Happy New Year to both my readers :-)
We saw some progress during December.. around the middle of the month I was out with the boys on a Saturday lunchtime in our usual park, and they were off the lead. They were responding well to me and the whistle, and then the inevitable happened - a lady appeared in the park with her dog. This is a situation we've been working towards for months, but had hoped that it would happen under circumstances that we could control, i.e. with a dog trainer on hand, and with dogs whose handlers were happy for our lads to be off the lead around their dogs.
However, I figured the wrong thing to do would be to panic and start shouting for the boys to come back, and go running after them. The other dog, a jack russell, was on the lead, and Mishka was the first dog to reach him. He circled the small dog a few times, and had a sniff, but there was no barking. By this time Jackson also arrived, quickly followed by me at a calm, yet fast, walk. Jackson had a few sniffs, but again no barking, and Mishka backed away slightly, but I didn't feel the need to try and grab either dog at this point. The other owner seemed happy for my boys to investigate her dog, although she did comment on how strange her dog was reacting, he seemed shy and afraid. She let him off the lead for all the dogs to play, and he stayed close to her, but still my boys just circled and sniffed, with only Mishka getting vocal, letting off a few barks whilst jumping up on his back legs, but it seemed more like an invitation to play than anything else.
It had been about 2 minutes since we'd first seen the dog now, and I felt it was time to see if I could get the boys back. I gave two blasts on the whistle and called Mishka, and whilst he ignored me at first, I repeated this immediately and this time he looked at me, and saw that I was waving the bag with the liver cake in, and he came bounding over. I put him on the lead, and gave him his treat. Jackson came to me as soon as I called his name.
So this first interaction with another dog off the lead was a success! I was worried initially, but figured panicking would make the situation worse. The attitude of the other owner helped a lot too, she wasn't overly concerned about my boys, and the enclosed nature of the park reassured me that they were unlikely to disppear a long way away.
The following weekend we took the boys on a forest walk where we were pretty certain we'd encounter other dog walkers. Before we did meet other dogs, I took this video just for the fun of it:
Further on, on a narrow trail, we did meet a family walking a small dog coming the other way. The boys were 20 or so metres in front of us on the path when we realised that a meeting was inevitable, so we sped up slightly to catch up with them, but there was just some sniffing and circling, and that was it, we passed by the family, and called for the boys. Mishka actually came to us first, but Jackson set off following the other family for a few seconds, until some persistent calling and whistling got him to return to us.
Later still on the walk we encountered a jogger out with his three dogs at the same time as a walker with a labrador, and here both boys set off to say hi to the lab first, and there was some barking from Mishka, but again we weren't too worried. Mishka did follow the lab on another path as the walker departed, whilst Jackson came back to us and we put him on the lead. Mishka was refusing to come back, and we started to worry that he would continue to ignore us. Then this jogger ran past, followed by his three dogs, and Mishka set off following them, but after being gone for 10 seconds or so, he came back to us after persistent calling, whistling and waving of the cake bag. We put him back on the lead and kept both boys on the lead until we got back to the car.
So, not perfect behaviour, but also not a complete disaster either.
We're completing the questionnaire sent to us by this local trainer who runs Social Walk classes, and so hopefully the boys will get to participate in a few of those soon.
Further on, on a narrow trail, we did meet a family walking a small dog coming the other way. The boys were 20 or so metres in front of us on the path when we realised that a meeting was inevitable, so we sped up slightly to catch up with them, but there was just some sniffing and circling, and that was it, we passed by the family, and called for the boys. Mishka actually came to us first, but Jackson set off following the other family for a few seconds, until some persistent calling and whistling got him to return to us.
Later still on the walk we encountered a jogger out with his three dogs at the same time as a walker with a labrador, and here both boys set off to say hi to the lab first, and there was some barking from Mishka, but again we weren't too worried. Mishka did follow the lab on another path as the walker departed, whilst Jackson came back to us and we put him on the lead. Mishka was refusing to come back, and we started to worry that he would continue to ignore us. Then this jogger ran past, followed by his three dogs, and Mishka set off following them, but after being gone for 10 seconds or so, he came back to us after persistent calling, whistling and waving of the cake bag. We put him back on the lead and kept both boys on the lead until we got back to the car.
So, not perfect behaviour, but also not a complete disaster either.
We're completing the questionnaire sent to us by this local trainer who runs Social Walk classes, and so hopefully the boys will get to participate in a few of those soon.
