TMs

So.... Tibetan Mastiffs. TMs. Alice has yet to meet one. But she did meet a lady in Los Altos who has some and who has met me. I was the first Tibetan Spaniel she'd ever met. At that fancy dog store in downtown Los Altos.
We Tibetans.... still pretty rare around here.
The lady told Alice how the TMs and Tibbies work in Tibet. The TMs sleep and lounge a lot. (The TM website has pages of photos of coach potato TMs.) We Tibbies keep more alert. We like to patrol high walls and property perimeters. A lot.
When possible danger happens like approaching strangers, if the TMs don't wake up, we Tibbies will pull on their ears until they get up and do something, the lady said. The "something" is normally just standing up and intimidating with size. TMs by nature aren't supposed to attack. Size should do it. A a few barks with serious eye contact to let strangers know they are not to step foot on the property until our person returns.
If the TMs get overwhelmed, we Tibbies have the duty to go and get the armed men. (A rather nasty joke - but a bit true, the lady also said - is we do that by dashing through the courtyards trying not to trip over the sleeping ShihTzu dogs.) We Tibbies are good watch dogs and team players. But we don't do the attack and bite much if all all. Others do that better when needed.
And Cooper's person wondered why Cooper didn't think of me as some fufu little nervous dog deserving a "corrective" lesson. Heritage bucko!!! We Tibbies are just the more concentrated version of TMs.