Brave dog - Proud Mummy

Our brave guardian being hassled by the kids

This evening we were sitting in the sofa watching some TV. Kids were asleep and the house was quiet. All of a sudden the door to the apartment opens from the outside. This door is in the living-room, but screened with a short wall-segment, so from the sofa we cannot see the door. Yoram and me looked at each other with puzzled faces, but before we reacted any further Barak was on his legs heading towards the door. As he approached the door, hidden from us, we could hear him charging out through the door, barking loudly. At this point we were right after him, finding a woman in shock at the door. I brought the dog back into the flat while Yoram went out to talk to the woman. He asked who she is, and she tried to explain that she went into the wrong door. She also concluded that the dog bit her, standing there with ripped pants and some blood on the leg. Yoram pointed out the stupidity in just entering a door without knocking, but the woman left to find her intended destination. I also have to point out here that this was not an attack to kill - it was a warning snap, or what you call a distance-increasing action, and yes, they do cause some damage. If he really had decided to hurt her she would lay in a hospital by now. Now instead, I think that she learned a lesson for life.

Just before this scenario started, we had cleaned some stains off of the floor and therefore a bucket with some soap water was standing by the door. That bucket was tipped over as Barak charged at the intruder, so we had to start scraping the floor dry again. Then the neighbour, who the woman was on her way to, came down. We explained what happened, and that the dog just defended our home. Yoram also said that we have children and the dog is really not vicious. She asked if the dog has had his shots, which he has, and that made her satisfied. Luckily she was reasonable.

As I took the dog back inside, I was amazed over how quickly he turned the control over to us and tagged down again. That not only proves to me that he is a very mentally stable dog, but also that he has truly accepted us as pack leaders. We have not trained him to defend his family. That is in his genes, but he knows that under normal circumstances, we are in charge, and when we are outside, he is never ever aggressive towards humans. However, this was not a normal circumstance and the dog took an initiative that I cannot disagree with. As Yoram scraped the floor, he said that he did not know whether to be angry at Barak or to reward him. According to me we should do neither. A reward might reinforce these territorial behaviours too much, and repressing it could possibly kill this instinct that he is born to use. He is exactly perfect as he is now, and this evening he was allowed to dip his tongue into Mummy's Lagavulin.

And, you might think, what about Goshen? What did she do? Well, she was laying on her spot, looking with her big eyes with wonder at everything that happened around her. She is not and will never be a brave guard dog. She is beautiful, but that is basically it...