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[Brisk]

I just did an experiment and it seems hunting dogs are no better than regular dogs at spotting thieves. however, the results were inconsistent. every time a thief or snatcher was spotted from further than 1 square there was a cat present.

perhaps the animals add their detection range?

[Urist Da Vinci]

Certain megabeasts now have the token [NATURAL_SKILL:SITUATIONAL_AWARENESS:xx] where xx is a number between 1 and 20. If someone modded dogs to have this skill, they would all naturally be good at spotting ambushers more than 1 square away.

[ChairmanPoo]

It might well be that my hunting dog spotted the ambushers early because, to get to my fortress door proper, they had to pass under an archway with the dog on top, and thus at that point they were detected.

[Hyndis]

Just build your barracks at the entrance to your fortress. Make sure there is always an on duty squad there at all times.

An on duty soldier will aggressively attack any hostiles they see even if they are not explicitly ordered to attack it. They're not civilians, they're soldiers, and so follow the soldier AI while on duty.

Roving kill-squads are a good backup. Designate your entire embark as a burrow and assign, say, three squads to defend that embark. They will seek and destroy all hostiles. Leave one squad guarding the main gate to catch anyone who tries to sneak through. If they catch an ambush the seek and destroy guys will come running, providing prompt reinforcements for your soldiers in the barracks.

You can even rotate them. So, say four squads and 40 dwarves total. For 3 months out of the year they're training on duty in the barracks, for 9 months out of the year they're on search and destroy duty.

Your fortress will be exceptionally safe. They'll even put down any berserk dwarves as fast as they can run there.

[Fredd]

The technique of kitty sentrys, behind windows, behind fortifications, has proved to be a excellent technique. As for hunting dogs, they are just faster than wardogs

[Mystery]

I hate kitten as much as the next guy but i thought assigning any sort of cute cuddly cat would cause dwarfs to suicidally charge into battle to try and get another pet. 

[Urist Imiknorris]

I use pressure-plate-linked hatches as my sentries.

[Max White]

I find cage traps make fair sentries.
And make for a sweet fight arena. GOBLIN VS DRAGON!!!TONIGHT ONLY

[LealNightrunner]

I use dwarves armed with masterwork steel weapons and armor as my sentries.

I find most problems are resolved on their own.

Here I am now wishing I could just chain up arbitrary dwarves with a food/drink stockpile within range.

You can, get some nobles, designate your entrance as a jail, wait for mandates, tada!

[ChairmanPoo]

I use pressure-plate-linked hatches as my sentries.

THat wont save you from kobold thieves

[Korva]

Here I am now wishing I could just chain up arbitrary dwarves with a food/drink stockpile within range.

You could put your prison in the entrance, but that runs the risk of losing a valued dwarf to a sniper squad simple because some noble threw a fit over an unfulfilled mandate. Still ... for true criminals, the terror of not knowing if something nasty will pop up any moment to gut you could be a nice part of the punishment. :p