2 Different Experiences

I walked Tom and Bella separately today, wanted Bella to meet the other doggies on our local walk that were happy to do so and wanted to do some behaviour work with Tom with his reactions to dogs he doesnt know.

Walk 1 Bella

Bella walked beautifully to heel , she was on high alert , ears up for squirrels and local cats, she met the dogs she was introduced nicely and sat happily when I chatted , she had a good sniff round the bushes and enjoyed seeing the squirrels.

Walk 2 Tom

Started reasonably well , didnt get my timing too good, think all the off lead dogs on the estate were out ! Passed a couple of Shar P 's , gave them a wide berth as the owner was on his mobile and engrossed in a convo so if Tom had reacted he wasnt paying attention to his dogs, walked behind a GSD , Tom did not react , the distance was comfortable for him to get on with sniffing and looking for squirrels, walked pretty well past the husky, thought about reacting but I got his attention and he was good, just about got home and thinking it was a good walk for Tom , he is getting there and a yorkie and a westie come haring round the corner off lead and no owner in sight , Tom did incredibly well as they ran round his ankles, the lady appeared and look horrified and I said can you get them onlead please his patience wont last much longer , her response was a filthy look and the statement , well he shouldnt be out then , you cant win can you , Poor Tom is doing so well, he is so much better and I am working hard with him on a daily basis , but I suppose thats what you have to cope with , a few months ago he would have freaked out in that situation but its other flaming owners and their reactions that get me , and it took a good 4-5 mins for her to get the dogs to come to her , they just ignored her until she got them by the collars and pulled them away, I am sure they are sweet little things but just keep them under control please !

I will continue to work with Tom and face up to the many challenges of our local walks !

Well done to you and your pups - it's so hard when you have a reactive dog, Benjie is a nightmare but we're getting there too...

Well done especially to Tom for managing to cope so well. Wonder why some people feel entitled to have their dogs off lead and not under control and then blame the on lead doggy for not liking it ?

thanks he did do well , and I have got better too just stayed very calm, if it had been a couple of months ago not so sure he would have been so restrained, maybe if I had dogs that could go offlead locally I might think differently but not to the extent of letting them run round a leashed dogs ankles who is wearing a muzzle !

Well done you, Tom and Bella Folk are so inconsiderate sometimes and you do very well to stay calm, this must have made a difference to Tom and helped him cope with what was happening.

Thanks , I feel I go on a bit about Tom reacting on here sometimes but I suppose when its part of your day every day on walks then maybe thats the case , all his other good points more than make up for a bit of barking at other doggies tho now and again !

Know how you feel as I have one like yours! Cherry is doing really well but I still have problems when other people can't or won't stop their dogs running up to her. Yesterday on the park there was a man approaching me speedily from behind with an off-lead Rottweiller, I asked him nicely to not let his dog run up to her but he wouldn't call it back as he said it was fine. I said my dog isn't and she got attacked by a Rottweiller (I did take pains to point out that I blamed the numpty owners not the breed) and please would you keep your dog away?

He then said to his dog "She'll bite you if you go near!" which she wouldn't do but she would go into head-butt mode and I don't know how a strange dog will react!

You have to count to 10 with some dog owners!

Sounds like he's doing so well with you and you have so much patience

It used to be exactly the same for me as Sammy was dog reactve, 6 stone lunging and flipping like a mad man wasn't nice for anybody and i didn't want Flynn to copy so i walked them seperatley, its hard work but definately worth it for Bella to have that time on her own, i know exactly how you feel!

Other dog walkers used to have me in tears sometimes but i did harden to it, mind you i was walking Flynn and Roxy today and someone picked their dogs up to walk past us , i just laughed coz they are the two friendliest dogs ever

Thanks he is doing well and I too have been close to tears with other doggy folks reactions to him and you do harden to it , my OH is really good he just ignores it and concentrates on Tom which is good for him, its nice for Bella to have one 2 one time but means the walk takes an hour instead of half an hour 3 x a day which when I am working from home I cant manage every day and just go for it and hope we meet some nice folks !

Well done you and Tom! Interesting the difference between his and Bella's walk. It's great that you're walking them both individually sometimes, sounds like he's coming on really well, despite the unhelpful owner