“Anything with teeth will bite”.

Including people!

There are no exceptions to this rule. Even your kind, obedient dog who’s afraid of its own shadow will bite. If threatened and/or cornered, little fluffy who’ve you seen play nicely with humans and cats alike will turn into an animal you won’t recognize.

If a dog is "afraid of its own shadow" then yeah, it will bite. It's MUCH more likely to bite than a confident, stable dog, as a matter of fact.

That’s just the way it is. They’re not furry little people and the smartest dog is as intelligent as a very severely developmentally disabled person. Smart pet owners know this. They know the reason their dog is barking at a neighbor’s kid who’s walking past their yard is that it’s protecting its territory and should be corrected rather than viewed as cute.

1. They're generally considered to be as smart as a 3-year old child. A NORMAL 3-year-old child.

2. You BET I don't correct my dog for "protecting his territory". Why? I want my dog to bark a warning. This is natural. Just because the dog is barking doesn't mean it's about to bite, likely to bite, or anything like that. "Smart" dog owners know THAT. "Smart" dog owners ALSO know that correcting the dog for barking is likely to cause the dog to associate the correction with the reason for barking, and actually make the dog MORE aggressive towards the reason.

Simple barking from my smallish, otherwise non-aggressive Sheltie has protected me more than once from someone clearly planning to do some kind of violence towards me (I won't go into details, but I am NOT engaging in some dubious fantasy here).

Eventually, one of those kids is going to unknowingly give that dog a signal he views as threatening and he will defend himself and his territory what he feels is an appropriate manner.

Not really, no. I've had five dogs, all with varying degrees of stability/confidence, ALL of them barked to "protect their territory", NONE of them ever bit anyone, despite being in situations where they certainly could have according to your description.

I don’t have a dog, I have a cat...

But, whenever my friends have their kids over I watch any child/cat interaction and warn the parents not to let their kids corner or grab him if he tries to run away. I’m not going to trust that my cat will behave himself and I most certainly do not trust their kids. They’re good kids, but I know what a small child’s version of “not doing anything” to an animal is when questioned about why it bit them.

Good. Cat bites are dangerous. I've been bitten myself by both cats and dogs, and only the cat bite necessitated a trip to the emergency room (where they flushed the wound for 1/2 hour, bandaged it, prescribed antibiotics, and told me to immobilize my arm for 10 days--I still have scars). Cat bites are punctures and often don't flush well, so they are much more likely to get infected. I've known people to have to spend time in the hospital post cat bite.

You should never leave a small child alone with a cat OR a dog. You should never leave your dog out all day, especially in a situation where he could be teased/tormented by the local children. you should NEVER EVER chain your dog out (a great way to make him aggressive). But also--

If you don't want your dog to bark, EVER, get a fake dog. Or a quiet cat.

If you want a reflection of your "image", get a motorcycle, NOT a dog.

You shouldn't let your children kiss strange dogs on the nose anyway. No matter what breed they are. To any dog, a stranger's face approaching their own would look threatening.

Just saying.

I don't currently live in an apartment, but if I did, and something like that happened on my floor, the dogs would throw a FIT. And I'd open the door, and the medium sized dog would be out like a shot, where he would stand approximately 10 feet away and bark. A LOT. His bark is deep enough, but it nonetheless cuts through you like a knife, and he can look awfully frightening when he feels like it. and apartment dwellers may be prepared to ignore a woman being beaten and raped, but I guarantee they wouldn't ignore a nuisance-barking dog, and there'd be 10 police there in under 3 minutes.

Sorry, I feel a little cynical.

Seriously, though, there's nothing like a good watchdog to help prevent crime. Notice I didn't say GUARD dog or ATTACK dog. A dog that barks a warning is quite often all you need. A dog isn't like a car alarm--it's really hard to ignore. Last apartment I lived in, the landlord always said he felt safer with my dogs around.

In any case, I would call the police myself. I truly don't understand why the police weren't called.