Marko1962
Hot Topics Subscriber
I was out late this afternoon walking my dogs in a nature reserve and with this being the season of the witches somebody/persons had carved out scary faces on a handful of pumpkins and placed them around a field. As we approached the first one that was placed upon a 5 foot high pole I did the wozzat thing to see if Ozzy (Dobe) or 5 month old Eva (Rottie) would react. Ozzy pranced around and eventually nose poked it, big game, Eva did nothing but look intensely at it... Then all of a sudden whilst I'm still doing my wozzatts, from the trees about 20 yards in front of us this camouflaged, zoom lens equipped, birdwatching Vicar steps out from no-where and Eva my Rottie pup goes berserk, growling, up on her hind feet against the leash lunging and barking, as the Vicar walked away she kept her eyes on him growling/gruffing away.
Obviously the combination of me trying to get a response out of them at the exact time the Vicar stepped out from the trees set her off, she thought he was a threat and was doing what comes naturally and all of this was with my ill timed permission and wozzat encouragement
We walked back to the main field where there was other people, I wanted to see what she'd do meeting people after the encounter, ideally I wanted to bump into the vicar to apologise and see how she's react but he was gone, instead she jumped up and played the puppy with other people and dogs, she was back to her normal puppy self.
What do I make of this? It's nice to know that I have a dog that I know WILL defend me if needed (even at 5 months), I'm sure Ozzy would but he's more laid back then my Rottie, it would probably take a real threat to find out. Eva sees 'threats' more readily than Ozzy so that means I have to be on my guard that Eva doesn't go over the top with her guarding instincts as she grows into an adult. Also I think I'm seeing not so much the difference between breeds but more the difference between a working line dog with a few champs in her pedigree and a show line dog with a few working dogs in his pedigree
Now what a combo I walk, Ozzy doesn't like other dogs and Eva doesn't like camouflaged, zoom lens equipped, birdwatching Vicars so woe betide any Vicar walking a dog, I really will have my hands full
Obviously the combination of me trying to get a response out of them at the exact time the Vicar stepped out from the trees set her off, she thought he was a threat and was doing what comes naturally and all of this was with my ill timed permission and wozzat encouragement
We walked back to the main field where there was other people, I wanted to see what she'd do meeting people after the encounter, ideally I wanted to bump into the vicar to apologise and see how she's react but he was gone, instead she jumped up and played the puppy with other people and dogs, she was back to her normal puppy self.What do I make of this? It's nice to know that I have a dog that I know WILL defend me if needed (even at 5 months), I'm sure Ozzy would but he's more laid back then my Rottie, it would probably take a real threat to find out. Eva sees 'threats' more readily than Ozzy so that means I have to be on my guard that Eva doesn't go over the top with her guarding instincts as she grows into an adult. Also I think I'm seeing not so much the difference between breeds but more the difference between a working line dog with a few champs in her pedigree and a show line dog with a few working dogs in his pedigree
Now what a combo I walk, Ozzy doesn't like other dogs and Eva doesn't like camouflaged, zoom lens equipped, birdwatching Vicars so woe betide any Vicar walking a dog, I really will have my hands full
I bet the Vicar was as surprised as you guys were lol...I would have like to have seen the look on his face ..he perhaps thought he meet the devil himself with his hounds of hell 
in tow lol! Especially if ya looked like you did in that shot rofl 
LOL
