Dogs

[Tartar Horde]

For me Dogs are a great asset and if the poop does hit the fan I intend to have at least half a dozen "long Dogs", well trained dogs are the best detection devices around, and will help put meat on the table, and will fight to the death to protect their pack (you and your family). If you have to Hunt, then doing it with dogs will bring far more rewards then doing the "lone Hunter" thing. A dogs nose is one of the best devices for tracking and finding game that would otherwise be invisible to our human eyes. They can also alert you to intruders long before you can see them giving valuable time to prepare. There's a reason most third world villages have dogs, and that is because it is impossible to enter such a village at night without being detected by them. As for safety against other dogs, your dogs will patrol your patch and attack any other dogs that enter their territory and alert you by the noise. A pack of wild dogs would attack a human without firearms, but a human backed up with Dogs is another matter. They were the first animals we domesticated and have shared our Ice age hunts and campfires, I wouldn't be without them.