My previous Yorkie would suddenly go nuts barking at the back door. I would open the door to let her out, and, always, was greeted by a faint skunk odor. There is a road about 1/2 mile away that runs along a wooded area, and skunks get run over on it from time to time. We couldn't smell it in the house, but she could. She would run out barking and snarling, check out the yard, and when she was satisfied that there wasn't an intruder, she would calm down as if nothing had happened and come back inside. When she did this, we used to say that she was "ready for fight club."
One time when she went into fight club mode, I opened the door and the odor was much stronger than normal, I'm sure the skunk was about a block away. She ran out the door snarling and barking, got about 5 feet out, immediately turned around and ran right back in the house. All that audacious bravado was gone! We sure miss that girl.
