When my brothers and I were kids, my older brother had a dog. He was a mutt - Lab, Dalmatian, Blue Heeler and who knows what else. He was a medium size dog. He would sleep on my brother's bed. One day, when I was playing with my brothers, in my brothers' bedroom (and our dog was with us), my mother came in to tell us we needed to do our chores.
But we kept on playing and ignored her, so then she said it in a loud voice and then, a voice that was kinda demanding and louder. At that point, my brother's dog got up and got between us and my mom and started growling and barking at her. My brother's dog was protecting us - even from my mom, who wasn't going to hit or hurt us, she was just upset and a kinda frustrated that we weren't getting up from playing, to do our chores.
My older brother started kinda laughing, but I was a little scared and so was my little brother. My mom was both startled and amazed at our dog. She had to back off. But she did appreciate that our dog would protect her children, even from herself.
And she did tell us later, when our dog wasn't in between her and us, that we still needed to do our chores. She just never raised her voice with us like that again, in the presence of my brother's dog.
I wonder if anyone else had the experience of your dog or your family dog protecting you.
I have had dogs get protective like this from time to time, but usually once corrected they don't do it again. On the other hand, my Jack Russell is protective of me. I have to watch when I meet people that I am not holding her or have her on my lap. If I am, she will growl and snap. If I put her on the ground, it stops that behavior. I am mindful of it and try not to contribute to her behavior.
I find your story to be cool and quite interesting. You mother must have yelled extremely loud for your dog to go ballistic. I realize your mother changed her tone afterwards so I am assuming she was startled by your dogs reaction. What did she say about your dogs reaction? I have had several dogs in my days but I have never had a dog that was protective over me. My dogs were very lazy and only good for playing--I hate to say that but it's true. Now that I am considering moving in with my boyfriend, I plan to get a dog that will protect us against anyone that comes at us in a threatening manner. I think I may need to get a dog like the one you have. I've never heard of that type of dog nor have I seen it. I will definitely do some research to find pictures and information. Where did you buy the dog?
The dog was protecting you but at the same time he was probably scared and thought that your Mum was shouting at him. Most dogs understand who is in charge and will be submissive to them but if push comes to shove and he thinks another "pack member" is in danger some dogs will stand their ground.
One of our dogs hate it when we play fight with the kids and will always try to get in the middle and stop us. He's never gone as far as growling or biting but he does grab hold of your arm sometimes as if he thinks you are really going to hurt them! It's good to know that he would protect them if they needed it.
MZ_Angie, I have never known a dog that wouldn't be protective when necessary. I had a Lab that was the sweetest, lazy dog. Loved everybody. But, come on our porch uninvited and she would tear into you if given the chance.
Louise, I think you may be right that the dog was scared or startled by the mother's voice. It may have been reacting to the volume and tenor of the voice rather than who was saying the words.
Dogs can have a very protective instinct when it comes to those they love. I remember my Golden Lab some years back. I would be walking through a large field that once existed in front of our neighborhood (there are now houses there) and there could be someone else walking a few feet behind or ahead of me. My dog, Rocky would start to bark in a protective way, as if to tell the person he was there to watch me, and he didn't care how high our fence was he would be over it if that person tried to harm me. So Rocky was a good watch dog and very protective of me and my family.
My bf and I just found out that if we play wrestle, our rescue chihuahua doesn't like it at all. He will get very protective over who is pushing who. He won't bite but he will sit on us and look at the person who is doing it. I have owned chihuahuas most of my life and almost all of them have acted this way. Very loyal and loving dogs.
My dog goodboy was very protective of both my husband and me. If friends came to visit he would watch them and mumble under his breath, he made funny noises, to let them know not to pull any funny business. However, people we were leary of, he licked their hands and really liked them.
One day some children came to the door selling candy and rang the door bell. Goodboy, ran to the door and leap up against it barking and scaring those little ones to death. By the time I got him away from the door and looked out they were running down the street as fast as they could go. No one came selling anything at our house again. lol
When I was a kid our dogs were much too social. We had a running joke that if we ever had an intruder our dogs would even play with them. When I got married and we've had 3 dogs the first two always greeted our visitors like they were long lost family. My new dog a chow is different though. She's still friendly but barks whenever someone comes near the house be it family member or stranger. She's a great guard dog though.
Hey Molly! Yes, my dog has come between me and strangers a number of times. Fortunately, simply saying no to them will have them dismissing the stranger and getting back to what they were doing.
I think the reason why your dog started to growl was because it felt intimidated by your mom's tone of voice, which is good given that he's capable of determining the tone of threat and what not.
Back in the city we lived in, nobody dared entered our home because my mom had 5 big dogs which barked with big voices. Actually, they're just barking out of curiosity. Nonetheless, people in our neighborhood has perceived this as aggression.