So much is wrong with it.
First off, dogs don't carry weapons.
And the people who thought it would have been funny if I took the real Laci out hunting boar really have no idea of how fearless and selfless dogs are. Which takes us back to the previous point: a dog will protect a pack member. And that is the case no matter how small the dog is.
They don't need guns. They have their teeth, agility, and strength.
Another point with how wacky this trope is comes with the fact that Dogs and Wolves aren't that different. Dogs are a lot more accustomed to being around humans. Dogs also know the human is the boss. But other than that: there isn't that much difference between Lobo and Laci the Powderpuff Chinese Crested in how they act.
Sheepdogs work using their innate characteristics for hunting (herding sheepdogs) or pack protection (pastoral sheepdogs). The pastoral sheepdog is going to hang with the herd of sheep and protect it from preditors: animal or human. You want a good example of a pastoral sheepdog and it would be the Bearnaise Mountain Dog. Nice until you provoke it.And they are about as different from the wolf, sheepdog, and sheep trope as you can get.
On the other hand,Argus and Fiona were two Bernese mountain dogs that were shot and killed when they entered a neighbor's yard. The dude with the gun was afraid they would kill his sheep. I guess the dogs were pretty scary to someone who has a gun.
And isn't really familiar with dogs: especially Bearnaise Mountain Dogs.
The real bottom line here is that a real sheepdog doesn't need to have a gun, or force, to be effective at protecting sheep.
Also, we need to beware of the sheepdogs who want to keep us in line by using fear.
