You gotta be careful though, sometimes they do mean it.
I worked in a porn shop in Austin in the 80’s. Hey they needed a cashier and it paid good...Night shift, I closed down the place. they had a Doberman that had to be put inside to ward off burglars. Damn thing nearly licked me to death every night...I don’t think that dog would hurt anyone if he had to. And I hate dogs...He jumped up to get petted one night and I had white pants on, I went home with huge brown paw prints on my pants, it was very muddy after a good rain. I don’t want to think about what else was mixed in...
Then a few years ago my uncle went to someone’s house to check on a job we might be hired to do. He walked up to the door and knocked, no answer. Several times. So he turned around to leave and found a large German Sheperd blocking the porch steps. And it would not back off. He went to the end ofr the porch. Dog followed, stayed in front of him. OK...other end of the porch...dog stayed in front...
He finally sat down and gave up. The dog was NOT going to let him leave. Never barked, low growl once, that’s it. When the owner finally showed up after about a half hour he was petting their dog on the porch, surprised them, that almost never happened. But he finally managed to make friends.
It turned out this dog was from a long line of police dogs, and trained in German. He only understood German commands. You could try in English all day long, he had no idea what you were saying. His owner could use German commands and the dog would do anything he wanted, including eat your lunch. Legitimate police training, not simple layman’s yard dog. He’d let you in, no way you were going to leave. Unless you like hospitals...And never, ever barked. One low growl is all you heard, at that point you were in trouble...you weren’t leaving until his owner said stand down. Period. Better hope he’s not gone for the weekend...