No matter how long you live with them, dogs are full of surprises.
Take Thunder. He is a very laid back dog. He rarely barks.
Chessies can be protective, but normally Thunder is a watch and wait sort of guy compared to Storm who is a bark at the stranger and figure out if you like them later.
Last weekend on the way to the cabin we stopped for gas at a little corner store. Hubby finished with the gas and went inside to pay. These pumps are old. No pay at the pump here.
Thunder was hanging out in the back seat. I thought he was napping. I was wrong. He was watching out the window. A man walked past the front of the truck from the store to his car which was parked just past where we were parked at the pump. There must have been something about the guy that Thunder did not like because he started barking at him. It was not a nice bark. It was a warning to stay away bark.
As I said, I expect that from Storm, but Thunder has never acted that way. If I ever had doubts that Thunder takes his job of protecting his human seriously, I no longer have them. Sometimes dogs are full of surprises.
Then later in the weekend Freighter surprised me.
He was outside while hubby was filling the bird feeders and doing a few other things around the cabin. A neighbor (who we don’t know too well), stopped by with his golden retriever. Just walked right up the driveway…strange guy with a strange dog.
Now that could have been trouble. I think people with dogs know that some dogs don’t take kindly to strange people or strange dogs entering their territory.
What did Freighter do?
Freighter had a blast playing with the golden retriever. She was an older spayed female and very submissive. Freighter thought his new playmate was great and he thought the guy was great because he brought the new playmate.
When Freighter was younger, I am not sure this meeting would have gone as well. Freighter likes most people he meets; however, most dogs were another story. He would not go looking for trouble, but if any dog looked askew at him or got in his face, he would not take kindly to it. As he has matured, Freighter has mellowed quite a bit. He had a nice long play session with the golden retriever and we only called him inside when he got a little too wound up and started playing a bit rough with her. No sense having things end badly so we wnded on a good note and maybe they can play again another day.
How do your dogs surprise you?
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How great that Freighter found a buddy that way :o) and I bet the owner of the golden is a nice peep too. Otherwise Thunder would smell it and he would start the chessie-alarm. I bet something was wrong with the guy you saw at the gas station and Thunder smelled the bad vibrations.
We always are coming up with something new to surprise Mom. Sometimes it is good stuff, sometimes not. If we were always predictable, it would be so boring!
It is amazing what good sense that dogs and cats too, can sense when another dog or person is OK or not OK. Freighter must have known that was a nice Golden. That was great that they had such a good time playing. Sounds like fun for all.
I love this post. Sydney is our quiet girl and prefers to be with me, but she has her dog friends and I love seeing her excitement when she sees them for a walk. Rodrigo loves everyone, so it’s a surprise when he’s not friendly to a human. It’s never a surprise if he’s not friendly to a dog (other than friends), because he’s protective of me and his pack. Scout cracks me up, because he barks at everyone, but he’s a HUGE flirt, so he wiggles and giggles with women while barking at their husbands – she’s my girlfriend now!
And Zoey is the biggest surprise of all, because she’s gaining more confidence so when a neighbor stops by, it’s fun to see her bark a couple times, sniff their shoes, then move on.
They certainly do surprise us every now and then, don’t they?
Boy do dogs have a way of reading people (and other dogs), don’t they? For whatever reason Thunder wasn’t too keen on that guy at the gas station and I would tend to trust his judgement.
Haley surprises me sometimes with other dogs too, whether she considers them good playmates or tends to avoid them. I wish we understood more about their behavior and what makes them like or dislike other dogs.
You’ve done such an amazing job with all of your dogs. My own dogs surprise me occasionally. I think Chewy and Gadget surprise me with their anomosity toward the cats.
They never cease to amaze and surprise me! One thing for sure…living with dogs is an adventure!!
And we love ’em!
Sampson is similar to Thunder in that he’s laid back, BUT he does like people, so he’s usually rooing at them to see if he can get an audience with them. He has only ever barked/growled at one person and I knew right away he wasn’t a very nice man. (Confirmed later by neighbors.) 🙂 Delilah is more like Storm, very protective and apt to make quick assumptions, then change her mind after.
Sampson probably would have been okay with the dog coming in the yard, but it’s a toss up with Delilah. 😀
I’m so glad that dog visit turned out well! Around here, Sheba is the only one that would behave well in that situation.
Sheba surprises me the most I think. She surprised me when she went into the crate willingly, having never been in one her whole life, and she surprised me the other day when she just broke out into a run for no apparent reason! She’s not one to just run for the sheer joy of it, normally she only runs when chasing the ball. It was so good to see!
We had an odd surprise recently. We let the dogs in the bed a couple times a week at least. But just a couple nights ago she went into her crate without even making “let me in the bed, please” eyes. We haven’t asked her to sleep in the crate for months. Usually she’ll cuddle with her sister on the floor if we don’t let them in the bed. But suddenly she decided the crate was a good place to hang for the night.
Hasn’t happened since. Not sure if she was feeling insecure about something or what but it made both my wife and I go “huh?”.
I thank you for saying that until Freighter got older he wasn’t fond of other dogs. How old was he when he started to mellow about that? Dakota isn’t fond of other dogs and a few weeks ago I was watching a dog that got out in our hallway (I still need to blog about that) and I brought him in (a small dog that I could hold) I expected Dakota to go nuts, but he didn’t……..but if he sees the same dog outside, he loses his mind! DakotasDen
Freighter is 4. I would not say that he has mellowed out about every dog, but at least he doesn’t react to perceived aggression.
Every now & then the pups will bark a “stay the heck away from us” bark as well when I’m getting gas. Hasn’t happened in a while, but I sure do appreciate it when they do bark – especially when I’m on my own (without the husband).
I would want you protecting me Thunder. Freighter your still a kid at heart.
Ours are fairly predictable1 Thank heavens, anticipation save some “problems”. Macha is like her father, give her the evil eye and the low growl begins! Erynn’s favorite perch is an upstairs window ~ we are not surprised, but those walking around in the middle of the night might suddenly hear a ferocious Chessie alarm going off!
The best story of a surprise was Coco at a fish restaurant in Port Clinton. We were just leaving only to see her deliberately ambush a gentleman opening the door of a car next to ours. He was startled, we were embarrassed! Fortunately she smiled and laughed, at him and he got the joke. We chatted a bit and made certain all was well.