cats suck, they wont protect you if your in trouble
my sister was attacked by an anatolian shepard (huge horse type dog) and her husky (male, then 2 years old) showed the only aggression we have seen, bit the other dog on the neck, dropped it to the ground, my sister jumped in her car and drove off, and the husky followed soon after. (this was only down the street from our court
few months later that anatolian shepard and a female one decided to get out of the gates of their owners house, attack the mayor of whittlesea, attack a jogger, and harras others
one has been put down, the other...still down the road from our house
training is the key to every dog (although some are just plain crazy [pitty]) you train it from young and socialise it with the family and other dogs (which can be done at training) the dog will love you and be so loyal (especially depending on the breed). if you were to treat them horribly then of course the dog will retaliate, majority of the time its a bad owner/trainer, not a bad dog. training, like tuning, is the key. neglect this very important part of a dogs life, then you should blame yourself for whatever goes wrong..
clifnotes: TRAIN YOUR DOGS!