Saturday, June 19, 2010

Hah! Those rude, off leash dogs...

Well we're in the fist stage of learning how to do a drive by to another dog without interacting with it.   My guys already know "sniff" , "touch", (Dogsmart.ca classes) "cuddle in", "around", "way to me" but that doesn't seem to help out in situations where we encounter off leash or on leash dogs who you can tell by their body posture are going to be trouble but owner doesn't seem to "get it"  or do anything about it ...I wish people would respect that my dogs don't want to be rushed, or sometimes rather not say hello.
I have called this new cue "say hello" but really it's a drive by without interaction and return to me.  My dog ends up with back to other dog and focused back on me, sort of morphing the re-orienting/ look at that/ leave it,..Control Unleash games... kinda...I don't know how else to describe it.



My hope is that it will diffuse the situation..

I'm happy to let my guys meet other dogs if I see a few of these signals: soft eyes, avoiding prolonged eye contact, loosey, wiggly body, slow to approach, licking lips, play bow, arc around my dog...as they  WAIT to see my dog's reaction to their invitation to interact... 

Turid Regass dvd rocks http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lj7BWxC6iVs and Dogsmart "Train and Play' class is awesome for teaching dog body language 101.  

You can tell I'm still irked by this whole issue...

4 comments:

Cynthia said...

That sounds really frustrating. When Dottie got attacked at the dog park and ended up with bruises all over her back and a puncture wound, the owners of the other dogs just said "dogs will be dogs"! Grrr!
Good luck with all that.

Kate and Rob said...

I think that would be a breaking point for me...

Really irks me, as I've already got enough on my plate with taking care of my own dogs issues...

I'm hoping that all this chaos thrown at us these past few months ( 6 months now counting Wags issues) I'm hoping that finding what works for us, we'll be just globalizing behaviours from here on in and enjoying the summer.

I need a break.

Scottish Deerhounds blog said...

Sounds very annoying. I wish there was a solution for this. It's just frustrating not to be able to spend a good time with your dog, because of non-responsible dog owners.

Kate and Rob said...

the lucky part of where I live, I have access to remote areas so as long as I walk them there, I'm normally safe.

I think we're on the right track now, with teaching my guys to ignore others if I don't know them.

It's like this with everything in life, some do more than their share,to compensate for those who don't. Just the way it goes.