores and a decrease in respect that are happening within society overall. What I'm referring to is far more subtle than some direct link between social media and these behaviors, but even in the cases of direct links such things exist... for instance consider TikTok trends like "devious licks"[1] which had students vandalizing and stealing from schools on video, including in upper class neighborhoods and at good schools. I am /very/ well aware of the overall trend of crime decreasing in aggregate. However, I am also aware of the shift I'm noting above, and I'm aware that some crimes are now simply under/un-reported. Property crimes are definitely on the rise /in aggregate/ in some areas of the US, and can be most directly linked to shifts in enforcement. Car-break ins and bike thefts in particular in cities like San Francisco are associated strongly to the refusal of the law enforcement in the area to actually enforce the law. We have a large number of social ills, and aggregate decreases in mental health, happening in the West, and I see this as being in the large linked to lack of self-respect and self-esteem. People with self-respect and self-esteem don't go and hurt others and destroy things, they create and produce. Lack of self-esteem is a significant driver for depression, which seems to be on the rise, along with many other related issues. [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Devious_lick https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Devious_lick
AlwaysRock 4y ago
This is awesome. It will probably bark more than my actual dog haha
jlturner 4y ago
I can attest to having a barking dog being an excellent deterrent. One night about a year ago, somebody was snooping around our backyard (we saw them on the security camera), one sharp bark (from the little dog no less, our bigger dog isn’t much of a barker) sent the snooper running. I’ve long thought that this could / should be a simple home security system. Glad to see somebody did it and that it worked for them!
ge96 4y ago
I thought it was going to be like a physical one, but the sound makes sense.
arsome 4y ago
Unless you have a dog that's trained to attack, generally they're pretty docile with just a treat or two, might be good enough to stop opportunistic crimes though.
- ARandomerDude 4y ago
  They don't attack but they do alarm.
- FredPret 4y ago
  I emigrated from a third-world country to Canada. One of the first things I noticed was the docility of the dogs. Maybe back in the third world they pick up on their humans’ stress. There, they’d definitely attack at any opportunity.
  - duxup 4y ago
    >I noticed was the docility of the dogs. Depending on where you're from, some places spay / neutering dogs is much less common. It can impact their behavior a great deal.
    - FredPret 4y ago
      Even the spayed dogs are on another level regarding aggression. I’m sure it’s psychological
      - duxup 4y ago
        I wonder if they're just used to being around non spayed dogs / so they're kinda on edge in a way. Local suburban / trained dogs around here mostly just want to play with each other / random people / kids. I think they might be used to that kinda lifestyle even if just by example from other dogs.
        FredPret 4y ago
        Lots of people back home would keep their dogs in the yard all the time. The dogs wouldn't really ever socialize with the neighbours' dogs (maybe that's the issue?) For a lot of these dogs, if they ever got loose, they'd go and bite someone as soon as possible. This is true even/especially for the dogs of the rich, who have very easy lives. But with Canadians, I'm never scared of their dogs, because at worst they'll hump me!
300bps 4y ago
This along with a fake TV lighting source on a timer will deter most people casing your house. I got the fake TV lighting source generator on Amazon probably 15 years ago - really looks like someone is watching TV in the room.
duxup 4y ago
When I bought a house I picked up a dog dish and put it by my walkout basement sliding door. Also the pond next to my house has old tennis balls show up in it now and then so I put them next to the dish. According to the local cops break ins in my area are mostly just kids going into open garage / garage side doors / back doors that are left open and stuff to steal is out and obvious and so on. I figure just the sense of hassle / unknown of "who knows how this dog is" might be enough of a deterrent.
- Nextgrid 4y ago
  A "beware of the dog" sign would probably be just as (if not more) effective regardless of whether there's an actual dog.
  - bjt1234 4y ago
    Dont over estimate how dumb they are. Installed security cameras, they still came onto the property. So, next I installed a sign "BEWARE OF THE SECURITY CAMERA", and didn't work, infact one guy broke into my car and simply just covered his face from the canera. So then I installed a cheap security light next to the sign that would light up when they entered. That worked.
    - rootsudo 4y ago
      " Dont over estimate how dumb they are." I don't know... you setup deterrents, as a bluff and it took a while before one worked.
    - copperx 4y ago
      > Dont over estimate how dumb they are. Somehow, I can't parse this.
      - Spivak 4y ago
        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.
Hippocrates 4y ago
Most family dogs will just roll over for belly rubs once the burglar is inside, but the barking is a great deterrent because it draws attention. The burglar has no idea if that is normal or not, and if someone else might hear it and come investigate.
- kqr 4y ago
  In this spirit, I remember an ex-burglar on reddit saying that small dogs are the best guard dogs, because big ones typically have to be trained to be nice, but small ones just don't shut up.
  - jimt1234 4y ago
    This is 100% accurate (small dogs are better for home security). Uh, speaking for a friend.
  - cptcobalt 4y ago
    Actually, I wonder why the consistent barking is more easily trained out of bigger dogs than smaller dogs. Anecdotally, my big husky rarely barks (usually only during play, or when "talking" with us), but my small shiba will never shut up if she hears a noise at the door.
    - jedberg 4y ago
      For all dogs barking is a defense mechanism. As the bigger dogs grow up, there are less things that they find threatening, whereas the small dogs always feels threatened because most things are a lot bigger than they are.
    - lupire 4y ago
      Napoleon syndrome. Small dogs feel much more threatened and not on control.
    - Pasorrijer 4y ago
      Also, in my anecdotal experience, large dog owners end up putting in more training time because the consequences of not are much greater. My 50lb, German shepherd looking village dog jumps on grandma? Grandma breaks a hip. My parents 3lb Shit-Poo jumps on Grandma? Cue the cooing. Similarly with barking. Not saying it's true for all owners, but generally once you start training alot of other behaviours get cleaned up as a side effect.
Hippocrates 4y ago
I get package thefts, people pissing on my entryway, and general creeping late night. Of course I have a doorbell cam but it doesn't help. I've now set up a homekit automation which triggers via the doorbell's motion sensor. It flicks the exterior and interior hall lights on via smart switch, one after the other with a slight random jitter, to create the illusion of someone about to come out the door.
- reaperducer 4y ago
  For those looking for a simpler, cheaper solution, you can buy exterior light bulbs with built-in motion sensors for about $15. It scores exactly zero geek cred, but it works if you're renting and don't want to go the full-blown home automation route.
  - ChoGGi 4y ago
    Thanks for that, perfect for my porch light.
swayvil 4y ago
Here's a nasty story. Small college town. Nice, lots of bookstores. Retired professors. Food co-op etc Once excellent school, now on the skids. Student population in decline. Local student-housing management companies, slumlords, etc, are alarmed. They're losing money. Solution. State-subsidized housing of low income families and ex-prisoners. Nice college town now has riots and shootings every night. Burglaries of nice retired professors' homes skyrocket. Town builds new triple-sized police station.
- 240P_Climate 4y ago
  Soon all of America will be like this and we cant wait. No more white privilege for you ;)
Wistar 4y ago
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?
- mxuribe 4y ago
  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 , would be pretty scary.
  - Wistar 4y ago
    So, add the sound of splintering wood?
    - mxuribe 4y ago
      Yes definitely! And also maybe add in a recording of some human yelling for dog to calm down and "don't go ripping apart another visitor!" :-)
      - Wistar 4y ago
        "Bluto! STOP IT! I am tired of replacing doors! STOP!"
        mxuribe 4y ago
        Lol nice!! :-)
Dnguyen 4y ago
We installed X-10 barking dog modules 20 years ago. https://www.powerhouse.eu/en/home-security/46-x10-dk10-barking-dog-alarm.html https://www.powerhouse.eu/en/home-security/46-x10-dk10-barki...
reaperducer 4y ago
Reminds me of the late 70's and early 80's when car alarms were becoming popular. You could buy fake scary-looking "Car alarm enabled" stickers for your window at Radio Shack. You could also buy a little box that stuck to your dashboard that was nothing more than a blinking light, in order to reinforce the thought. Back then it was not uncommon for car alarm installers to advertise their work on the driver's side windows of the cars. "Protected by Viper!" Stuff like that. I remember the first time I saw a car like that. It was in the parking lot of an amusement park. I threw a bunch of road trip crackers on the car, and let the seagulls have a party. They didn't seem to care about the computer voice: "Warning! This car protected by Viper! Stand away from the car!" -bloop!- -bloop!- -bloop!- -bloop!- -weee-awwww!- -weee-awwww!- -weee-awwww!- -booo-weeep!- -booo-weeep!- -booo-weeep!- -fweeeeeeeep!- -fweeeeeeeep!- -haaaaaank!- -haaaaaank!- -haaaaaank!- -haaaaaank!- And so on.
fblp 4y ago
Would be great if this could be setup with Google home or Alexa!
nyingpo 4y ago
It reminds me of a story that made the news[0] some years ago. The local police received complaints that a dog was being mistreated, chained on the same spot for days. Arriving at the scene they found out that an elderly couple were using a Rottweiler statue for keeping burglars away from their house. OP's fake dog is a great improvement over that one! [0] https://g1.globo.com/mg/sul-de-minas/noticia/2019/05/09/pm-e-acionada-apos-denuncia-de-maus-tratos-mas-encontra-cachorro-de-plastico-em-mg.ghtml https://g1.globo.com/mg/sul-de-minas/noticia/2019/05/09/pm-e...
- marcodiego 4y ago
  A dog was mistaken for a lion: https://abcnews.go.com/blogs/headlines/2013/01/labradoodle-mistaken-for-lion-prompts-911-calls https://abcnews.go.com/blogs/headlines/2013/01/labradoodle-m...
nonrandomstring 4y ago
Beards of similar length and greyness to mine might remember this was a project, probably from the brow of R. A Penfold posted in a monthly electronics magazine. Damnit, I can still recall a schematic: ORP12 and LED + lens broken beam detector, 555 timer as clock, 74590 binary counter, an EEPROM, 8 bit DAC and push-pull power amplifier based on TIP30/31 transistors. IIRC the crazy part was you needed to build an EEPROM programmer as step one, and hand program the sound sample using a BBC micro parallel port. Digitised dog barks were available by floppy disk in the mail.
cbozeman 4y ago
Don't get a fake dog for home security. Get a real gun. Then go to a tactical trainer who has served in the military ideally in a small arms instructor capacity - they're all over the nation - and inquire about home defense courses. And don't get a "handgun", get an AR-15 "pistol". That is, an AR-15 platform, a stabilizing brace, and a shortened barrel. If you're unsure what all this means, don't worry, your local firearms dealer will almost certainly know and understand if you come in and ask for those things. If a break-in occurs, you'll be too nervous and too frightened to aim well with your standard 9mm handgun. An AR-15 with a stabilizing brace and a shortened barrel with a vertical forward grip is sturdy, you can brace it against your shoulder (obviously), and it has sufficient power to stop an intruder. At the end of the day, you and only you are responsible for your own safety. Even if you live in a gated community, you cannot count on your local security or law enforcement to arrive quickly enough to save you. Remember the old adage. "When seconds count, the police are only minutes away."
- MonkeyMalarky 4y ago
  The author's use case is for when they are out town.
- nautilus50 4y ago
  Don't get an AR-15, Get an RPG-29.
  - clansimus 4y ago
    Don't get an RPG-29, get an F-18.
    - kelseyfrog 4y ago
      I can't be the only one building a nuke in my garage.
      - inkcapmushroom 4y ago
        https://www.wearethemighty.com/popular/that-time-a-boy-scout-built-a-nuclear-reactor-out-of-common-household-items/ https://www.wearethemighty.com/popular/that-time-a-boy-scout... Indeed you are not.
chadash 4y ago
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.
- larrik 4y ago
  > who is gonna think to go through your snack food Your kids and your houseguests, that's who!
- djhworld 4y ago
  I remember watching a thing from another ex-burglar who said dogs are a good deterrent but you can overcome them if you distract them with food, e.g. dropping a big bag of dog food all over the floor. He said it was a risky strategy though and probably not worth the effort.
  - askvictor 4y ago
    A trained guard dog will only eat when given a command. Even my (non-guard dog) will attack a perceived intruder before going for food; adrenaline/perceived threat trumps food.
el_benhameen 4y ago
“ The dog has a lot of false positives from the cameras being triggered by car headlights or small animals.” That’s ok, the original version can also be triggered by small animals and cars.
kelseyfrog 4y ago
> The dog has a lot of false positives from the cameras being triggered by car headlights or small animals. To be fair, actual dogs have a lot of false positives too, so it's not too dissimilar.
ComputerCat 4y ago
ahah oh my gosh I love this! Neat project, thanks for sharing!
nimbius 4y ago
anecdotal story: my old rottweiler pepper once stopped a neighborhood kid from stealing a plasma cutter out of my garage. her pups had recently littered next to the lawnmower and she was sleeping under the table saw at the time. she had managed to chew him up badly enough to need an ambulance, and at the time it was a pretty horrifying experience for everyone involved, but eight years later his parents and I are pretty good friends. ive even driven him to a substance abuse program a few times.
- vxNsr 4y ago
  > ive even driven him to a substance abuse program a few times. I’m sorry.
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
karmaup 4y ago
v2. A running toy dog with speaker playing barking sound -- natural sound of steps plus a moving sound source
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
libraryatnight 4y ago
Here's a video from a former burglar talking about break ins and I linked specifically to the section on dogs: https://youtu.be/DtwD-c9hn58 https://youtu.be/DtwD-c9hn58
sitkack 4y ago
If you want to make the sound more authentic, paws/claws on the floor would do a lot. It makes it sound like the dog is present in the immediate environment.
sunshi23 4y ago
This need to run on a back up power system in case they cut the power before enter
SMAAART 4y ago
Soon an add-on device for Alexa, Siri, Google home. Actually I might buy one myself.
whereisanykey 4y ago
The extension kit include a fake dog door, dog bowl, chewed up bone, and fake dog poo (large).
mxxx 4y ago
When I was a kid, we had one of these things and it was triggered by a motion sensor. But we _also_ had a large taxidermied dog sitting in the window. Used to really trip people out.
brazed_blotch 4y ago
I used to walk home from school past a neighbour who had a similar system. The speakers were quite pathetic, so we figured out it was a recording pretty quickly. And so we took to running past the house again and again, triggering the barking noise to our delight. A few weeks later, the system was removed.
schwartzworld 4y ago
Don't get a greyhound. Odds are the burglar wouldn't even know my dog was there.

318 points by tannercollin 4y ago

I met an older Australian woman that sailed around the world solo, and swore by the fake dog for scaring off opportunistic pirates. She didn’t carry a gun or other weapon. Just a cassette tape on repeat when anchored.

the_only_law 4y ago
Why would pirates be scared of a dog though? They could just shoot it.
- registeredcorn 4y ago
  I would imagine a burglar would see two issues: 1) If there is a dog on the boat, maybe there's people too. 2) Plenty of other boats, why bother killing a dog and make lots of noise?
  - Cthulhu_ 4y ago
    Yeah that's exactly it; it only takes a little uncertainty for burglars to be like "yeah nah".
  - reaperducer 4y ago
    2) Plenty of other boats, why bother killing a dog and make lots of noise? Exactly. A lot of people seem to forget that a gun discharging is even louder than a dog, so a would-be amateur pirate would be solving a small problem by creating a much bigger one.
- CoffeeOnWrite 4y ago
  For sure. I’d bring a gun, personally.
  - Xylakant 4y ago
    A dog is an audible warning before the fact and may scare off thieves/robbers before an attempt. A gun is in the best of all cases helpful once the thief or robber has already decided to act.
    - dymk 4y ago
      That's why I have a solenoid triggered rifle in my backyard that shoots off a round every two minutes. It used to be full auto 24/7, but ammo got expensive :(
  - throw__away7391 4y ago
    All other issues aside, even assuming you can get the proper permissions, bringing guns into foreign ports is a major hassle and involves significant legal paperwork. Companies that provide armed security for cargo ships for example will keep the weapons on a boat at sea in international waters, transfer them to the cargo ship at the beginning of their security detail, then take them off with another boat before the cargo ship proceeds.
    - closewith 4y ago
      During the height of the piracy in East Africa, seaborne armouries were used to distribute weapons which were thrown overboard before entering territorial waters, as it was cheaper than collecting them. I also think some (almost certainly American) people underestimate how big an issue importing a firearm or possession of an unlicensed firearm can be in most of the world. It’s either many months of paperwork and almost guaranteed refusal, or risking many years in prison for an unlicensed firearm.
      - mellavora 4y ago
        Also, the difficulty of bringing a gun back into the US if you take it out of the US.
- DonHopkins 4y ago
  To scare off pirates at sea, I'd play Jaws Music. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nb8t3Lt8iJw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nb8t3Lt8iJw
- madaxe_again 4y ago
  They could, or it could chew up a hand pretty well, or turn a robbery into a multiple murder, or any number of things. A dog doesn’t respond predictably or rationally. Criminal doesn’t mean stupid - and you’re not going to bother with a risky target when there are other, less risky targets nearby.
  - mywittyname 4y ago
    Angry guard dogs are fast and being low to the ground makes them difficult targets. One could easily cause serious injuries before being neutralized. If one knocks you down (which is very likely happen), then you also risk shooting yourself instead of the dog.
- olalonde 4y ago
  I read "opportunistic pirate" as a regular unarmed person who might just be tempted to steal stuff from a seemingly unguarded ship.
  - the_only_law 4y ago
    That might be it. Tbf I don't know much about modern piracy. I just imagine guys with AKs and RPGs coming up and boarding you, but that could easily be a media depiction only.
    - lupire 4y ago
      I don't think those guys are taking single people in small boats. They want $5M insurance payouts from corporations, not killing random people for their clothes.
- teknopaul 4y ago
  Outside the US most people don't carry guns, even pirates.
  - andai 4y ago
    When I Google "somali pirates", almost every photo has automatic weapons in it. What do pirates typically use?
    - nradov 4y ago
      In that region, mostly AK-47s and RPG-7s, plus whatever other random weapons they managed to scrounge. Same as every irregular paramilitary force throughout the Middle East and Africa.
  - fooker 4y ago
    In large-ish cities, sure. People have guns in rural areas everywhere. There are some exceptions like China where guns are very uncommon but if you are traveling through Eastern Europe, or Africa, or rural parts of south Asia you are going to encounter a lot of people who have guns. There isn’t a gun culture like in the US in these places though, so you’ll have to know what to look for.
    - reillyse 4y ago
      People have some guns in rural places worldwide but you almost never encounter them. Gun ownership rates drop off fast after the US (I think the 10th highest country is 1/4 of the US rate) and the rates keep dropping from there. Also while rural farmers may own a shotgun or a rifle they mostly leave that locked up at home, the chances of you meeting someone with a gun is pretty tiny. Only exceptions I can think of are perhaps some Central American countries.
      - teknopaul 4y ago
        Agreed. Just got back from Marrakech there is very little crime there and certainly no baddies who would consider shooting your dog to rob you. "gun culture" and people waving hand guns around for crime or "self defence" is, thankfully, limited to a small number of failed states, and the United States.
mellavora 4y ago
Generally speaking weapons are a problem on boats. Many countries will require you to have a permit for it, which can be problematic to obtain. At the very least you have to declare it, which probably also means handing it over to the harbor authorities. Which means you don't have it when you would be most at risk and most need it. Second, say you solve the above and decide to deploy the gun. You don't have a lot of time, and you don't know if the approaching boat is a pirate or a local fisherman who wants to sell you a fish. Make the wrong call, and bad things happen. Say you solved the permit/registration issue by hiding the gun and then you deploy the gun. Bad things happen. Ok, it might have been justified and might have saved your life, but you are still probably going to jail for not declaring the weapon.
- willcipriano 4y ago
  > say you solve the above and decide to deploy the gun. We're talking about a handgun not a artillery peice, "deployment" is taking it out of a biometric gun safe, 5 seconds max. Also you wouldn't open fire on someone just beacuse they are near your boat.
  - mellavora 4y ago
    ok. So you are on your boat. Small craft with three people is rapidly approaching on a direct course. You are nervous so you grab the gun (probably more than 5 seconds because you are out on deck and the biometric safe is fixed in the cabin, but I'll give you a pass on that). Where do you aim the gun? At them? At the deck? They see you are holding a gun, get a different look on their face, and one starts to reach under the seat. What do you do? Remember you are in a foreign country and don't speak the language, don't know the customs, cannot read the body language, ...
    - anonred 4y ago
      I would shoot a warning shot into the air. But maybe at that distance it wouldn’t be clear enough and that’d just escalate the situation..

omginternets 4y ago

I saw a rather comical sign posted in the first-floor window of a Philadelphia apartment. It had a silhouette of a German shepherd and text beneath, which read: >I can get from the second-story floor to the front door in 1.2 seconds. Can you?

blowski 4y ago
My labrador would run to the front door in 1.2s, but then roll over and demand to be stroked.
- ushakov 4y ago
  a Golden Retriever would be happy to show you around and help you pack the loot
  - runjake 4y ago
    I say this tongue-in-cheek, here but I feel like you're being "breedist”, here. I have a <1 year old male golden retriever and I was surprised to learn that he has a very strong guard instinct and will not STFU with his loud, deep barking any time he hears a strange noise, or some stranger is walking by. That said, this is a feature, not a bug. "Early warning system" was in the top two features I was looking for in a dog.
    - loloquwowndueo 4y ago
      Your dog may behave uncommonly for its breed but dog breeds exist precisely because of common and predictable physical and behavioural traits. Great Danes are famously couch potatoes but mine could not stay still and demanded a ton of exercise - still it was the exception rather than the rule for that breed.
      - 0xbadcafebee 4y ago
        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 running towards us (sorry mailman!). One black lab in particular, Princess, she was a... well, a bitch, and kind of a bully. Animals have personalities too. The myth of breed behavior is not good. It's the reason so many pitbulls are put down. They are absolute sweethearts until you abuse them and train them to fight.

nano9 4y ago

>A Python script kept alive by Supervisor I laughed a little. Sometimes the job needs to be done quickly and in a familiar way, I suppose.

uhtred 4y ago
Why is that funny? (asking genuinely)
- 89vision 4y ago
  OP should have used k8s to scale their workload
  - pwdisswordfish9 4y ago
    Or K9s
    - sgt 4y ago
      Is K9s compatible with supervisord(og)?
      - goodpoint 4y ago
        No, it's monitored by datadog.
    - Tao3300 4y ago
      Solid pun! I'm gonna leave this here though for anyone who ever has to deal with k8s: https://k9scli.io/ https://k9scli.io/
hgazx 4y ago
I liked supervisor but I disliked how slow it was. Systemd is doing the same job for me now at lightning speed.

dvtrn 4y ago

> The dog has a lot of false positives from the cameras being triggered by car headlights or small animals. My real dog has the same feature, so you’re at least doing a good job mimicking nature, heh.

kleer001 4y ago
Interesting! They might be both working from a similar algorithm.
smsm42 4y ago
The dog also doesn't come with an off switch in case you have an important meeting with your CEO, taking it in your home office and there's a squirrel running around...
- dvtrn 4y ago
  Oh dear. Can’t say I’ve had that problem...really ever. How many squirrels have you had to chase/escort out so far?
  - andrewflnr 4y ago
    Oh, I'm sure a squirrel outside is plenty to cause a problem. My dogs have historically not needed anything at all to actually be moving outside to trigger an endless barking spree.
    - dvtrn 4y ago
      The barking sure (though I set up my office in the basement because FAMILY LOUD and so when they go off, it's pretty well muffled and people on zoom calls don't even hear it), it was the "bringing a squirrel inside and then setting it loose in the house" part that I was wondering about, ha.
      - boomboomsubban 4y ago
        I think you're confusing some awkward phrasing from the poster. They were taking the meeting with the CEO in their home office, and the squirrel was running around presumably outside causing the dog to bark. But I can see how you read it as thet were having a meeting and the dog brought a squirrel into the home office and ran around.

effnorwood 4y ago

[dead]

spapas82 4y ago

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.

tiborsaas 4y ago
Door needs a hint. "By entering this property without prior approval from the owner you agree to the terms and conditions (see link)". But seriously, that's not how GDPR works, people are using it as a replacement term for privacy. GDPR is aimed at companies, not individuals running a blog. You could still sue just under regular civil law.
smcl 4y ago
Ha, it sounds possible but I'm not a GDPR expert. However one thing I do know is that you'd basically be publicly outing yourself as a burglar and the press would have a field day. Streisand effect - maybe better to just keep your head down and hope nobody recognises your blurry face :)
ghaff 4y ago
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.
- scrollaway 4y ago
  Yeah, this isn't how it works at all, and GP is not a lawyer.
- eertami 4y ago
  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.

mallomarmeasle 4y ago

"The dog has a lot of false positives" Wow, just like my real dog!

jvanderbot 4y ago
> The dog has a lot of false positives from the cameras being triggered by car headlights or small animals. To my dog, those are not false positives.
- the_gipsy 4y ago
  The dog has eliminated 100% of threats so far. Pretty effective.
Cthulhu_ 4y ago
Better false positives than a burglary I guess. Plus it's probably off when you're home... unless it's on at night as well. Anyway, improvements can be made, I'm fairly sure there's off-the-shelf "is this a person" detectors out there.
sharkweek 4y ago
A sampling of things my lovable labrador has barked at over the last 48 hours: - Birds - Packages being delivered - My neighbor, who he knows well, working in their back yard - Me banging a door closed too hard - A neighborhood cat taunting him on the sidewalk - My kid dropping a toy on our hardwood - ??? (He was barking at a closet door) - Anytime I touch the hook where his leash hangs - etc. Still, love having his big bark around, even if when someone actually broke in he’d immediately befriend them.
- pxc 4y ago
  When it's really, really windy, my dog likes to stare out the window and bark at the trees for moving too much. (It took me a long time to even figure that one out.) At the same time, he likes it when trees drop little pieces of fruit or seeds, like mesquite beans or pine cones. So on windy days sometimes he gets into a loop with a tree where he * stiffens up and barks at a tree for shaking its leaves * cautiously approaches the tree, sometimes growling * snatches something the tree has just dropped and runs away with it * runs around in circles with the tree debris, pausing and play bowing wvery now and then, batting it around with his paws, etc. * ... cautiously approaches the tree again and so on, where he gradually gets bolder and more casual about approaching the rustling, swaying tree on each iteration. (He's pretty suspicious of wind-related movement generally— he'll also yell at flags and banners sometimes.)

throwaway894345 4y ago

Man, was really hoping it was this one: https://nypost.com/2022/07/21/robot-dog-with-submachine-gun-is-dystopian-nightmare-fodder/ https://nypost.com/2022/07/21/robot-dog-with-submachine-gun-...

jansan 4y ago
That would be the second (and more persuasive) line of defense.

mberning 4y ago

I can not stand thievery. And the brazen nature of it is so irksome. The fact that people need a fleet of security cameras and a fake dog to protect their home is ridiculous. These people should be caught and sent off to labor camps for a very, very long time.

tristor 4y ago
One of the challenges of our modern society is that we've eliminated so much self-respect, after all look at social media. Without self-respect, you cannot build respect for others and their property. It is no surprise then that these types of incidents have become more brazen and more common. Any self-respecting person, then must determine how best to deal with this, because you cannot rely on others whether that be the police, the government, your community, or the would-be thieves themselves.
- dymk 4y ago
  Breaking News: Facebook Causes Increase in Burglaries But in all seriousness, all forms of crime have just about monotonically decreased throughout all of human development. To say that "modern society" has an increasing problem with burglaries due to a "lack of self respect", there's no evidence it's true, and there is evidence to the contrary. Before you point out the bump in some crime types in recent years, let me remind you that recent years have not been typical, nor easy on our generally monotonically-improving social safety nets. Compare burglary rates in America from 1980, 1990, 2000, 2010. Lower, lower lower. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crime_in_the_United_States#/media/File:Property_Crime_Rates_in_the_United_States.svg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crime_in_the_United_States#/me...
  - tristor 4y ago
    To not put too fine of a point on it, while crime is decreasing in aggregate over time, it's also spreading into areas/communities where it historically has been lower. It's still generally true that if you avoid going into the bad parts of town or engaging in social relationships with known criminals you are unlikely to be a victim of crime generally, however upper class neighborhoods and quiet suburbs are now seeing an increase in property crime and general anti-social behaviors that are occurring due to shifts in social mores and a decrease in respect that are happening within society overall. What I'm referring to is far more subtle than some direct link between social media and these behaviors, but even in the cases of direct links such things exist... for instance consider TikTok trends like "devious licks"[1] which had students vandalizing and stealing from schools on video, including in upper class neighborhoods and at good schools. I am /very/ well aware of the overall trend of crime decreasing in aggregate. However, I am also aware of the shift I'm noting above, and I'm aware that some crimes are now simply under/un-reported. Property crimes are definitely on the rise /in aggregate/ in some areas of the US, and can be most directly linked to shifts in enforcement. Car-break ins and bike thefts in particular in cities like San Francisco are associated strongly to the refusal of the law enforcement in the area to actually enforce the law. We have a large number of social ills, and aggregate decreases in mental health, happening in the West, and I see this as being in the large linked to lack of self-respect and self-esteem. People with self-respect and self-esteem don't go and hurt others and destroy things, they create and produce. Lack of self-esteem is a significant driver for depression, which seems to be on the rise, along with many other related issues. [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Devious_lick https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Devious_lick

AlwaysRock 4y ago

This is awesome. It will probably bark more than my actual dog haha

jlturner 4y ago

I can attest to having a barking dog being an excellent deterrent. One night about a year ago, somebody was snooping around our backyard (we saw them on the security camera), one sharp bark (from the little dog no less, our bigger dog isn’t much of a barker) sent the snooper running. I’ve long thought that this could / should be a simple home security system. Glad to see somebody did it and that it worked for them!

ge96 4y ago

I thought it was going to be like a physical one, but the sound makes sense.

arsome 4y ago

Unless you have a dog that's trained to attack, generally they're pretty docile with just a treat or two, might be good enough to stop opportunistic crimes though.

ARandomerDude 4y ago
They don't attack but they do alarm.
FredPret 4y ago
I emigrated from a third-world country to Canada. One of the first things I noticed was the docility of the dogs. Maybe back in the third world they pick up on their humans’ stress. There, they’d definitely attack at any opportunity.
- duxup 4y ago
  >I noticed was the docility of the dogs. Depending on where you're from, some places spay / neutering dogs is much less common. It can impact their behavior a great deal.
  - FredPret 4y ago
    Even the spayed dogs are on another level regarding aggression. I’m sure it’s psychological
    - duxup 4y ago
      I wonder if they're just used to being around non spayed dogs / so they're kinda on edge in a way. Local suburban / trained dogs around here mostly just want to play with each other / random people / kids. I think they might be used to that kinda lifestyle even if just by example from other dogs.
      - FredPret 4y ago
        Lots of people back home would keep their dogs in the yard all the time. The dogs wouldn't really ever socialize with the neighbours' dogs (maybe that's the issue?) For a lot of these dogs, if they ever got loose, they'd go and bite someone as soon as possible. This is true even/especially for the dogs of the rich, who have very easy lives. But with Canadians, I'm never scared of their dogs, because at worst they'll hump me!

300bps 4y ago

This along with a fake TV lighting source on a timer will deter most people casing your house. I got the fake TV lighting source generator on Amazon probably 15 years ago - really looks like someone is watching TV in the room.

duxup 4y ago

When I bought a house I picked up a dog dish and put it by my walkout basement sliding door. Also the pond next to my house has old tennis balls show up in it now and then so I put them next to the dish. According to the local cops break ins in my area are mostly just kids going into open garage / garage side doors / back doors that are left open and stuff to steal is out and obvious and so on. I figure just the sense of hassle / unknown of "who knows how this dog is" might be enough of a deterrent.

Nextgrid 4y ago
A "beware of the dog" sign would probably be just as (if not more) effective regardless of whether there's an actual dog.
- bjt1234 4y ago
  Dont over estimate how dumb they are. Installed security cameras, they still came onto the property. So, next I installed a sign "BEWARE OF THE SECURITY CAMERA", and didn't work, infact one guy broke into my car and simply just covered his face from the canera. So then I installed a cheap security light next to the sign that would light up when they entered. That worked.
  - rootsudo 4y ago
    " Dont over estimate how dumb they are." I don't know... you setup deterrents, as a bluff and it took a while before one worked.
  - copperx 4y ago
    > Dont over estimate how dumb they are. Somehow, I can't parse this.
    - Spivak 4y ago
      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.

Hippocrates 4y ago

Most family dogs will just roll over for belly rubs once the burglar is inside, but the barking is a great deterrent because it draws attention. The burglar has no idea if that is normal or not, and if someone else might hear it and come investigate.

kqr 4y ago
In this spirit, I remember an ex-burglar on reddit saying that small dogs are the best guard dogs, because big ones typically have to be trained to be nice, but small ones just don't shut up.
- jimt1234 4y ago
  This is 100% accurate (small dogs are better for home security). Uh, speaking for a friend.
- cptcobalt 4y ago
  Actually, I wonder why the consistent barking is more easily trained out of bigger dogs than smaller dogs. Anecdotally, my big husky rarely barks (usually only during play, or when "talking" with us), but my small shiba will never shut up if she hears a noise at the door.
  - jedberg 4y ago
    For all dogs barking is a defense mechanism. As the bigger dogs grow up, there are less things that they find threatening, whereas the small dogs always feels threatened because most things are a lot bigger than they are.
  - lupire 4y ago
    Napoleon syndrome. Small dogs feel much more threatened and not on control.
  - Pasorrijer 4y ago
    Also, in my anecdotal experience, large dog owners end up putting in more training time because the consequences of not are much greater. My 50lb, German shepherd looking village dog jumps on grandma? Grandma breaks a hip. My parents 3lb Shit-Poo jumps on Grandma? Cue the cooing. Similarly with barking. Not saying it's true for all owners, but generally once you start training alot of other behaviours get cleaned up as a side effect.

Hippocrates 4y ago

I get package thefts, people pissing on my entryway, and general creeping late night. Of course I have a doorbell cam but it doesn't help. I've now set up a homekit automation which triggers via the doorbell's motion sensor. It flicks the exterior and interior hall lights on via smart switch, one after the other with a slight random jitter, to create the illusion of someone about to come out the door.

reaperducer 4y ago
For those looking for a simpler, cheaper solution, you can buy exterior light bulbs with built-in motion sensors for about $15. It scores exactly zero geek cred, but it works if you're renting and don't want to go the full-blown home automation route.
- ChoGGi 4y ago
  Thanks for that, perfect for my porch light.

swayvil 4y ago

Here's a nasty story. Small college town. Nice, lots of bookstores. Retired professors. Food co-op etc Once excellent school, now on the skids. Student population in decline. Local student-housing management companies, slumlords, etc, are alarmed. They're losing money. Solution. State-subsidized housing of low income families and ex-prisoners. Nice college town now has riots and shootings every night. Burglaries of nice retired professors' homes skyrocket. Town builds new triple-sized police station.

240P_Climate 4y ago
Soon all of America will be like this and we cant wait. No more white privilege for you ;)

Wistar 4y ago

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?

mxuribe 4y ago
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 , would be pretty scary.
- Wistar 4y ago
  So, add the sound of splintering wood?
  - mxuribe 4y ago
    Yes definitely! And also maybe add in a recording of some human yelling for dog to calm down and "don't go ripping apart another visitor!" :-)
    - Wistar 4y ago
      "Bluto! STOP IT! I am tired of replacing doors! STOP!"
      - mxuribe 4y ago
        Lol nice!! :-)

Dnguyen 4y ago

We installed X-10 barking dog modules 20 years ago. https://www.powerhouse.eu/en/home-security/46-x10-dk10-barking-dog-alarm.html https://www.powerhouse.eu/en/home-security/46-x10-dk10-barki...

reaperducer 4y ago

Reminds me of the late 70's and early 80's when car alarms were becoming popular. You could buy fake scary-looking "Car alarm enabled" stickers for your window at Radio Shack. You could also buy a little box that stuck to your dashboard that was nothing more than a blinking light, in order to reinforce the thought. Back then it was not uncommon for car alarm installers to advertise their work on the driver's side windows of the cars. "Protected by Viper!" Stuff like that. I remember the first time I saw a car like that. It was in the parking lot of an amusement park. I threw a bunch of road trip crackers on the car, and let the seagulls have a party. They didn't seem to care about the computer voice: "Warning! This car protected by Viper! Stand away from the car!" -bloop!- -bloop!- -bloop!- -bloop!- -weee-awwww!- -weee-awwww!- -weee-awwww!- -booo-weeep!- -booo-weeep!- -booo-weeep!- -fweeeeeeeep!- -fweeeeeeeep!- -haaaaaank!- -haaaaaank!- -haaaaaank!- -haaaaaank!- And so on.

fblp 4y ago

Would be great if this could be setup with Google home or Alexa!

nyingpo 4y ago

It reminds me of a story that made the news[0] some years ago. The local police received complaints that a dog was being mistreated, chained on the same spot for days. Arriving at the scene they found out that an elderly couple were using a Rottweiler statue for keeping burglars away from their house. OP's fake dog is a great improvement over that one! [0] https://g1.globo.com/mg/sul-de-minas/noticia/2019/05/09/pm-e-acionada-apos-denuncia-de-maus-tratos-mas-encontra-cachorro-de-plastico-em-mg.ghtml https://g1.globo.com/mg/sul-de-minas/noticia/2019/05/09/pm-e...

marcodiego 4y ago
A dog was mistaken for a lion: https://abcnews.go.com/blogs/headlines/2013/01/labradoodle-mistaken-for-lion-prompts-911-calls https://abcnews.go.com/blogs/headlines/2013/01/labradoodle-m...

nonrandomstring 4y ago

Beards of similar length and greyness to mine might remember this was a project, probably from the brow of R. A Penfold posted in a monthly electronics magazine. Damnit, I can still recall a schematic: ORP12 and LED + lens broken beam detector, 555 timer as clock, 74590 binary counter, an EEPROM, 8 bit DAC and push-pull power amplifier based on TIP30/31 transistors. IIRC the crazy part was you needed to build an EEPROM programmer as step one, and hand program the sound sample using a BBC micro parallel port. Digitised dog barks were available by floppy disk in the mail.

cbozeman 4y ago

Don't get a fake dog for home security. Get a real gun. Then go to a tactical trainer who has served in the military ideally in a small arms instructor capacity - they're all over the nation - and inquire about home defense courses. And don't get a "handgun", get an AR-15 "pistol". That is, an AR-15 platform, a stabilizing brace, and a shortened barrel. If you're unsure what all this means, don't worry, your local firearms dealer will almost certainly know and understand if you come in and ask for those things. If a break-in occurs, you'll be too nervous and too frightened to aim well with your standard 9mm handgun. An AR-15 with a stabilizing brace and a shortened barrel with a vertical forward grip is sturdy, you can brace it against your shoulder (obviously), and it has sufficient power to stop an intruder. At the end of the day, you and only you are responsible for your own safety. Even if you live in a gated community, you cannot count on your local security or law enforcement to arrive quickly enough to save you. Remember the old adage. "When seconds count, the police are only minutes away."

MonkeyMalarky 4y ago
The author's use case is for when they are out town.
nautilus50 4y ago
Don't get an AR-15, Get an RPG-29.
- clansimus 4y ago
  Don't get an RPG-29, get an F-18.
  - kelseyfrog 4y ago
    I can't be the only one building a nuke in my garage.
    - inkcapmushroom 4y ago
      https://www.wearethemighty.com/popular/that-time-a-boy-scout-built-a-nuclear-reactor-out-of-common-household-items/ https://www.wearethemighty.com/popular/that-time-a-boy-scout... Indeed you are not.

chadash 4y ago

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.

larrik 4y ago
> who is gonna think to go through your snack food Your kids and your houseguests, that's who!
djhworld 4y ago
I remember watching a thing from another ex-burglar who said dogs are a good deterrent but you can overcome them if you distract them with food, e.g. dropping a big bag of dog food all over the floor. He said it was a risky strategy though and probably not worth the effort.
- askvictor 4y ago
  A trained guard dog will only eat when given a command. Even my (non-guard dog) will attack a perceived intruder before going for food; adrenaline/perceived threat trumps food.

el_benhameen 4y ago

“ The dog has a lot of false positives from the cameras being triggered by car headlights or small animals.” That’s ok, the original version can also be triggered by small animals and cars.

kelseyfrog 4y ago

> The dog has a lot of false positives from the cameras being triggered by car headlights or small animals. To be fair, actual dogs have a lot of false positives too, so it's not too dissimilar.

ComputerCat 4y ago

ahah oh my gosh I love this! Neat project, thanks for sharing!

nimbius 4y ago

anecdotal story: my old rottweiler pepper once stopped a neighborhood kid from stealing a plasma cutter out of my garage. her pups had recently littered next to the lawnmower and she was sleeping under the table saw at the time. she had managed to chew him up badly enough to need an ambulance, and at the time it was a pretty horrifying experience for everyone involved, but eight years later his parents and I are pretty good friends. ive even driven him to a substance abuse program a few times.

vxNsr 4y ago
> ive even driven him to a substance abuse program a few times. I’m sorry.

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]

karmaup 4y ago

v2. A running toy dog with speaker playing barking sound -- natural sound of steps plus a moving sound source

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]

libraryatnight 4y ago

Here's a video from a former burglar talking about break ins and I linked specifically to the section on dogs: https://youtu.be/DtwD-c9hn58 https://youtu.be/DtwD-c9hn58

sitkack 4y ago

If you want to make the sound more authentic, paws/claws on the floor would do a lot. It makes it sound like the dog is present in the immediate environment.

sunshi23 4y ago

This need to run on a back up power system in case they cut the power before enter

SMAAART 4y ago

Soon an add-on device for Alexa, Siri, Google home. Actually I might buy one myself.

whereisanykey 4y ago

The extension kit include a fake dog door, dog bowl, chewed up bone, and fake dog poo (large).

mxxx 4y ago

When I was a kid, we had one of these things and it was triggered by a motion sensor. But we _also_ had a large taxidermied dog sitting in the window. Used to really trip people out.

brazed_blotch 4y ago

I used to walk home from school past a neighbour who had a similar system. The speakers were quite pathetic, so we figured out it was a recording pretty quickly. And so we took to running past the house again and again, triggering the barking noise to our delight. A few weeks later, the system was removed.

schwartzworld 4y ago

Don't get a greyhound. Odds are the burglar wouldn't even know my dog was there.