Smokey was about 75% Grey Wolf and did not bark at all, but had a long low howl that would send a chill up your spine.
Wolfdogs make pretty poor watch dogs for a couple of reasons. They don't see your laptop computer or big screen TV as their toys. So, throw them a steak and take pretty much whatever you want. As long as it's not their $6.00 chew toy. Second, you are the alpha in the pack and that puts you first in line to protect the pack.
They will protect you if they are given the go ahead to do so. Once while walking Smokey, Mrs. and I passed by a small pickup truck with a rather unsavory looking character in it; straggly hair, hose washers in the earlobes, piercings and tats all over. Riding shotgun was a pitbull. About 20 yards past the truck, I heard the Mrs. gasp. I turned around and the creep had opened the passenger door and the pitbull was charging us. I dropped Smokey's leash and took two steps back. Smokey then sat down. When the pitbull was about 10 ft. from Smokey, he rared up like a horse and came down with the front paws on the pitbull, pinning him and wrapped his jaws around the pitbull's neck. I merely said, "Smokey", and he stopped and just held still, keeping his jaws around the pitbull's neck. Dirtbag very tentatively reached for pitbulls leash and started pulling his dog out from under Smokey. I said, "Okay Smokey" and Smokey let go.
I had seen Smokey bite down on a bovine femur and snap it with seemingly little effort, so I know had I not said anything, the pitbull would have paid the price for his owner's idiocy.
This tactic of sitting down, then raring up and pinning a charging adversary is apparently a common move with the wolf. We had a near identical situation, with an identical outcome a few years earlier, but while walking Sammy, our White Malamute/Arctic Wolf mix.
We didn't get into the wolfdog thing on purpose. Our first, Sammy, was a shelter rescue and was identified by them as a Samoyed. He wasn't.