When I was a girl, I used to ride my bike (and horses) and up and down our country road (about a mile). When I was a pre-teen, a couple down the road moved in with Dobermans and I had to move really fast not to get bit. That was bad and I was worried I’d get hurt, or my horse. This was before leash laws.
On the other side of the spectrum, I now have chickens, chickens, goats and two large Great Pyrenees. When I say large, my largest GP is 183 lbs. They do not leave the 2 acre barn and pasture, ever.
All my neighbors know the GP are gentle giants, but if our goats were provoked, idk what they would do. I have told them this. A neighbors’s kids chased our goats once and ever since, our GPs don’t like kids too much. Another tune, a neighbor’s teens tormented our Pyrs and goats by riding their ATV back and forth along the fence line.
We allow one (kind) neighbor’s grandkids to feed them treats through the fence to help them adjust to people who are kind, and our dogs generally like them. They are learning to accept our pet sitter, who sits for a long time and lets them come to her, once the Pyrs are your friends, there is no issue. If I introduce then Pyrs to a visitor, there is no problem. Pyrs are smart in that if you are ok with a visitor, they are ok.
I feel so much of this comes down to owner responsibility. My vet (whom I really like) and I will never see eye to eye on one thing: if a dog comes onto my property and harms a goat or chicken, I will not hesitate to stop that, including shooting. I have made every effort to avoid that: tall fences, livestock guard dogs, live wires, etc. but my vet owns a sweet rescue dog shot by a farm owner. He blames the owner that the shot, not the other that let the dog roam.
So we have to agree to disagree. We respect each other and he’s been my farm vet for 15 years. 🤷♀️
We also have a Great Pyr. She is beautiful , affectionate, and also a barkaholic. She will bark at anything she doesn’t like including the mail man, Amazon delivery. Ups, Fedex, the garbage truck, joggers, cyclists or any thing she can hear but we can’t. But she is just doing what she was bred for, and that is a magnificent guard dog. Thank God she just sleeps at night, not like some others. Her bark is much more than her bite, she has never bitten anyone, and she just loves children.