I was going for an evening walk earlier this week and something very strange happened. We were walking our normal route, and I turned a corner and noticed there were some landscapers mowing the lawns at two house about half way down the block. No big deal, I just crossed to the other side of the street. I figured it would be easier for all parties not to have a dog walking by when people were mowing.
We continued to walk and we passed the landscapers on the other side of the street. Lola was beside me walking and all of a sudden she turned around and started barking. This is out of character for her. I can't remember her ever barking on a walk. I immediately made her sit to calm down, and turned around and saw one of the landscapers stopped in the middle of the street. I released her from the sit and started walking again. As we started walking and the landscaper asked if she bites. I said not usually and just continued our walk. As we continued walking she seemed uneasy and anxious, so I cut our walk short and headed home.
Once I got home and had a moment to unwind from our walk, I realized something set Lola off. Lola is always happy and never barks when people approach us walking. In fact she gets so excited because she knows somebody is coming to pet her. As I thought about it more, I realized something made her turn around and bark like she. I am not sure what exactly. But I am glad to know that she will bark and become protective when appropriate. Not that I ever doubted she would protect me if needed, but I have now seen the first inkling of it.
Have you ever seen your dog go into a protective and/or defensive mode for you or anyone else?
Two dogs in my life have done that. When I lived in a nursing home, the facility dog, who I took care of, moved in front of me to "protect" me from a nurse (the nurse and I were only play acting but it was nice to see that Murray, the dog, felt protective of me). My pittie niece, Roxy, did the same thing - placed herself in front of me when her mom got too close to me.
ReplyDeleteour older dog, Princess. She is a lab/rott mix and thinks very highly of my husband. A few years ago his dad was over helping him build a piece of furniture and was handing him a board, kind of out of the blue. Princess jumed and barked and nipped my FIL on the leg, I am sure thinking he was going to whop my hubby on the head with that board.
ReplyDeleteI knew exactly what had happened, but trust me when I tell you we had people try to get us to put her to sleep because of it.
I thought I lost my comment. I hope you got it.
ReplyDeleteSherman has done this twice. The first time I was very suprised because he is such a laid back dog.
ReplyDeleteLeroy hasn't gotten to this point yet, but I have a feeling he would protect any of us if he sensed danger.
It's so crazy when they behave unexpectedly like that! I like to hope that Ellie would protect me in times of need, but she's so submissive and will do anything for love and attention, that she'd probably go crazy with licks and rolling over asking for a belly rub from an attacker, lol!
ReplyDeleteKirby will usually bark at other dogs on our walks, but not usually at people, but the one thing I noticed is he will bark at people with ear phones in their ears...weird!!!
ReplyDeleteTrust Lola's instincts!
Kirby's mom