Defence Mechanisms

The other day my husband was talking and at the same time, my dog was whining which irritated my husband.  He told the dog to be quiet and attempted to continue speaking but the dog also continued speaking in his whiny doggie way. This irritated my husband more and he went after the dog, alpha male style, to swat him into silence.  I laugh as I recall this because quick on his feet, my dog retreated, hiding behind me!  When I shifted my weight, he moved with me, clearly protecting himself from the anticipated silencing swat.  As a coach, I am loathe to have a metaphor go unnoticed and under utilized and so, I have to say that my dogs self protective reaction reminded me of human defence mechanisms. While my dog physically moved himself out of harms reach and used me as a trusted barrier, he clearly is not cognizant of his actions, in other words, he didn't think to himself "woof, if I move behind mummy, whine woof, there's no way daddy, woof can get me".  This is how defence mechanisms work~they are like tire grooves on a well worn driveway.  They exist because for whatever reason, at one point in time, we, you and I, had to learn to protect ourselves from some kind of emotional, physical, spiritual, psychological swat. The current question is, how are those defensive mechanisms working for you now?  What are they and do you still need them?  What are you protecting yourself from, and do you still want to...