My Dog is Friendly

I have not written a post in a long time!  Just have not been inspired I suppose and too busy but today the setup was too inspiring (though perhaps not in a good way!) and I could not ignore my inner prompting voice.

Another dog trainer and I took a walk around a beautiful pond with our dogs – her excellent border collie was off leash and my 90% recall responsive dog was on a very long long line.  It was a perfect fall day in upstate NY with amazing colors reflected in the water and sky blue sky!

As we came to the end of our walk and were about to enter the narrow passage to the parking lot (and my friend had reattached her dog to a leash), we came upon a group of people with about four dogs – all leashed except for an adorable Boston terrier.  One person called out to us as we waited for them to step aside so we could pass “don’t worry, they are friendly.”  Famous last words that I always let go as I have learned they have zero meaning.  And, unfortunately, as we passed the group by one dog lunged and growled at our dogs setting off the Boston who shrieked and that set off the whole group of dogs as they all reacted to either our dogs (who remained silent) or the Boston.  We both rushed to get our dogs into our cars safely and then turned to see if any assistance needed as it appeared there would soon be a dog fight.

The group had moved into the woods when more shrieking, barking, snarling was heard and the Boston came flying out of the woods into the parking lot.  I kneeled down and offered her some treats – she came readily and while she was scarfing the treats my friend got a slip lead around her.  The owner came and thanked us.  We explained that his dog was terrified and I went further and suggested he abandon the walk as it appeared this little girl was not enjoying this at all.  Surprisingly, he agreed and called to his wife to come back so they could leave.

Shortly after the first dog that reacted fiercely to our presence and his owner came out – she was very apologetic about her dog as he lunged in the direction of my friend’s car when he saw her Border Collie inside.  She seemed very caring about her dog and explained it was a work in progress.  At this point, we both should have given her our cards!

We should not expect our dogs to reliably behave the same in every situation if they have not been socialized at the right age and right way and exposed to many environments, dogs, people, etc.   If they never met particular dogs, combined with strange surroundings there may be many reasons for reactivity – fear of an unknown group of dogs, the sounds from one dog setting off the other dogs (the group of dogs sounded like they wanted to kill that Boston), unfamiliar surroundings and smells causing fear resulting in reactivity.  Frustration causing reactivity and redirected aggression.

And sadly when these fearful dogs practice these behaviors it gets reinforced and strengthened.  Getting help from a qualified dog trainer/behaviorist is a way to address.  But in the meantime, don’t put your dog in a situation that may cause her to react in this manner as it puts her and others at risk.  And we all need to learn to read canine body language.  When understood, can be an important wake up call.  I am grateful for my well behaved calm dog and I never believe it when someone says “don’t worry, my dog is friendly!”