There’s a knock at the door and what do you do? It’s not like you can really answer the door or anything, those crafty peoples always making doors so impossible to open unless you have the thumbs. So all you can do is check it out and find out who it is.
Should you be nice or angry? Well, it all depends on the particular situation. Most pups can’t really pull off the angry bit, or sometimes they’re just happy to see anyone and everyone, and there are those that just have the angriest bark even when they’re happy. So I’ve thought of some things I normally think about when someone comes a knocking.
Could it be someone you know? Are you expecting someone soon, like your pal? My friend’s normally scheduled time to return home from work is spot on, so it’s easy to recognize when it’s my pal. But there are others that come to the door too and they’re just as welcomed here. So sniffing for friends helps out a lot before you go all wild and crazy with the barking and scratching.
Usually there will be familiar sounds. Your pal telling you who to expect, keys jingling the right way, the sound of treats coming swiftly to a kitchen near you, these sorts of things. So my normal answer to a familiar knock is just to ruff and huff a pondering greeting to make sure.
Which is why time also plays a part in how to answer the door too. Normally, if it’s the middle of the day it’s just the mailman or delivery dude dropping off some paper stuffs, so I tell them to leave it there and leave. I do this as nicely as possible, unless they’re hanging around too much and then I gotta get out the ruffs.
Late at night when everyone you know is already home and you didn’t order pizza? Well it’s time to sound the alarms. Everyone up and let’s all get to the door to see who it is that is so rude to knock on your door late at night.
Of course, if it happens to be someone delivering food, be quick to calm down and greet them with a friendly wag of the tail. You don’t want them running off, and hopefully they’ll come back soon. So you do have to be on the ball with your attitude and make sure you treat helpful and happy visitors right nice.
And then there’s the banging on the door or worse when it’s not at the door. That’s when I get all wild and barky. This one time, I heard some banging against the wall and my pal wasn’t home so I barked like crazy. When my pal finally got home, I ran to see him and the sound stopped. So I took him to where the room so he could help me figure out what it was, and suddenly the banging came back again. I started barking like crazy until my pal showed me what the sound was. Yup, it was my tail hitting a box. Just happened to be in the right place at the right time.
So how do you greet the door? You happy and excited all the time? Get the gruff answer of a grumpy dog, or do you check things out first and then decide what to do? I tend to check things out myself, unless you ring the doorbell. Never ring my doorbell!
