protective dog

Oscar is very protective of our family. If a strange dog is near the house he barks like crazy. If a cat is sneaking around he gets mad. He has aclimated himself with the neighborhood familiar people and dogs and doesn't bark but if one of them gets too close, he sounds his alarm. Also when Molly is crying he goes in her room to check on her. It took me a while to figure out how her door was getting open (I always close it when she's asleep but leave it cracked a bit so I can hear her). Sometimes (a lot of times) I put Molly down for naps when she's awake and she talks or fusses for a minute til she peacefully drifts to sleep. If her sweet jabbering turns to cries, I go check. Lately, since Oscar's been around the door is always wide open when I get to her and I didn't notice that Oscar was always nearby. Until I saw it happening I didn't put it together. Molly started crying, Oscar went to the door and nudged it open, sniffed and "checked on her" and then sat at the foot of the rocker while I tended to her. Today we were in the front yard and Oscar stayed by her side (he was on a leash) and then he barked when strange dogs were coming down the street. I'm so impressed with how protective he is.