I Am Guard Dog Hear Me Roar

The littlest boy giving Junie a kiss

Now that I am completely comfortable here in my home, I have taken it upon myself to alert my mom to every noise that is around us.

Especially at night.

Tonight I have been on high alert.  I'm not sure what is out there beyond the sliding glass door and I am not about to leave my mom's comfy lap to go find out, but my mom says she's never felt me so tense.  I keep looking towards the door with my ears straight up and I growl and I bark and I growl some more.  I don't know what it is, but mom needs to know there is something out there.

Mom said it's probably a cat.  Or a possum.  Then she really thought about it and said, or it's someone trying to steal the Oldest Boy's bike he left on the porch.  There was no way she was going to investigate then.  She called dad and he hurried home from work and said there is nothing out there.

I must have scared them away.

I do my job around here.  Protect and love.  It's what I do.

Mom says that if I was bigger she swears I would herd the kids around like an Australian Cattle Dog.  She's probably right.  I don't bark when the kids are moving around normally during the day, but if the Oldest Boy is trying to be sneaky, I start barking and let mom know that he's doing something fishy.

If the kids get out of their bed at night, I bark and growl at them from across the room, and let them know that mom told them to go to bed, they need to get back in there.  I don't actually get up.  I just let them know I see them sneaking around even if mom doesn't see it and she'll see it soon enough when she hears me.

Mom thinks it is kind of strange that I only alert her to the kids when they are doing something they aren't supposed to be doing.  She wants to know how I know what they are supposed to and what they aren't supposed to do?

I don't know.  I just know.

Like I said, during the day when they are up and moving around, I play with them, or I ignore them, or I lay beside them.  I love all of them.  But if they are sneaky, I alert mom.  That means I'm smart right?

Do your dogs do things like that?

Mom says she can't wait until we buy a house so she doesn't have to worry about my barking and the neighbors.  I say they won't mind my barking if I alert them to something they should know about too.  Mom says that we have to have the most understanding neighbors in the world between my alerts and the birds chirping, it sounds like a zoo in here.  Since they pet me when they see me, they must be right.

Junie says to check out: Barking: The Sound of a Language (Dogwise Training Manual)