Paula writes:
I've been enjoying these stories immensely, but really didn't think I had one
to contribute since Brodie is only 13 months old. We are still going through
the teaching process with him and trying to impart some manners. As I am sure
most of you know, this is not the easiest of tasks, but he is trying. He is our
first Airedale, so there has been a learning curve for us. Until recently
I would have sworn that he would not display protective behavior of any kind;
he is so young and has had no training of that type. He has never been
territorial about his food or his toys.
Our house is surrounded by wooded areas with a very long driveway leading to a
quiet street with very little traffic. Our front door faces this driveway, and
to the left is a section of woods followed by a fairly high traffic
main road. Brodie can see the driveway from a large front room window
and always gets quite excited when anyone is arriving. He is always at the
door with his tail wagging and his "happy barking". Our biggest issue
with him is trying to get him trained not to jump up on visitors, expecting a
"kiss". He seems to love everyone, even first time visitors. My
husband leaves at 5:30 A.M. for work and normally I would stay in bed another
hour or two, but one day a few weeks ago I happened by chance to get up at that
time. Shortly after my husband left, I went downstairs to throw some laundry in
the wash, and as I was starting back up I heard Brodie growl, just as I heard
the doorknob turn on the front door. I ran up and there was my
usually happy little guy jumping on the door with all his hair standing stiff,
teeth bared, and the ungodliest growling and snapping I have ever heard.
Whoever had tried the door was not in sight but I knew there had not been
enough time for them to get up the driveway. I ran out the back door, grabbing
the phone on the way past. A quick check of the garage and shed turned up
nothing. Brodie was still going ballistic, trying to get outside, so after
calling my husband, I put him on harness and took him out the front door, where
he circled once, then followed his nose directly to the left, through the
woods, and stopped at the highway. You should have seen the disgusted look on
his face when he realized that there was no more scent to follow!
Our neighborhood is very safe with no record of break-ins in the past. We were
extremely puzzled by Brodie's reaction, and couldn't come up with a plausible
explanation for it until we were notified that two homes not far from us were
burglarized that same week. Police had actually chased the suspect a mile from
us. We are still asking ourselves how did Brodie know?
No comments:
Post a Comment