Thursday, June 19, 2008

dog behavior 101

just a helpful hint- if your dog is approaching another dog with the hair on its back up, don't expect them to be welcomed warmly.

there is a guy who runs in the mornings with a little black lab. she false charges and growls at us whenever we see her. she is always off leash, we are on. some day we will run into each other when we are all off leash and i will let the dogs set her straight (by which i do not mean DOGFIGHT! i mean normal growling put you in your place back off). in the meantime, her owner seems to sort of know this isn't cool, because he will say "holly be good"- but sometimes she is, and sometimes she isn't and without a way to correct the behavior it's not going to change.

a couple of women this morning got their dogs off the trail to let some runners pass. i went by also. not quite she why they left the little black dog, who approached halle with his back hair up (i had echo, let halle go say hi), loose on the trail. he was a bit snarly, after we passed i heard the owner scolding him & telling him she was tired of his behavior. that probably won't do much to change things.

i have had a dog who was not very well versed in dog social behavior. she ended up spending the last half of her life on leash and away from other dogs (except for ours). it took a while for me to understand that even tho she didn't always charge once was enough, and if she wasn't 100% reliable she wasn't reliable at all. been there, know it can be hard to see.

decided i was not going down that road again, so with these guys i have invested time and money in training so that we can all be more comfortable. i have also come to the conclusion that i can never rely on other people to have a clue, it is really up to me to keep my dogs safe which is why we usually cede the trail. it is always a learning process, and we may not be perfect, but i strive to be and we keep working on it.

anyway- enough of that, except to say that i highly recommend paula mccollum as a trainer if you're looking for someone to help with better recall & general off leash behavior. www.precisionk-9.com



a lone blanket flower. i know these are wildflowers in some places, don't know if they're native here or if this came in with a bird, but they're pretty and cheerful.


i ventured into the scary trees this morning because i wanted to check out the roses- they smell so wonderful, and the bushes are just loaded! the cotton from the cottonwood trees is so thick that it looks like snow, so if you're one of those people who are allergic stay away!

















beautiful morning- lots of runners, lots of dogs, lots of leashes, most very pleasant and polite.

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