[jlhnokc]

alessadry, the biggest point I made was the age of your dogs. At 5 months sending them out to even bark is not a good idea. I don't think you realize how far back you can send them in their training and their confidence. What if the person came onto your property anyway? What if they hurt your dog? What if your dog bit them? I'm not saying you shouldn't let your dogs out, that is far from my point. If you know there is a possible threat outside, I don't think sending your dogs out is the way to handle it. Like you said, you have an alarm, get your dogs in and set it, let them bark from inside that keeps both you and your dogs safe. Jaycee will bark and charge at times with no signs of fear at all whatsoever. But she'll also turn tail and run, that's not good for her confidence and I try and keep that from happening at any time. And she's over a year old. At 5 months, she would bark at a shadow and charge it, then come running back to me if the shadow moved. Imagine that being a person and when your dogs ran the person then knew they were not a threat, then you and your dogs are at an even bigger risk. A dog inside barking is a way bigger deterent than sending your dogs out to bark where they can be seen or gotten to. And in no way in my post was I implying you were in irresponsible owner. We all learn on this forum about our decisions, I myself have learned about many bad decisions I've made, it's all a learning process.