My Fearless Protector

Blaze is the type of dog that needs a job to do. He thinks his job is to protect Tazzy and I from anyone (or anything) that might harm us. Sometimes this can be a problem, because his idea of what might harm us can be very different than mine. For example, he is very wary of new people, though he is getting much better, and I taught him the phrase "go say hi" to make him go and let the new person touch him so he can see that they mean us no harm. He is also scared of some objects, so he has learned "touch" to go and make sure things like the plastic bag blowing in the wind is not going to swallow any of us whole.

Here in Portugal he has found a new enemy, and spends a good part of his day defending against them for me. You see, our house here has no screens, and with the extremely pleasant weather we have been having, I have been working with the sliding glass doors open for much of the day. This causes the occasional uninvited visit from some very large (and very loud) house flies. One day I was sitting and working at my computer, when Blaze lounged straight at the glass door, worried, I went to see what he was up to, and he did it again. Then I noticed the fly, Blaze was watching it intently, and when it came low enough, he went for it. Each time he missed by a couple of feet, as the fly was too quick for him. It went on for about 10 minutes, until, finally, he was victorious, and the fly became a late afternoon Blaze snack. He then looked at me with a guilty look on his face, as though he ate something he wasn't supposed to, so I told him "good boy," which made him very happy. He has since continued to serve as my diligent protector from flies, and his accuracy, speed and skill for fly catching has increased dramatically. Now Tazzy even joins in the game occasionally, though she does not take it as seriously as Blaze. Recently I even saw him lying half in and half out of the sliding door, and he nabbed one on the threshold, before it even had a chance to explore the house. He seems to enjoy the game, and I enjoy the fly-free house, for which I concede the dog-nose smudge marks on the sliding door. And each time I see him catch one, I tell him "good boy" and he gets very excited for a moment, but then the excitement passes, after all, he has a job to do.