Wife's aunt & uncle who lived in the Olympic Mts. of the Pacific Northwest seemed to always have geese near their pond. The animals acted like lovable pet dogs around aunt and uncle but when anyone else approached the place, they raised hell, and a few of the more aggressive ones would bite, or what passes for biting in the goose world. On military field maneuvers at Land-Between-The-Lakes Kentucky, we encountered a small bungalow that appeared to be protected by watch pigs. The pigs watched us warily as we passed but if anyone approached the property too closely, they advanced toward us, including four large tuskers who looked like they were ready to rock 'n' roll. A quarter mile behind the place was a functioning still. In fact, there were quite a few stills in those boonies although some were obviously no longer in use.
I was going to get some guinea hens when I moved in to this rural location for that very purpose. Once they imprint on their property, they are fiercely territorial.
Llamas are also great guard animals, and they are sometimes used to protect flocks of sheep or goats, instead of a herd dog. They would still need the dog for when the sheep had to be moved somewhere, because the llama does not herd them up like a dog will, but they will chase off coyotes and other small predators. A donkey or mule is also good for protecting a herd, although I don’t think that any of these will guard their owner’s home like a dog or goose does. Even my peacock would strut out to meet anyone who came to our house, but he didn’t hiss or snap like geese will do.
Reminds me of a friend who was an AT&T linesman back in the early 70s. He was out in some remote area working up a pole, and when he tried to get back down, there was a goose sitting at the bottom of the pole, daring him to try it. He was stuck up there for some amount of time until the homeowners came home and got rid of the thing.
He should have been safe enough in his lineboots. They are usually about knee-high and sturdy leather, so would have protected him unless the goose actually flew at him. They usually just nip lower legs, so the line boots should have stopped him from getting nipped.
I would have got about 5 feet above the ground and jumped. It either moves or it doesn't. Either that or a swift [non-lethal] kick. You gotta stand your ground.
Another surprisingly vicious bird (surprising to me, at least) is the swan. I grew up believing that they were graceful and gentle. People minding their business walking around a lake, and some swans go ape on 'em.
Geese were used as "watchdogs" in ancient Rome. They're loud, they're territorial and nobody wants to mess with a riled-up goose (spoken from experience...….)
Neighbor had a guinea hen that chased every car that drove by too slowly. It was funny to watch that, but I have a feeling that if someone actually stopped at its house, things might have gotten ugly. My first wife thought she'd run up to a small gaggle of geese at this state park we were hiking. I warned her not to. They attacked her, nipping at her ankles.
This needs a separate entry: I was doing poll work for Lou Harris. I needed to call on a horse raising (not racing) operation concerning soil erosion issues. I approached the stone wall fence and wrought iron gate. On the gate was a sign showing a snarling cat head that read, "Warning, Attack Cat!" I figured it was a joke, opened the gate, and stepped inside. Wrong move! I took two steps in and then looked ahead, about thirty feet. There, laying in the grass, watching me, was a jaguar! It was not in a crouch to attack pose, no shifting feet, working the ground. No swishing tail. I spoke slowly, and calmly, "OK, I'm leaving. Just stay cool...." I backed out, and went back to my car. I let that stop slide. No survey, there! I came to find out how lucky I was, that day. The jaguar's name was "JJ." He was a menace to his area, having jumped the former chain link fence, and killed a neighbor's dog. He had stripped his vet's hamstring, as well. Nice cat. I was very, very lucky, that day. I can't think too much about this incident, or I feel very weird, but I thought y'all might find this actual event in my life very interesting. Of course, there's the incident where I got bit by a six foot Burmese Python, that tried to coil around me, but that wasn't a guard snake. Now that I think about it, maybe it was.......
When we were in Texas, we paid someone to clean the house one day. She had done so before, but only while my wife was there. One day, my wife went to get something and left her in the house alone and one of our cats, Baby Girl (Cutie and Lydia's mom), wouldn't let her out of the bathroom. She called the ambulance station, next door, to get me to help because Baby Girl wouldn't let her out of the bathroom. I was very surprised because I had always seen Baby Girl as being one of the most laid-back cats I had ever had. The cleaning woman had been there before but we had never properly introduced her to the cats, I guess. Once we had her pet the cats while we were in the house, I guess she got the idea that she was not a threat.
I had an attack cat (Snowy.) Snowy used to chase friends out of the house, and still would not stop. They would hold the screen door closed from outside as the frantically cat tried to get out of the house to continue the attack in the yard. Heck, she's chased neighbors' kids out of my yard when they were just playing with my dog. When I had friends over I would lock her up in a room, but she knew how to give pitiful little kitty cries until someone felt sorry and opened the door. Then all Hell would break lose. I would come home from work and Snowy would often be on top of the fridge, ready to slaughter whoever was coming through the door. When a car door slammed in the middle of the night, the dog would sleep right through it, and Snowy would sit up in the bed and give a low growl.
After buying our new car, I got home before Michelle did. When she drove in with the new (unfamiliar) car, Bubba was in the window. He was alerted because someone had driven into the driveway. He looked over to me for reassurance, it seemed. Then when Michelle opened the door, he was concerned again because not only had this strange car parked in our driveway but now someone was getting out of it. He looked to me again to see if I was okay with that. He wasn't fully reassured, however. He looked to me again: "But, they're getting out of the car. Are you sure that's okay?" Then, at some point, as Michelle was walking up to the house, he recognized her and his whole body relaxed and he ran to the front door to greet her. He doesn't get nervous about the UPS guy, though. He seems to think the UPS guy is coming to visit him.
Cats are smart...and stealthy. I always likened Snowy's refrigerator attacks to The Pink Panther's encounters with Kato. Little kids would really freak out my cat...and my dog (a Terrier mix), for that matter. I don't know what it was about miniature humans that freaked them out so much. I was dating a woman who lived with her brother's ex and her niece (just learning to talk.) The kid had been over to my house and encountered my toddler-phobic critters. She had this one book she liked me to read to her...it had a dog and a cat in it. When I would get to the part about the dog, she would go "Woof! Woof!" When I would get to the part about the cat, she would go "Hiss! Hiss!" in this mean little-kid voice, because Snowy had perverted her kitty cat worldview.