7.5 months and protected me from an intruder 🥺

[bonnieb]

Not sure this is the right sub, but I am really proud of my pup and feel the need to share.

I live alone in a big city, and got a corgi for many reasons but one of those reasons was their reputation for being fiercely protective of their owners. My lil guy is a sweetie with people, kids and other dogs and I just didn’t think he had the reactive protective spirit.

Pup is currently 7.5 mos. It’s a tough age, but most days he makes me the proudest, happiest dog mama.

Lately, pup has been sleeping outside of his crate either in my bed or his own. He’s been doing great with potty for a few months and this has been a great step for his independence.

At 3am last night he woke me up barking like mad. I was annoyed until I rolled over and saw a man standing on my porch looking into the sliding glass door attached to my bedroom. The door locks and has a tension bar, I have curtains and privacy screen, but it was absolutely terrifying.

lil dude must’ve heard something off because he started barking before the motion sensor light even went off, and sent the creep outside running. Pup wouldn’t settle for almost an hour, he ran thru checking the house and sat near the sliding door looking out the window for a bit. I’m sure it was an adrenaline rush for him too.

He is still just a baby but today I was SO proud of his reaction and it was clear we are doing something right.

He got lots of smooches and treats and playtime for being such a good boy.

Safe to say he will never sleep another night in the crate as long as I live alone

 

[acher]

@bonnieb Wow this is absolutely amazing!!! Little guy deserves lots of snuggles and treats!!!

 

[imagebeastmarkbeast]

@bonnieb I have bed sleeping dogs, in part for this reason. I can crate my dog when I leave, no problem. At night, they stay in my room until they’re graduated and then they get run of the house. Right now, my geriatric amputee dog doesn’t do stairs most nights so she has a couple of beds down stairs, but my new puppy is currently snoring the roof off the house in my bed.

I’ve also gotten a lot more relaxed about them barking at stuff outside. It’s part of their job to alert me so I’m going to let them!

Congratulations to your pup on the heroics! Give him butt scritchums from all of us!

 

[judywalters]

@imagebeastmarkbeast Yes to the barking! My baby is just a little over 2 and we allow her to bark at things outside but have trained her on “all set thank you!” To stop. That way we know of anything happening but she’s also not obnoxious lol

 

[fadzi]

@judywalters Oh that is a good command! I need to teach my GSD that one. He’s SUPER alert and reactive to noises outside. Like a helicopter or thunder or we’ll just anything that makes a noise he’s telling us about it. I WANT him to tell us (and strangers pulling in the drive) about them, but sometimes it’s like “chill dude!” Having a command to tell him
It’s all good Is a good idea!

 

[beka_mills]

@judywalters I’ve been working on “That’s enough/Your fine” and I always put my hand up. I like to have some form of motion with my commands. Unfortunately my dumbass taught my dog to “come” & her name by hitting the ground I didn’t think about it bc she was such a little puppy but now her big ole fat but, I gotta get on my knees and hit the ground to get her to come when she’s being a little DouchBag which is 90% of the time. I look like a crazy person but so far it’s actually starting to work, she gets the hint that she has to settle

 

[negativeflare]

@judywalters Yes! My dog learned "enough!" because that's usually my reaction when he's barking at the neighbor and I'm at my wits end. Now a quick "enough!" and he quiets down. it's a game changer haha

 

[nick17]

@judywalters Yes!!! We tell our pup “that’s enough, thanks!!!” when his alert barking gets to be too much. Sometimes it’s accompanied by a head pat or chest scratchies if he needs some extra reassurance there isn’t a true threat.

 

[om4e]

@imagebeastmarkbeast 100%. We tell our dogs 'It's okay' when we've evaluated whatever they're barking at.

I don't want to eliminate it, just stop it when it's too much

 

[bf2008]

@imagebeastmarkbeast Yes, I actually encourage the barking! Anyone who stops by (delivery driver, solicitor, random person turning around in our driveway) immediately knows there are dogs and they sound psycho.
I’m probably overly paranoid but listening to true crime podcasts have taught me you never truly know who you’re dealing with; Delivery drivers, Internet installers, HVAC techs, etc are perfect jobs for predators because they can scope out homes.

 

[springwillow]

@bf2008 Yep. I'm always glad when my dogs alert, but unfortunately in my experience, many criminals are very good at making sure the dogs don't notice. Dogs only seem catch the dumb ones. For reference I have a whole pack of pitbull/ Aussie cattle mix.

 

[bf2008]

@springwillow Wow, really?

My dogs literally trip when a truck that just sounds suspicious drives by lol
And if they see movement through the trees at our neighbors I’m like YOU GUYS THEYRE ALLOWED TO BE THERE STFU

 

[springwillow]

@bf2008 Yes really. Maybe you didn't understand what I was saying. They will alert even at the crackhead quietly walking down the alley making no noise. But at the same time, they will totally miss criminals whom I've caught on infrared camera stealing my stuff at times. Some people know how to sneak around without alerting dogs. It's something to keep in mind.

 

[neld1]

@imagebeastmarkbeast I never tell my dog off for barking, especially alert barking. It’s part of being a dog. They bark. I don’t ask a cat not to meow or a cow not moo. I live in the country: sheep bleat, cows moo and dogs bark. I feel nowadays dogs are less and less allowed to live what they are: dogs.

When I grew up and a neighbour had a dog, you were happy because it might prevent intruders. Now people complain of a dog barking

 

[imagebeastmarkbeast]

@neld1 My Rhodesian was absolutely useless in the country, he made friends with the coyotes and I was like my dude. You are FIRED.

 

[neld1]

@imagebeastmarkbeast

 

[ohm_resistor]

@imagebeastmarkbeast My dog sleeps freely downstairs and never barks unless there's someone outside the house - it's the perfect balance.

It helps that she's a big dog too so the bark is massive and scares the shit out of me every time she does it.

 

[d4l]

@bonnieb it’s amazing how some dogs can detect malice in people and will face an intruder with all they’ve got wether they’re 10lb or 100lb. Your puppy loves you so much!!

i had a similar incident but we were on our afternoon walk, it got dark quicker than expected so i started walking faster cuz woman dangers. he was like 1.5yo 40lb ish.

We had passed many people at that point, he’s never people reactive when walking. Then we get to the alley under a highway bridge that i have to get through to get back home, and honestly i was more focused on someone being behind me i didn’t notice a dude appeared right at the end of the alley.

what made me stop in my tracks was this deep, gutural growl that was coming out of my pup, i’d literally never heard that coming from him so i trusted it, i look at him, ears to the front, head low, his hackles raised all the way through his back, so i loosen his leash and he gets to end, he’s not a huge dog but his regular bark sounds like a 100lb dog, and starts again, with this super low gutural intense barking, not even 5s of this and the dude left. he got boiled chicken for dinner lmao

 

[wanttobefollower]

@bonnieb My lil pup was bullied at an off leash dog park and a random corgi made it his job to protect him.

 

[1straightshooter]

@bonnieb I was moving cross country 2 years ago, and unfortunately very short on cash, so I had to sleep on the tail gate of my pick up truck in motel parking lots.

One night as I'm falling asleep, I notice this person staring at me from around a corner leading to some stairs.

I had this horrible feeling as he started coming towards my vehicle, and just as he walks around the front of my truck towards me, my 6 month old husky who was tied up right next to me loses his absolute shit.

I've never heard him bark so loud or ferociously since, and man, it was great to watch that guy crap himself running away haha.