This troper was walking home the other night after dinner at [=McDonald's=], and going down the sidewalk a very angry-looking wolf-dog hybrid, probably feral, kind of popped into view and started growling at him, and wouldn't back down. I was looking for a stick to try to push past it or beat it off with, and a huge German Shepherd that I didn't know suddenly ran up to my side and started a growling and barking contest with the hybrid. After about a minute or two of this, the feral backed away and slinked off into the night. The Shepherd stayed rigid for a bit more, then looked at me with his mouth open and licked my hand. Of course, I petted and hugged him a bit before going home; he followed me to my condo, but sadly I couldn't take him in (my condo is way too small) and I wasn't going to encourage him to stay by feeding him, even if he deserved every treat I could find.

AWWW! That's a sweet story (and a little sad since you couldn't take him in). Read the books "Dog Miracles" and "Puppy Miracles" for a wonderful collection of heroic dog stories.

This troper knows a woman who breeds German Shepherds. She told a story of when she bred one of her males to another person's female and put the two dogs in a pen to "do their thing", IfYouKnowWhatIMean. As she was leaving the pen, she accidentally stepped on a squeaky toy, which apparently upset the female, as she lunged at the breeder's face. The male, however, did a body-check on the female, knocking her to the ground before she could bite his owner and then standing between them while the woman left the pen. Once his owner was safe, he then started acting the way you'd expect a male dog to when around a female in heat. The wisdom of breeding such a reactive female is questionable (I mean, she attacked because someone ''stepped on a squeaky toy''), but the male dog certainly counts.

When I lived in neighborhood where the nearest houses were about an acre or two away, a man owned a group of fairly vicious dogs that killed two of my next door neighbor's dogs. Then one day I'm outside playing while my dog, Sassy, had gone off where I couldn't see her. When another dog walks on to the property, I immediately knew it was one of the vicious dogs. I ran towards the back porch but the door was locked and the dog was now running towards me. Then Sassy ran past me and lunged at the other dog, allowing my mom to see me and get me in the house. Sassy was just fine after the experience and would go on to protect my father when another of this man's dogs tried to attack my dad when it was being walked. Ironically, he tried to sue my dad and get our dog put to sleep but our neighbors banded together to ensure that didn't happen.