Constance Shows Her Metal

I dropped Chris off at the station this morning as he was off to Cardiff for a couple of days work. It was a grey start to the day, so I collected layers pellets from the farm shop and stopped in Rhuddlan to photograph the castle and the flooded river Clwyd on the way home. The Castle dates from an amazing  1248

After getting home and dodging the rain showers I walked the dogs on the hill behind the village and had my first opportunity to watch Constance in full..BULLDOG mode.
Up the hill there is a house that has a very large and powerful bitch. The dog is often let loose in the garden and the garden is not totally fenced in from the road. Several times when I have walked my dogs, this dog which is clearly motivated through fear, has ran barking out into the road to attack the terriers. So far, I have positioned myself between the waring parties and have kept them apart with a loud bellow and a swift kick out at this unsocialised animal but I do remember once when it was actually being walked with its male owner,it actually pulled him across a country path to barrel into William and Meg before it was dragged off..
Today Constance was with us, and as the aggressive dog bounded around the side of the house barking ferociously she raised her head and marched forward to face it. The terriers answered the dog's angry barks with a hissy fit of their own, so I pulled them back and on impulse I  let go of Constances' lead.
The bitch stopped dead as Constance gave her the dead eye stare and without a pause she adopted a strange stiff legged walk and deliberately took half a dozen steps forward with her head held high.

The dog barked loudly again and backed up a few steps. Constance followed with her little piggy eyes hard as flint. The dog circled on the spot and retreated behind the house gates still barking......Constance followed slowly, and for a few seconds there was a standoff before  the bulldog gave a little jump forward and bellowed one long,low  and very LOUD "woooooof".
The dog bolted and legged it around the corner of the house with Constance in pursuit......and there was a long silence.
I called out sharply and moments later Constance walked nonchalantly back out of the garden with a swagger Mae West would have been proud of. She walked directly into the middle of the now silent terriers who crowed around her like kids in a playground.........!  and the alsatian bitch didn't show her face again......



Constance asleep sat up in the car on the way home after her altercation