I learned to always trust my dog’s defensive instincts. As far as I’m concerned, they give you another bullet point of information to make your decision with. Just be careful that it isn’t your emotions they’re reacting to. You’re in a “Pack” and the next question is: Are you truly its leader? Cesar Milan knows…LOL!
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We had a Labrador retriever. Sweetest — okay wimpiest — boy. Loved people, but he was not good at interacting with other dogs. Not hostile just puzzled that other dogs wanted to play.
He would bark, of course, when the door bell rang, but we never had any trouble calming him down.
We were camping in North Carolina with 2 other couples about 8 years ago. One evening as the 6 of us were sitting around the fire, a man walked right into our campsite and asked if we knew of any golf courses in the area. He said that he was an avid golfer and that he was traveling alone.
Our dog began barking and snarling at this man, and just would not stop. After he finally left, we were asking why he would not have searched online beforehand to find golf courses. And all of us were so surprised by the way the wimpy dog had acted. He never barked at anyone going by in the campground, even when people were walking dogs.
When we women compared notes the next day, we found that each of us had locked the camper door when going to bed. Half-joked that he was probably a murderer. Later that day, while the dog was tethered to the very heavy picnic table, he began barking up a storm and took off after a man walking down the road. He dragged that table about 15 feet trying to get to that man. Sure enough, it was “golf boy” again. So creepy. Locked the camper that night again.
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