Will the Family Dog Protect Your Home?

[essdee1972]

Whatta dog, maaan!! Wouldn't like to be on the angry side of one of these babies!

Slightly related is the ethics of getting a dog adapted to colder climates to a hot place like India. Royal families in Dubai can afford the airconditioning to keep Caucasian temperatures in Arabia, but ordinary people in most cases cannot! I see Alaskan Malemutes in Mumbai and feel really sorry for them.

[Vikram]

Slightly related is the ethics of getting a dog adapted to colder climates to a hot place like India. Royal families in Dubai can afford the airconditioning to keep Caucasian temperatures in Arabia, but ordinary people in most cases cannot! I see Alaskan Malemutes in Mumbai and feel really sorry for them.

Completely in agreement with you on this point. I have seen St. Bernards in Hyderabad!

One thing with the Caucasian Sheep Dogs is that they can deal with hot climate too(within reason) as summer can be hot here, around 40oC+ for a couple of months. The shorter haired Mountain Dog could be a better choice. Still, I agree with what you say.

Best-
Vikram

[snIPer]

Yes it did, I had a dog called Hero, one night a couple of burglars jumped into the compound and tried the break in, my brave dog fought them alone, we did not open the doors until early morning as there were no weapons around and no neighbors either and when we did we were shocked to see that the dogs neck was slit and it was lying in a pool of blood - the poor thing was still alive, we rushed it to the nearby hospital and believe it or not it survived and lived for many years on. It was a real life Hero.
/S

[essdee1972]

Sniper, salute to Hero! Good that you managed to save him after his heroic defense.

[harshit89]

I am not sure about that. A New dog in your house will never make any guarantee of protecting your house. If the dog is staying with you for years, then there might be a case.

[Vik]

I'm just glad there are no cobras where I live. They absolutely scare the s... out of me. I did have a domestic cat who killed and ate cottonmouths, but they are no cobra, they are about 3 ft long and heavy for a snake, unlike most they don't run but will attack for no reason. But their venom is not so very neurotoxic, more of a blood toxin. I have heard of dogs, people and cattle living through a cottonmouth bite, probably not a small cat. I hear a cobra will kill an elephant, is this true? Just curious. Sorry to hear of your loss. I would cry more for a good dog than a bad person.

[SMJ]

Its sad that Mr Bhupi lost a canine family member to the bite of a cobra. His Boxer very bravely put himself in harm's way to protect the family.
@Vik -there is no direct answer to your question as there are many possible scenarios- one being cobra's in different regions have a variety of protein combinations making up their venom ranging from neurotoxic (nerve destroying) to cytotoxic (tissue destroying) or a combination of both. Depending also where an elephant is bitten (e.g. if a vein is pierced) to the amount of venom released, it may or may not kill an elephant. However, if struck multiple times by a cobra the elephant is very likely to die because of the copious amount of venom that would obviously be injected.
The only snake I am aware of being able to really kill an elephant in a single bite is a king cobra purely because of the size of the snake (they can grow to be 15 -18 feet in length) and the amount of venom it can deliver in a single bite (upto 2 tea spoons). Surprisingly, the king cobra's is venom is actually less toxic than other cobras we find in India namely the spectacled, monocled and the black cobra. Strictly speaking, a king cobra is a different genus compared to other cobra's and does not actually belong in the cobra family although it is a colubrid (fixed front fanged).
A very recent study by Romulus Whitaker (a well known herpetologist in India) and one who started the Madras Crocodile Farm, where he conducted a series of experiments by placing an artificial rubber foot on a snakes to see how they reacted and 9 times out the 10 (in the case of a cobra) they struck out at the foot literally like a boxer WITHOUT openings its mouth. This conclusively proved what all snake lovers always maintained - the snake mainly uses its venom only to kill prey as far as possible and the first "defence" for a snake is to try and get away.