don't you just love it when you are home alone and the dog is doing 'theres an axe murderer outside I am sure of it! ' routine!

[goingwiththeflow]

DH away with work, DC's in bed ..me home alone...normally the signal for Lab pup to do some crumb hoovering around the kitchen then crash out on the setee whilst 'The Boss' is away but...
no, he is making me nervous by growling at the back door and then when I opened it peering out and legging it back in ..straight upstairs where he has checked all the kids and is now doing circuits of the house downstairs with hackles up and even making the cat nervous ..

is this him 'learning' to be the family guard dog or is there really something spooking him? ...

Feel like I do when I make the mistake of watching 'Crimewatch' and I've got to put the chooks to bed yet!

It might not be an axe-murderer. Probably just an evil spirit.

my dog does this too... I'm sure it'll just be a fox in the garden, but lock all you doors just incase.
No point in having an alarm, then ignoring it

I prefer evil spirit to fox though

i only have rabbits

thinking about it perhaps you dog saw a rabbit

I'll choose the fox or evil spirit option , have just checked the doors , will take him out to go and put the chooks to bed.. to be honest with the amount of rancid gas coming out of him whilst he is doing his circuits it will be a brave being that enters this house !!

(unless that is what he is trying to tell me ?)

Mine does this , usually a fox or next doors cats , however sometimes the ' Were-rabbit' thats lives at bottom of garden.

One of mine does this regularly. She uses her best 'our lives are in imminent danger' bark, whilst hiding behind me. Occasionally, it's just a cat or something tootling along the fence at the bottom of the garden. Mostly, it's at her own reflection in the patio doors

I only worry if my Rottie kicks off. He's so fucking lazy that he will only expend the energy to properly kick off if there's something really out of the ordinary. Bone idle fucker never actually gets off the sofa but still, he lets us know that there may be something of concern that we might want to check out. Or the neighbours are having a late night chinese delivered. Or him at no. 14 has come home pissed again...

If an axe murder got in to the house he would be bashed to death by the wagging tail of our lab , then smothered by her cuddly toy in her mouth !

Someone described labs as being fabulous watch dogs and crap guard dogs. The point being that they react to things they can't see but unsettle them with barking and growling, however should some stranger walk into the garden, they're likely to lick them to death!!!
If your lab is like ours, your neighbour / another dog / cat / fox / rodent / funny shaped leaf will have had the temerity to walk behind the fence. UnWiseDog does this with Peter The Neighbour, growling like Peter is Jack the Ripper in disguise when he's behind the fence but she can't roll over fast enough for a tummy rub when she sees Peter in the flesh!!
Don't worrry. Distract her with a treat or a ferret in the rubbish bin

VirgoDog is another of the 0-60 variety. Snoring away, then leaps to feet, bounds to window in 2 giant gallops, front paws on windowsill, barking at 100 decibels.

I'm becoming complacent. I now know that this indicates that a person has walked past the end of the drive or someone in the street has closed a car door. The temerity!

Good job we live on a quiet street or we'd never be able to hear ourselves think.

However, if an axe-murderer was to break in, pre-prepared with a packet of (nice) ham, I feel loyalty might shift pretty quickly.

his thread honestly made me laugh out loud.

A while ago we used to let the dogs sleep on our beds (bad I know so its stopped now). One night my puppy decided to stare out of my bedroom door on to the landing and growl!!! I have no idea what he was growling at if anything? so now I just leave them to sleep downstairs in their own beds and let him be paranoid without rubbing it off on to me :)