I live on a lake in Central Florida now. I have to watch out for alligators and poisonous snakes. There is an alligator cruising about 20 yards off shore right now, but it is only about 6 ft long so not a threat to my dogs. There is one that I see occasionally that I estimate to be about 12 ft and 500 lbs. Alligators that size occasionally eat dogs and even people.
Heh. We joke about gators here on the far north end of Lake Lanier to scare off the South-end Atlanta idiots, but the worst we have are the occasional coyotes.