Re: Stuck between a rock & a hard place...
Had an odd event the evening of 10/17--on a night walk.
I think Tessa gets conflicted about the guarding thing, like she wants to but rethinks, I dunno.
Anyway, we went out about 9-10 pm up to the unofficial off leash field. It's at the top of a mountain, & is mostly tall fenced, a football sized field (with a full city view)located on a plateau on top of the mountain.
I took a glow in the dark Frisbee, wanted to see if she'd fetch it--never tried Frisbee with her.
Anyway, being on top of a mountain, an odd gust took the Frisbee way over the fence & down the hill onto the trails.
It was night & I was by myself, I snapped up her leash & we walked out of the field & started down the trail so I could get the Frisbee.
This is something I never do, but I wanted the Frisbee.
Tessa took on a whole different posture & wanted to keep circling me, & was standing super tall, & every sound was a freeze type of thing & it was hard with her odd movements & having her on a leash.
About 5 min into this trek onto the trail, I thought better of it, Tessa was so alert that I got freaked out & a little scared of things that go 'bump' in the night, so I turned around.
Upon turning around Tessa was just behaving really odd-still that alert posture, & 1/2 like she was guarding my perimeter, & 1/2 like she wanted to stay stuck to my side. It was hard to move her, it was dark & I wanted to move towards the light... She's start moving then freeze, start moving & freeze. Then she didn't want me to move forward.
She locked in a posture, but totally silent. I looked where she was looking & up in the distance I could see someone at the top with a large pooch, but couldn't tell who it was, because I was now facing the lights at the top of the trail plateau & was partially blinded.
I kept pulling Tessa forward as best I could, because I didn't know if that dog was loose or who it was.
Ended up being the nice couple that has the great pyr & the huge malamute.
Getting Tessa up there, the last 50 feet was a hassel. Once we got up there all was of course just fine.
I explained I got a little too freaked to go all the way & get the Frisbee since Tessa started acting weird, & the husband offered to come down with me to get it.
Now Tessa has met them several times & always wants to check out the boys
We do minimal contact with the pooches, both boys are guardy, so we've never let them play, but they're all familiar with each other. Husband had wife hold the boys while we went down the trails to fetch the Frisbee.
Tessa was totally odd. She wanted to keep jumping up, feet off the ground, almost a lunge-- on the husband as soon as we got onto the trail.
She didn't bark or growl or make any sound.
The trail Y's off a bit & he took the upper & I took the lower, still in clear site of each other, & then Tessa went back to just doing her more normal thing, the stop/freeze but still trying to circle me.
I got the Frisbee & we headed back up. When we got back on the single trail, Tessa still tried to jump up on him & I had to keep her down until we got back up to the top.
Once at the top, she went into her full "Tessa mode"-- because she just loves this couple & they both just fawn over her & she always gets a belly rub from them...
& also we like to observe the pooches reactions because they are easing into a more familiar thing. We stood there and conversed for about 10-15 min & all was just as it always is.
I'd like to find a way to explore this more. The freeze, move forward, stop thing definitely looks guardy, but also, she'll run forward, freeze, run back circle me-freeze & once at my side sometimes doesn't want to move forward, & maybe she is scared?
Since I have her on a leash, I've not tried moving forward without her, it's always me pulling her, & she doesn't budge much LOL so I don't know how she'd be if I just kept moving.
Also, the super silent thing-I don't know what to make of it. A warning bark would let me know more, but she goes dead silent.
Like I said before, Tessa only barks when she wants back into the house if she is in the yard--& that barking can be incessant-I put her out to take a shower, & after less than 5 min, she stands at the door & just keeps barking the same bark until I let her in. So she definitely barks-but has never barked at anything specific, except every once in a while she will bark at a toy if she cannot get it out from under the bed.
So she barks for "let me in" & "get my toy"--never barked to be let outside, which was a PITA with housebreaking--
She has also NEVER barked at another dog, no matter how crazy they are barking at her, never barked on a walk or during playing with another pooch, child/adult or anything else. She stands silent. If she *really* wants to play I might get a slight wine--that's it.
LOL, I had even tried relentlessly to teach Tessa "speak"--to no avail--she just would not do it--no matter how much she wanted the treat--I couldn't even get a huff 1/2 bark, or even a whine or a whice or noise out of her--& gave up when she was about 7.5 months old--never met a pooch who wouldn't "speak" LOL
Any clue what is up with the silent thing?
