Mia showed fear - calmly!!

I know it dosent sound like much but its a big step for her

Walking in our usual offlead place - hardly ever see another dog
Then behind me I see a couple with a v leggy dobie and a lurcher type

Mia sees them behind, then comes running to me - which is strange in itself - I would usualy at least have to call her
They are offlead so I just leave mine
Then as they are getting a bit closer - and its about at the point in the path I turn back anyway I see Mia is lying down on the path waiting for them to come up so I decide to turn back anyway so I can just pass them and get it over and done with

Mia offlead with offlead dogs usualy waits a bit then charges and tries to get them to chase her, or has even started to do a bit of bum sniffing
The guys with the dogs step off the path - uhhooh thinks I, but if I start calling Mia it will put stress on the situation

They are only a tiny bit off the paty - I could reach out and touch them
The dobie comes over in our direction but the guy calls it back
Mia is up on her back legs so she can see over the grass
I keep walking past, expecting she will at least go for a wee sniff of the dogs
But nope, she runs over to me and hides the other side of me away from the dogs

No freaking out, no screaming, no zoomies
and such a big step seeing me as a safe place

Once they were out of site she did have a crazy game of smackdown zoomies with Ben as a stress relief - so I think i will take her tuggy out from now on if she needs something energetic to deflect her stress onto

But overall I am really happy, never had a dog that close that she didnt have to go up to and say hello

That's very good-she sounds very well behaved.

I was sitting on a bench reading the paper yesterday and didn't notice till he was 15 feet away that there was a man walking 2 on-lead greyhounds that were muzzled. I called Parker who decided he was going to go and have a bum-sniff and totally ignore me and the greyhound head-butted him in the stomach! Serves you right I said as he walked back to me looking sorry for himself.

That's great! well done Mia it's lovely when something like that means a lot.

Well done Mia! and Parker, still learning but he will get there I am sure

Yay, that's great, clever girl Mia!

Wys
x

That's fantastic ~ well done Mia.

Isn't that the key to what you want for Mia? That she works things out for herself to keep herself safe? So that's brilliant that she reacted like that.

Thanks guys
Yes exactly the point is I want her to be able to deal with situations, not to need me to have to keep telling her to 'look at me' or whatever
What I am working on is trying to get her to feel calm with other dogs around, and happy even, but moving herself out of the way to a safe place is great!

I am sure Parker will get there - that is too funny a headbut poor boy