NEARLY EVERY morning at five o’clock, Dale and Debra Krein woke up to the same racket—the uninterrupted barking of their neighbors’ dogs. The neighbors, Karen Szewz and Jon Updegraff, had moved into their home next door to the Kreins’ near Rogue River, Oregon, in 1997. For two years, Evans Creek Road was a quiet rural lane. Then, in 1999, Szewz and Updegraff bought some Tibetan mastiffs and, in 2002, began breeding them. In 2004, the couple started raising livestock as well, and the dogs were trained to protect their sheep and goats.
Typically weighing up to 160 pounds each, with thick black and tan coats, the mastiffs numbered anywhere from four to 11 on the property. When the owners left for work each morning, the dogs, who were kept outside,…
