Mistaken identity

Good Tuesday morning everyone. Lastnight my husband and I were watching Planet in Peril on the Animal Planet network. We had gone out for a while and I always leave Animal Planet on for the dogs. It makes for good background noise so that they don't feel so alone. Plus, Luke really enjoys watching shows about animals. So anyway when we got home this great show was on so we sat and watched.

Luke was laying by my side on the floor; there is a huge shag carpet in the familyroom which he really seems to enjoy sleeping on. I know what you're thinking; a purple shag carpet? No, its a modern version but not my favorite for sure; especially with dogs. As he lay there I noticed him starting to growl; I didn't know at what though. I don't like to interfere with natural behavior so tried to look around without disturbing him.

This was unusual because my daughter had said that he did the same thing on the weekend when we had been out. It didn't take long to figure out what he was growling at. We decorate our house bigtime for Christmas and on the couch opposite to where we were sitting was a Christmas teddy bear we've had since the kids were small. He was sitting upright; just staring at Luke or so Luke thought.

Luke's growl was deep but lacked confidence. How had he let this critter in the house without noticing him until now? As I watched his ears go up and down I wondered how long it would take him to muster up the courage to have a look. As his growling grew louder and more angry, afterall this guy was still staring at him he finally got up nerve and took the first few apprehensive steps towards teddy.

The bear was holding his very dominant posture which was inturn intimidating Luke. Stetched out forwards but in a "take off in a second" backwards position he inched closer. He had one scared moment where he flew away like he'd been bit but then went all the way and had a good sniff. As he left the bear he was up on his tip toes and stiff as a board, this was his house and he was the big protector.