Other Dogs

Just been for our long walk of the day and one of the fields was unusually busy with other dog walkers.
Faro doesn't often get to meet other dogs whilst off lead - he usually just sees one from afar.

Today I got to thinking about how important it is to try to ensure that your dog is a good influence and a good role model for other people's dogs.

The first dog that Faro met was a staffie pup of the same age (5months old). The owner was a lady who seemed a little overwhelmed with how to control her pup and when he inevitably started to play with Faro, she was relieved when they played nicely but tried to call her pup back to her. I do not encourage Faro to meet other dogs, I would rather that he ignore them because I believe that if all dogs are trained to pay no attention to strange dogs, the whole dog walking experience becomes more pleasant for those who have problem dogs and can often land up not walking their dog at all. For those who enjoy seeing dogs playing together... get two of your own!!

So anyhow, I went to put the lead back on Faro so that the lady could concentrate on getting her pup back to her but she then asked if they could play together for a while as she liked to see her puppy play.
Her pup then tore off to play with an elderly dog whose owner clearly did not want her jumped on or harrassed.
So, how could this lady expect to teach her dog that it is ok to play with one dog but not the next?

On the way back we then met a pair of Old English Bulls who were on lead. The owners stopped to chat with us about their dogs and said that the male had a habit of trying to bear hug other dogs and they had been told off by somebody for letting him do it. Well, Faro has a tendency do the same thing (in a puppy 'playing at it' kind of way) so rather than let him teach this other dog that it is ok to have bad manners and try to dominate another dog, I kept him away. But the owner then brought his over and what did the bulldog do? He tried to bear hug Faro, lol
So why did the owner allow the bulldog to meet Faro when he knew he would display a behaviour that he was trying to disallow?


Totally irrelevant to 'puppy walking', per se, but I thought I would share the thought about teaching our dogs to ignore strangers and making the dog walking experience a pleasant one in popular dog walking areas.