Almost knocked an old lady over.

Hello everyone.

I have a 5mth old Dalmatian puppy who I love to bits but I seem to have had nothing but negitive comments about the breed from people round here. lots of things like 'I've never met a well behaved one yet' and 'I go the other way if I see a Dalmatian' 'they'll never do what they're told' and so on.

I love the breed and am determined to prove them all wrong by bringing her up to be a sociable well behaved dog, and so far so good. Her training is going well, her recall is spot on 99% of the time, I use a dog whistle to recall her and she usually comes to me first time and sits at my feet looking up.. but not last night.

We were in our usual park right behing our house, its always fairly well used by dog walkers. An old lady with a walking stick (who lives very close to me) was walking her dog, Tilly ran towards it to play (it was a middle aged JR) the other dog barked and backed off obviously not keen to play so I whistled for Tilly to come back. She didn't and chased the JR in circles round the old lady eventually bumping into her at speed and knocking her walking stick out of her hand. I ran over and picked up the ladys stick and put Tilly on her lead but she wasn't happy (understandably) she went on about how shes already had 2 heart atacks and nearly had another, how shes got a bad leg to start with and my dog should be on a lead. I said shes only a puppy, her recall is usually good etc

I know this lady uses the park regular and i know she will tell the story to ever dog walker she meets.

Was there anything else I could have done? I'm not keen to keep her on the lead as she needs to run around and play with other dogs (who want to play).

I feel like shes getting a bad reputation already, and I don't want that. I want to fit in with the 'community'.

any comments appreciated.

Thanks.

Owning a Dally I know exactly what you mean.

I have to say that Tilly is still a puppy and most puppies of any breed at her age are not very well co ordinated (long legs and a puppy body dont go).

I have found Dalmatians harder to train than some breeds and not as hard as other breeds. BUT it is achievable.

Dalmatians seem to stay in puppyhood (IMO) far longer than most other breeds and as such can have longer rebellious puberty.

My Max is now 10 years old and although he doesnt run into people he can still have his problems with recall if food isnt involved.

Dont worry what other people think about Tilly, Im sure from what you have said that she will be a shinning example to you when she grows into her body.

Keep up the good work with the training

I've been knocked over by PRT, a staffy, Boxer and almost by the poodles so it isn't breed related! Sadly it's just one of those things, if you'd rushed over to her she still could have knocked the old lady over, as long as you apologised I don't see what else you could have done.
Dogs are dogs after all!
Becky

Hi Tilly and welcome if you have a 99% recall at 5months it sounds as if you are doing very well

Don't let a small incident bother you, if you whistle Tilly and she won't come I would try not to get angry and shout at her ,returning to you should always be a pleasurable experience and after all playing with another dog must be preferable to coming to a human and being put on the lead. She is learning to interact with other dogs which is very good .

You may already know this but if ever Tilly doesn't come the first time you call it is best not to give her the opportunity to ignore you a second time, I would quietly go over to her and slip the lead on.

Don't sweat it. So long as you are continuing training and being a responsible owner, other dog walkers won't avoid you. (And if they do, you prob wouldn't want to have mixed with them anyway. )

Where I walk my dogs regularly there are a couple of dogs that have knocked people off their feet once or twice; but they are still part of the gang and it has never crossed anyones mind to try to avoid them because of an odd incident. :smt001

We had a similar problem with Greg at about 6-7 months,
Greg didnt knock anyone over but he did bowl over someones puppy and they were not happy! (he was just playing and the other puppy loved it!) she told every one who would listen, but he is now 11.5 months and he still every now and then doesnt listen to us, but he always comes back eventually. I am finding he is on his lead more often than not now, its a real shame but all this bad press is causing me lots of problems.

Thanks everyone, we are just about to go on our morning walk and I'm going somewhere different today (not just to avoid the park, I think Tilly will appreciate a different walk).

I know I shouldn't worry too much about what other people think, I just want people to like my dog and reputations build quickly around here.

I did apologise, and thats about all I can do.

Minihaha, thanks for the tip about not calling her again if she ignores me the first time. I will try not to in future.

She does have good recall at 5 months old, mainly taught by playing 'hide & seek' I hide in the park while the children distract her and then whistle and she has to find me. It works really well, and now she nearly always comes to me when she hears the whistle. I am expecting to have times when we go backwards in training tho.

Well must dash, we're off to the woods today.

Sounds like fun. Have a good walk. :smt001

Hope you have had a good walk. It is normal for them to start ignoring you at that age and it will go on for a while, but she is doing nothing that is abnormal in a dog that age.
In fact if she was 100% obedient at that age it would mean that she would probably 'break out' as it were at a later stage so please don't worry about it. Try to avoid going into the park at the same time as this particular person does, she probably as a set routine so will go at a particular time. I do this myself as I have had a lot of unpleasantness from a local 'expert' about how my 2 act like puppies (they are ??) and how I should 'work' on my recall. Perfect recall comes with time and maturity and a lot of hard work!!! You are doing all you can, just keep away from her if you possibly can until she is a little older. It worked for me, you should have seen his face when I successfully called my 2 away from his dog when he was standing as close as he possibly could to the enclosed area where I was training so as to interrupt the session

We had a lovely walk thanks, and found a lively labrador puppy to play with.