[JRandomFreeper]

one good deterrent against any sneaky person who might try to hurt the dogs when the owner's not looking

Dogs cover that part pretty well. I'm not talking city yapping dogs. Farm dogs do what needs to be done.

You just have to have a shovel handy to lose the evidence.

/johnny

[familyop]

"Farm dogs do what needs to be done."

I hear ya. Shepherd/malamute mixes are good for that in my area. Other kinds of dogs freeze to death around here. Any dogs that run cattle without being told to, and dogs that look dangerous to people are shot on sight (open range, cowboys, and all of that). There are also the large predators (bear, mountain lions, etc.), visibility for extreme distances and regular high winds, so firearms are generally different from those in lowlands. Seven to nine months of winter, expansive unpopulated areas and quick heat exhaustion during the short summer. ...and few services that are far apart, high altitudes that render folks from lower places breathless while only walking, and so on.

My point is that different environments and climates will require different considerations. Even rural populations are thicker in the East, Midwest and around the coasts relative to some places in the West.