Totsites - Our 3 Dogz

It took a few weeks for the dogs to adjust to the new house. Our shepherd mix, Gretchen, is our official guard dog now. She always was at the townhouse, but it is more apparent now that we have many more windows for her to patrol. Since we are still anxiously awaiting the installation of our 6-foot privacy fence, she can see out to the big bad world from several points of the house. Sometimes a person or kid might be in her line of sight, but more often than not its a scary house cat! If she spots or even thinks she spots a cat she goes crazy, pacing and running about like a chicken without it's head. She can hardly ever sit still anymore, always checking to see if there is a 7 lb. intruder out there. Seeing a cat is somewhat a new thing for her. In the past, I have brought a few foster cats to our house, but because of Mike's allergies they had to be contained in a separate room. She would sit for hours outside the room just staring at the door. She finally came face to face with our stray cat, Norman, a couple weeks ago. She met him in the garage, and Norman stood his ground, and Gretchen turned right around back in the house. Although, when faced with a cat that is outside, she will just chase the poor thing. The other night Norman had accidentally been locked out of the garage, and we hadn't seen him for about a day. Last night around dusk, Gretchen started running around like crazy, and we asked her if she saw a cat, and sure enough she had spotted Norman hanging out behind some weeds in the corner of the yard. He finally made his way back to the garage, but she was convinced that he or another cat was still out there, and she couldn't sit still for the rest of the evening. We are unsure if the fence will help her neurotic behavior, but for her sake and ours we certainly hope so. Unfortunately, she also has this habit at night time where she will sleep completely under the bed, and if Sequoia tries to come near she lunges out growling and barking. Sequoia anticipates this ritual, and she will usually sit and cry from a safe distance until we coax her in. It used to happen just before we went to bed, but now it also happens at about 4 or 5 in the morning waking us from a dead sleep?! At first we thought it was sibling rivalry, but it really is becoming more apparent that she just has this insatiable drive to protect us. Since she was a stray, we really don't know anything about her past, and are totally guessing on her breed, but the closest thing we can determine is she most likely has some Belgian Tervuren, and possibly some Belgian Malinois in her blood. Both dogs were bred for many purposes, including herding, tracking, agility, search and rescue, obedience and police work. “Specifically, Tervurens are loyal and form strong bonds with their family, leading some to be aloof with strangers. They are good watch dogs, being very observant and attentive to the slightest change in their environment.” (wikipedia). Yep, sounds like Grettie to a 'T'!!