Explosions of barking followed any doorbell, knocking, or vehicle sound out front.
Best home defense system EVER – and an annoyance to be explained every time a guest arrived.
Her bark was amazingly deep and menacing at times. As the guy working under his car found when she was surprised by his presence on a walk on night, “Shit! You scared me!”
Oh my did she get spooked at times. Especially at night – see “doesn’t like new areas”
-anal gland-exploding spooked! One of our first extended walks, took us to another new area when Sophie was pretty young, and I saw some activity up ahead, pretty innocuous it seemed, people going from their house to car and back. It was night, so she was on edge a bit anyway, but when we got just past the car they were using, someone shut the door and it scared the crap out of her -literally. She bolted, ripping the extending leash from my hand, and took off down the sidewalk. I chased after her, calling, trying to reassure her all was well and when I finally did catch up to her, the smell was horrific – my first encounter with anal gland release – wooh that stinks! Baby, it’s OK, goodness sakes. For the rest of her life, I had to be extra aware of our surroundings. She never got over that skittishness. Always on edge. As we approached something potentially reaction invoking, i would slowly choke up on her extending leash, thumb pressing hard on the retracting brake, and even often had to lean back bracing for an inevitable lunge. (similar to my preparation when we encountered a rabbit or squirrel!)
