Rescued Doberman sticks with Lost Owner

Duchess the red Doberman (called "brown" in news sources, but I forgive them), is a rescue. She's been with her family for 3 years, after having been adopted from the local shelter.

(not Duchess; photo from Wikimedia commons)

Canine Body Language: Piloerection

There are times Elka becomes aware (or decides that she's aware) that Something Happened outside. Or that Somebody is there. Or maybe the wind blew. Something.

But she'll go look out the door, or a window, growl or grumble, and sometimes give a bark. Invariably, when she decides she's the home's protector (or at least that something requires our attention), she sports a "mohawk", as we call it. Or, as Real Dog People call it, piloerects. Piloerection is when the hair stands on end; on a sleek, short haired dog like Elka, it is really very apparent.

Caution: Area Patrolled by Doberman

So, last Monday, I posted about our new furniture.

In the course of cleaning/organizing/clearing things, we located a sign that our housemate had purchased, but we hadn't hung anywhere just yet. It's so hard to choose where signage should go sometimes.

But, in the interest of display, I put it on top of the light switch in the living room.

Would Your Dog Protect Your Home? (From SomethingWagging)

Head over to Something Wagging This Way Comes, where Pamela posted about a topic I've ruminated upon before (most recently in September): Would your dog protect your home? Thsi is a topic visited periodically on the Doberman board, and I guess amongst dog owners in general. There's a video, you see, wherein CBS Atlanta first planted cameras in a home, then took a dog trainer in a bite suit and had him "break in" to each house.

The "test" was interesting to watch, though not scientific in any regard. More for fun, I guess. My issues with it are somewhat nitpicky, but hey, if we're going to play at housebreaking, it might as well be realistic as possible, for the dogs' sakes, right?

I did comment on Pamela's entry, but I'll repeat myself here.

(guy in a bite suite, from the Wikimedia Commons)

Search Terms I've Seen Lately

I kind of have a cold which is making me somewhat miserable an unfocused. The good news is I've watched all of Supernatural on Netflix (well, up to season 7's end. Season 8 just started on television last week). My public, though! So, I've fallen back on an ever interesting topic: some search terms that brought people to my blog recently.

Resident Evil Dog breed: this doesn't get you to The Elka Almanac 'til page 5. In my eyes, it's a dedicated searcher that goes to page 5 of a Google search. An image search of "Devil dogs" also goes to that particular post.



Sleeping Doberman:

Beware of Dog?

It's not uncommon to see a "Beware of Dog" sign. Some are more inventive than others in their wording, some are specific bodily threats to intruders, and some say that it's best to watch out for the owner.

I see a lot of discussion, though, on what signs like that mean for owner liability. You see articles of cases in which a burglar breaks into a house, hurts himself, and then successfully sues the family. You can imagine such a thing makes a dog owner nervous. "I broke into the house and was carrying out the TV when their dog bit me! I'm suing them for a million dollars, and so that the dog gets put down!" I read things like that and think "really?" It can happen though.

Protection Dog

What barks when appropriate, has four legs, and cost $230,000?

Not my Elka.  Well, the first two are right, but she didn't cost more than our house.

Recently, the New York Times had an article, "For the executive with everything,a $230,000 dog to protect it".  Now, I don't intend to use the New York Times as the leaping-off point for many of my posts, but holy smokes.  I couldn't just let that one go.

It goes without saying that our dogs are valuable to us.  They provide us companionship, and indeed protection.  Some are trained and titled in protection, and that's a whole 'nother ball game.  Some seem willing to protect us, through instinct and (dare I speculate?) love.