The other day I was looking at Sadie as she climbed into her dog house, wondering how she can fit in there with all of those toys. And that’s when I had a realization – my dog might have a serious problem. I think Sadie might be a hoarder. Just look at all of those squeaky toys she has stuffed into her dog house!

And she doesn’t want anyone touching her hoard!

Sadie’s taken on a new duty in our house this week – guarding my shoes. I keep the shoes I wear most often on a welcome mat by the door, and Sadie has started lying on the mat to keep an eye on the shoes. I think she likes the position near the door so she can watch whenever someone is coming or going. But I also wonder if she’s trying to keep me in the house. She knows that when I put on shoes it means I’m going out, so maybe she is guarding the shoes so I can’t get to them and leave her. Or maybe she is watching the shoes so that when I go to put them on, she can make sure I take her with me. Sometimes I can’t help but invent all these possible ulterior motives for why my dog is behaving the way she is. But most of the time the simplest answer is probably the truth. Sadie just thought the welcome mat seemed like a welcoming place to sit for a while.

This post is part of the Thoughtless Thursday blog hop hosted by Ruckus the Eskie and Love is Being Owned By a Husky.

This post is also part of the Thursday Barks and Bytes blog hop hosted by 2 Brown Dawgs and Heart Like A Dog.  

Sadie is generally not an aggressive or growly dog, except in one specific circumstance: when she wants to do something she knows is bad. This usually involves her having a stuffed toy, pair of socks, or some other item made of fabric that she wants to chew up and eat, even though she knows this is not allowed. So Sadie tries to employ a technique I call the preemptive growl to get her way. In the photo above Sadie clearly has the ‘about to growl’ look on her face.
This is because she intends to chew off the ends of her rope toy and swallow them. She knows I don’t allow that behavior, so she tries to keep me from taking her toy with the preemptive growl. I always supervise Sadie when she plays with toys that I think she might try to eat. If she stops playing and settles down to start breaking pieces off of a toy, I start watching her very closely. This is when Sadie starts giving me the look pictured above. If I get closer to her at this point, she begins to growl softly, asking me to stay away from her toy. If I move even closer she begins to whine, begging me to please let her keep the toy. At this point if I touch her or the toy she will start loudly snarling at me. But it’s all for show. I can easily take the toy away or pick her up or even put my hand right in her mouth and she will do nothing. Sadie has no desire to hurt me at all, she just thinks she might be able to scare me into leaving her alone with the toy. I actually feel bad for her when I have to take a toy away, because she clearly wants it so badly, but I only take it away when it’s for her own safety. If only dogs could understand it when we have to do something that’s for their own good…

Today is National Dog Fighting Awareness Day. Please discuss this serious issue with others in your community and do your part to try and eradicate this horrible practice.

This post is part of the Blogging From A to Z April Challenge.

Check out Slimdoggy‘s blog hop below to find other great pet blogs taking the challenge with me!

This post is part of the special edition Tuesday’s Tails blog hop in support of National Dog Fighting Awareness Day.

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