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Location: Surrey
Joined: Jun 2010
Posts: 4,420
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That's fantastic, and after a bit of a break too. Well done Cain!
Proud mummy today - today I was the one with the good dogs
First moment was one of those overly-friendly, I'm-going-to-come-and-say-hello-from-the-other-side-of-the-park Yorkie, with an owner who failed to take one bit of notice of the big on-lead, headcollared dogs with the owner who immediately stopped at the sight of the Yorkie. I waited a few seconds for her to recall the dog so we could go around the outside of the park and avoid them, but nope, no attempts whatsoever so I just turned aroun and left. No whinging, no plonking-of-butt to refuse leaving, we just turned and trotted off.
I then decided to maybe head to the cow field and see if it was dry enough to go run in there. On the way, Casper did a poo and I realised my poo bags haofd escaped my pocket at some point - so did a shortcut through the smaller park to my nan's house as it's a bit nearer than my own, fetched a bag and went to head back. Spot a Collie that had just come from the bigger park - the owners must have taken note of me though and kindly waited at that entrance and I went around to another one, again, mutts didn't squeak, whine, bark, pull towards the dog or anything - we trotted off minding our own business. After picking up the poo, I decide to try the park again - empty! So I thought, but I head in and spot a dog around the corner, which runs over before I get a chance to turn around. I shout out that Casper isn't good with dogs but the owner just strolls over slowly. I manage to put Casper behind me, Kiki greets it a little stiffly but politely enough, Casper is holding up, a little whining but stays tucked behind me, ok and the owner finally fetches the dog back (with a "he's just a pup!" As if that makes it ok
and the dog was bigger than Casper!). Walk off with no fuss whatsoever! So we start our run. Halfway through a Mastiff-y type dog and its owner come in, but it seems well behaved, owner seems to be keeping it near, so we carry on and share the park nicely - Casper has a few looks over at the other dog but no noise, happily concentrating on me. When the owner started playing fetch it did get a bit too much for Casper who let out a little whine and got a little too focused, so I decided to end it on a good note and we left. Nearly crossed paths with another little dog on the way out but a conveniently placed hedge blocked the dogs' view until it passed and then off we trotted (Casper clocked it walking away, but again, happily followed me away from it)
The creme de le creme of the day though - just before our walk, I got it and went to let the dogs out. I noticed the neighbour had one of the dogs tethered out the back, and because of the lack of a fence there at the moment, it was wandering in and out of our garden. Our garden has been fenced off halfway so that they can't access this unsecure area obviously, but the middle fence is just horizontal planks, with gaps inbetween, so the dog is clearly visible. I give the neighbour a minute to spot me and then let the dogs out. They run to the back but I call out a 'leave it' and they head back to the middle of the garden and do their business. They then happily plod around ignoring the neighbour's dog, who's now back in view, and even ignore it when it has a whine. So Casper was within about 2 metres of a dog he's not properly met, that's whining away at him, and is in "his" garden, and barely even acknowledges it! It seems one bonus of very vocal dogs next door, it's inadvertently desensitized him!
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