Possessive Dog

I've been thinking a lot about this topic and decided to re-read my post and the responses.

Scott, what I was refering to by using the term possesive is what your calling a "don't touch" type deal. She would just nip...a quick burst and bark to run another dog off. There was no actual fighting taking place.

Here's how the plot unfolded which led me to my original post. My nephew and I were hunting one morning about a month and a half ago. Dogs were out hunting as they should be and had been gone for a little while. We were tracking behind them and easing down the creek/brush line. From my tracking, I was pretty certain they were still moving ahead and so we weren't in a great big hurry moving behind them. We stopped and were sitting talking and I decided to step in the woods to see how high the creek was flowing. When I did, I suddenly could vaguely hear dogs. I ran back to the four wheeler, told my nephew I was pretty certain we had a bay going and unloaded the catch dog. We took off that way and when we got a little closer, they were indeed bayed solid. I could hear squealing, and so I released the catch dog a pretty good ways out. When we made it there as my luck usually goes they were in the water on the other side of the creek. I decided to stay put and let my nephew continue down the bank looking for a good place to cross in case they came back across. He was gone about 15 minutes looking before he came back and I ended up swimming. I usually don't get to watch my dogs bay, catch and all that from that close for that period of time and so probably why I've never noticed Abby's behavior. Every once in a while she would "burst" or growl other bay dogs off the hog. (The catchdog was caught the entire time). Each time, I would call her name and she would straighten up. She did this about three different times.

Here's my thought on her. In addition to wondering if anyone has ever seen this behavior (which several people have expressed they have), has anyone ever seen it from any dog other than the "pack leader" or "alpha" type dog. I know beyond a doubt that this particular dog has turned her game ON since I started her last December and has found many hogs that were close and I heard her be the first to bark. A lot of times my dogs are out of hearing range when they start a hog and so I don't know who actually struck first. Could this perhaps be a behavior of her's when she strikes first, or do you guys think what she did would happen in all situations when she's on a bay? It would tickle me to death if I thought she was starting a lot of these hogs she's been on.