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This is one reason I'm a huge proponent of having dogs at home. They're far smarter than any alarm system. They don't need to actually be big dangerous guard dogs in order to protect you from burglars.

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My 2 little dachshunds create a nice ruckus anytime a stranger comes near the house. They wouldn't protect me, but at least they'd wake me up.

More importantly, they're going to deter a potential burglar. They'll just move on to an easier target.

Speaking of deterrents, it can help a lot to simply have a sticker on your house or sign in your yard of a security company, even if you don't actually have a security system.

I'm from Brampton, which is a suburb of Toronto. We have a large South Asian population, many of whom are Punjabi. Putting "Beware of Dog" signs in your window is a thing.

To illustrate my point, watch this video, with subtitles on: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=xmK...

I don't want to judge you, not knowing how big a yard you have, but as a downtown apartment dweller, dogs barking provide all the annoyance of car alarms, the same inaction, and a smoldering hatred for people who keep dogs in these conditions.

I'd hazard a guess that while it may be as annoying to you, and receive the same inaction from you, that to each owner a dog's bark has a different meaning. Partly because they get to know the animal ("oh, he never does X or he usually does Y so I can judge this better") and partly because they have context (all you hear is barking, but they hear that along with... knowing the dog hasn't had his walk yet. Or knowing he was asleep so something strange must have woken him up. Or knowing... etc.)

Depends on the kind. For the most part, if one keeps barking in the night, you can assume something's wrong. If it does it anyway, you already know that and can ignore it, and call the council if it keeps doing it.

It's all deterrence.

Thieves don't wan to be caught or injured - they'll go for a house that doesn't have a dog bark at them when they are peeking in the windows; they'll go for the house without an alarm box next to the one that does. Even a small dog works for deterrence even if not so much actual physical defence - I've known people with some very non-aggressive dogs who still have 'Beware of Dog' signs for this exact reason.

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