Get a dog. Not one of these stupid breeds we see city slickers owning, but a real dog. That means something 80lbs and up. A Pyr/Akbash cross would do very well for guarding the home and farm.
Unless you train them to fire a weapon, they will get shot.
See Argentina...
I'm a passable dog guy. I have a DSD protecting our property here in California.
Most of the fields in the Central, Salinas, and Imperial Valleys don't have fences. So the perps could claim they were simply attacked. I just don't see it working without a major capital investment, and even then, the insurance and verification that the dogs were properly trained would be very costly. Once one gets those certs, the paperwork is an open invitation for an ambulance chaser to see if they were maintained properly...
In this legal environment, it would be a nightmare.
You are thinking of the old family farm where people actually lived with their dogs. We have a ranch with cattle and equipment. No one lives there, all you can do is lock the gate.
I live on a farm. I own 4 pugs, does that count? LOL, seriously though, we also own a GS/Wolf hybrid.....he isn’t all that quick, and he’s really old but he looks mean enough.
He’s maybe got a year or two left and I am planning on replacing him with a Boxer inside the house and another shepherd outside using an invisible fence to keep that one from wandering.
I figger if the bad guys (by some miracle make it past the GS, they have the Boxer to deal with. If they make it past both dogs, well the missus has her .38 and I have my shotgun.
Check out FerFals blog for his opinion on dogs in a rural setting.