My 130-pound Rottweiler, Duke, had always been a gentle and well-trained dog. One hot afternoon, I was outside when he suddenly became alert and started growling at something near the old fence separating our yard from the neighbors\u2019. On the other side of the fence, six-year-old Chloe was playing alone. Before I could react, Duke ignored my command and raced toward her. <\/p>\n
When he slammed against the fence and pinned her in place, it looked like every dog owner\u2019s worst nightmare. Chloe started crying, and her mother rushed outside in panic. <\/p>\n
Fearing the worst, I grabbed a heavy metal bar and ran to stop him. But as I got closer, I realized Duke wasn\u2019t attacking Chloe at all. He wasn\u2019t even looking at her. Instead, he was standing protectively in front of her, staring through a small rotted opening at the bottom of the fence. <\/p>\n
Then I heard it-a warning rattle coming from the grass nearby. A rattlesnake was hidden just inches from where Chloe had been sitting.
\nIn that moment, I understood why Duke had ignored my commands. He hadn\u2019t been attacking the little girl-he had been protecting her from a dangerous threat she never saw coming<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
My 130-pound Rottweiler, Duke, had always been a gentle and well-trained dog. One hot afternoon, I was outside when he suddenly became alert and started growling at… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":73951,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-73950","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\n