Yuck. You never know what you are going to do when you get woke up from a bone-tired deep-sleep and have to spring into action.
My only suggestion is that you do what many of us on the forum do frequently both in our minds and in our posts...we work out "what-if" scenarios over and over and critique ourselves (peer review).
By doing this repeatedly you find that you actually start acting as you planned when you do actually come upon situations such as you have described. (5 'you's' in that sentence)
I personally don't have too much of a problem with what you did, though the general consensus is that you shouldn't go outside and investigate. What mitigated the situation in my mind is the fact that you had two presumably good-sized and loud dogs precede you out the door. That may have made a big impression on any would-be evil-doer in your yard.
