For many pet owners, their dogs and cats (and bunnies and birds, etc) are like family. They’re treated that way, loved that way, and, when necessary, defended that way.
OP has a hearing disability, and since moving to a new house with her golden retriever, has struggled with getting flashing doorbell signals installed.
I F27 recently moved into my new house. I have a golden retriever named Nala and she is the sweetest.
I’m Deaf, too. That bit is important. When I moved in, I had a bit of trouble having flashing light doorbells put in and there was a while I had to go without.
My friends and family know to give me a call when they drop by instead of ringing the doorbell but unfortunately I have missed many a package this way.
So, she has missed some visitors and packages just because she didn’t know they were there – at least, she did until her dog figured out what was going on and began to alert her.
OP didn’t train her, the dog just saw a job that needed to be done and did it.
For some reason, Nala caught onto this. At one point she began letting me know when someone was at the door. She’d do this in multiple ways. If I was in the living room where I can see the front door, she’d go and paw at the door, or if I was upstairs she’d come and gently headbutt me to let me know someone’s there. It took me a while to catch on to what she was trying to do, though.
And now, even though I have my doorbell installed she still does it. I did not teach her how to do any of this. She just decided to help me out lol.
One day, a friend came over to visit. First, the “friend” gave OP crap about naming her dog Nala like “every other golden retriever” around.
I brought a friend over for the first time recently. This is the first time she’s met Nala as well. The first thing she comments on is how I named her Nala, because apparently everyone and their grandma names their golden Nala. Lion King was my favorite movie growing up, sue me.
Then, after seeing videos of Nala alerting OP to the door, said OP treats her dog like a servant.
Then I showed her a video of Nala pawing at the door because it got a bit awkward after that comment. It’s usually a great ice breaker. She laughed and thought it was cute. I showed her another one. She asked me why Nala was doing that and I explained.
She doesn’t say anything for a minute and then goes “So, she’s basically your servant? Is she just here to get the door?”
OP was sick of their s*%t and kicked them out. The “friend” texted that the behavior was rude, and doubled down on her assessment of the dog.
I was thoroughly done with her judgmental ass by that point and I just asked her to leave.
She left, but she did message me afterwards saying I was rude as f**k kicking her out after she travelled all the way to see me, and that how else was she supposed to think of my dog with videos like that?
Should OP have overlooked it, or responded in a more mature way?
I probably kicked her out prematurely. She did drive over an hour to see me. I could’ve been more mature about it.
Reddit is going to let them know!
The top comment thinks Nala should have gone the extra mile.
Image Credit: Reddit
This person says the friend obviously doesn’t understand dogs at all.
Image Credit: Reddit
People who know about dogs think OP’s is happy as a clam.
Image Credit: Reddit
They say this wasn’t much of a friend to begin with,
Image Credit: Reddit
Because it bears repeating.
Image Credit: Reddit
I don’t know that I would kick this person out.
But OP is totally my hero for actually doing it.
