It's All About Attitude: Travis to the Rescue

For anyone who has ever owned a Miniature Schnauzer, the saying "it's all about attitude" should be a familiar one.

There is no dog in the world like a Miniature Schnauzer (and I say this with nothing but admiration). The first Schnauzer I ever knew as a child, named Heidi, was only 15 pounds, but I was terrified of her.  Maybe it was the beard, or maybe it was the eyebrows, but she had me sufficiently cowed that I would never have tried to pet her in a million years.  This was the reason that many years later, when my sister and I were sharing a house, we decided to get a Miniature Schnauzer (to help me get over my fear of them).

His name was Travis, and he is legend.

Travis, aka Mr. T (photo by PS)

I had never known such ferocity could exist in such a small package.  When Travis was a puppy, he gave new meaning to the phrase "sharp toothed" (especially when it came to my poor sister).  He made Pasja look gentle when it came to the teething stage.  Travis was the king of the household, ruling with absolute power over my toy poodle Charla, our Shih-Tzu Nikki, and each and all of our cats.  At times, he was ferocious enough that I became angry at him (especially when he assaulted Nikki) but he made up for all of these times by his actions one wintery night.

A neighbor had told us that two German Shepherd mixes were attacking small dogs in the area, one of which was her rat terrier.  It had to be hospitalized for an extensive period of time because it had been mauled so badly.  Since I never walked Charla and Nikki (they were too small!) and they were in a fenced yard, I didn't worry about it too much...until late one night when I let them out before bed.

At the time, the two of them were alone in the west half of the yard, while Travis was sniffing for something on the east side.  Suddenly the two delinquent dogs appeared and charged my fence, obviously aiming to jump over it and attack my two little ones.  I began shouting and running toward them, but I never had a chance to do anything to protect them, because Travis got there first.

He shot across the yard like he had been fired out of a cannon, every hair on his body standing on end.  As the two dogs gaped at him, he began bouncing up and down like a giant windup toy, growling, barking and practically screaming in his rage that they would threaten his friends.  For a moment, the two of them snarled at him angrily.

Then they slowly turned and slunk away.

Moments later, I snatched up my two tiny dogs and told Travis to come inside, still afraid the two of them would return...but Travis simply ignored me.  He knew he had scared them off for good.  I never saw either one of them again.

As for Travis, he continued to show the same unflagging courage for the rest of the 10 years that my sister had him.  Schnauzers mean business...and every animal he met was smart enough to recognize it.