First something walks through his yard earlier this week sending him into protection overdrive. He’s STILL carefully sniffing over, and then peeing on, the original scent mark in the front yard.
Then this morning two different sets of kids knock on the door selling stuff for school. He totally went nuts “somebodies at the DOOR and I didn’t hear them drive IN!!”. The second time worse than the first, the poor girl at the door about fainted when the giant barking head abruptly appeared at higher than her eye level at the door. Not sure she believed me when I said he’s friendly….
Now the poor giant puppy is flinching at every sound, jerking out of his nap to half bark, before realizing that its ok and going back to sleep……
Edited: I’m thinking we’re going to have to do some desensitizing to people “appearing” at the front door if he’s going to be this twitchy afterwards. He’s ok if he gets the “warning” of hearing a vehicle in the drive, but when they walk up the first warning is the knock on the door….
All my dogs have made up for not hearing a car, by being extra barky and excited when someone knocks. However, they haven't become twitichy or nervous, so maybe some “practice” might help the poor pup out.
To be fair, it's the Tibetan Mastiff guardian instincts kicking at him. Those OCD instincts are telling him he's supposed to know where EVERYTHING and EVERYONE is at all times, and since he DIDN'T he now has to be hyper vigilant. We'll have to get him used to the concept I guess.
Having someone stop by on foot more often should help with that, especially if they bring treats. Our mail carrier keeps dog biscuits in his pockets. Chloe goes into beg mode whenever she sees him.
My dad likes sneaking up on Chloe too. He bought a used Prius; now he is able to be a stealthy driver. The car doesn't make any noise when it pulls into our driveway. As long as he doesn't slam the car door Chloe doesn't know he is here until she hears him on the stairs.
What gets Chloe really twitchy is when she has been napping in another room and the cat has snuck upstairs to get some attention. After she wakes, she smells the cat and goes into full guard dog mode sitting at the top of the stairs just waiting for the next cat invasion…..
Speaking of pesky word verification, you site now has two words to verify. Has Google been messing with your blog settings as well?
Mail carrier drives through, rural route carriers, but yes, he loves her.
And yes, its Google, I'm considering turning the word verification off, its not like I get so many comments I can't just delete any spam.