For some reason this just felt like the place to post this.
Two days ago my mothers dog died. He was kind of the family dog. We had him for 13 years. He was a loving mutt who protected the children, warned us of snakes in the yard, did regular patrol duty of his domain and took no shit from any squirrel.
He was taught this by our dog that died ten years ago. She looked just like him but they were different breeds. What she taught him I watched him pas to our younger dogs. That sounds hokey but I use to watch him do the whole running/bark at the empty tree routine. Then he would stop and bark at the puppies till they came and did the same. In the last year he would simply sit on the porch and bark for a minute and all the other dogs would run out to bark at the trees.
For a Rottweiler/long-haired Dachshund mix, he was pure gold.
In the fashion of dog lovers I would bestow on him the highest honor. He was a "GOOD DOG" and will be missed.
