"Forget about alarms (crooks laugh at 'em), fences (easy to scale), and that Remington in the closet (too dangerous). To really protect your house, you need a $42,000 German Shepherd sold by Harrison K-9 Security Services, LLC of Aiken, S.C., purveyor of ultra-high-end security dogs.
Company owner Harrison Prather won't name names but claims his clients include high-profile executives, entertainers, professional athletes, and a few beleaguered veterans of the Nixon Administration.
What makes one of Prather's dogs worth about as much as a BMW M-coupe? Begin with the impeccable European bloodlines. "American German Shepherds are genetic rejects", says Prather in his southern drawl. Then there's the education. By the time a dog arrives at Prather's facility, it's already a graduate of a fine European obedience school, which means it'll respond to commands in four languages - an ability that eludes most humans.
Prather augments that education by training his pupils to, for example, search your house before you enter, not so much as flinch at the sound of gunshot, and avoid poisoned food. He also teaches Fido how to respond to the word " bite." When given the order, a Harrison K-9 will clamp down on an intruder's arm or leg with 1,200 pounds of pressure per square inch and won't let go until told to.
"If one of these dogs bites your limb, you're not going to use it again," says Prather. "Probably ever."
He is quick to add, however, that his dogs have never bitten anyone in the line of duty (truly effective protection dogs scare people away before they have to chew them up).
"Humans", Prather astutely notes, "have this innate fear of being eaten by an animal. When a bad guy sees one of these dogs, he figures it might not be a bad idea to see what's going on at the house across the street instead."