I’m a believer in protection dogs. We have always had them. They are really our pets. Seriously, they are spoiled rotten. I could tell stories about how my Beloved Curmudgeon treats our dogs that would have you shaking your head at how spoiled they are.
Even though they are spoiled I am frequently reminded that they are still protection dogs. Whenever there is anything that our Doberman perceives might be a threat he inevitably runs TOWARDS the danger. Now, in his little mind that might be a squirrel that jumped from one tree limb to the other, but he still goes towards the danger.
The city was resurfacing the street in front of our house a couple of weeks ago and both of our dogs were standing watch as the convicts worked on the road. We live in a nice neighborhood that is out of the way enough that there is rarely traffic. I watched the dogs watching the convicts and joked to my husband that if any of the men working on the street decided they might come do some plundering in this nice quiet neighborhood they certainly won’t pick our house. Throughout the day, the dogs stood watch and periodically barked to remind the men that they were watching. I did notice that the men watched the dogs as well.
Our Doberman is a dog that has irritated me to death sometimes and actually caused fights between my husband and myself. My husband is so protective of that dog that he has on occasion accused me of not being nice enough to him!! I’ve told my husband that he treats the dogs better than the children. He says the children have brains. I roll my eyes and say he’s got a point. That’s generally how the fights over the dogs go.
I first became convinced of the value of our protection dogs (who are really pets) when we were taking a walk around a neighborhood one evening. We had our Doberman with us. Out of the corner of my eye I saw a huge mixed breed dog running at full speed towards me. I don’t know why the strange dog chose me to come after, but he did. Within a nanosecond of me sensing something was coming our Doberman stepped in front of me and glared at the strange dog. He didn’t miss a beat. He didn’t hesitate. He just broke his training of walking beside my husband and stepped in front of me, between me and the oncoming freight train of a dog.
As soon as our Doberman stepped in front of me and gave the strange dog a ‘you looking at me’ look, the other dog stopped in his tracks. They looked at each other for a minute - sizing each other up I guess - and the strange dog tucked tail and walked off back to where ever he had come from.
From that day on, I have been much more patient with our Doberman and appreciated the fact that he doesn’t think about it, he just protects.
The cute little puppy above is a European German Shepherd available from Command Control K-9. They have several breeds including German Shepherds, Dutch Shepherds and Belgian Malinois. Cute puppy!
