Hi,
This is about my almost 3 year old shepherd mix, Roxy.
We took a roadtrip this weekend to visit some of my boyfriends family. We ended up leaving the dogs in the car for a bit while we were visiting one of his relatives. One of his adult cousins went up to the car to look at the dogs and Roxy went CRAZY. She was barking and growling and showing her teeth. As soon as she saw me walking up to the car, she stopped. I opened the door and let her out and there was NO more aggression whatsoever. My bf's cousin was still standing about 2 feet away from the car and roxy just went up to her, tail wagging and all.
Is it ok that she got that worked up from a stranger getting close to the car? I'm sure it's territorial and also protective of our shih-tzu who was also in the car.
This kind of behavior is fairly new for her, she used to be very fearful (she is a rescue and has a bit of a rough past).
She is also becomming very protective with our yard ( the neighbors dogs make their way over sometimes), but once again as soon as she sees me, she stops and when i open the fence she is friendly with them.
She doesn't seem to be out of control though, there was a skunk just on the other side of the fence the other night and she was going nuts, but as soon as i called her she came running back in.
I honestly prefere her to be protective like this, I like that I don't have to worry when i leave them in the car (when the weather is permitting they come pretty much everywhere with me). So basically i would like to know is this amount of aggression/ protectiveness ok? Or does it seem like something that will most likely progress into something dangerous?
Thanks