How far we've come in 2 weeks

We have a cleaner who comes every 2 weeks to clean the house. Last time Mira had only been here a few days and she was quite upset by the whole thing. She growled at them when they came in, and then kept barking at the noises they made. She was extremely stressed by all the scents and sights as they cleaned, and I ended up finally taking her out of the house for a little while to give her a break.

This time she let me know with a brief woof or two and running to the window that they were outside, but quieted right down when I thanked her and told her to "leave it."

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She was easily redirected to going outside, and by the time she came back in they were already in the house. She sniffed them over without a sign of a bark or growl, and then was fine with them and quite friendly. The whole time they were here she never seemed upset by the sound of the vaccuum or them banging things around moving stuff to clean.

She went over to watch with interest several times, or tried to lie down near where they were working. My only concern was keeping her from getting underfoot with her friendly interest in what they were doing. But when I called her she immediately came to me without a backward look.

When it came time to pay them, I put the check in an envelope and had Mira take it to the cleaner. He was delighted by this, and she was so proud of herself.

She knows I'm not feeling well today, so she's mostly staying right with me. She has alerted several times and wasn't happy until I laid down for a rest. You can bet I'm not going to try to drive anywhere today. I'm learning that when she acts that concerned about me, those are days I need to not try to drive so I don't end up getting stranded somewhere.

Last night she kept alerting to DH. He was really tired and in pain from an infected toe, and just dragging around and feeling generally under the weather. She kept woofing and nudging him, and licking him and pawing at him persistently. This morning when he woke up he was sick with the cold that Ebee is just getting over.

A neighbor dropped by this morning to look at a sick tree in our yard and give advice about it. He came while the cleaners were here, and I knew he was coming in time to put Mira in the back yard just before he rang the doorbell. I let her in after he was in the house. Again, not a hint of barking or growling.

It seems that if I have enough warning, this is a perfect solution to completely stop the "guard dog" behavior at the door. She is making a lot of progress even when she does answer the door, as well as with not growling at the window, but I think I'll keep having her not answer the door for a while whenever it's practical.