It was almost a normal walk

Share your experience and tell us how using positive reinforcement training methods has changed yours and your dogs' lives.

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MPbandmom
Posts: 1637
Joined: Sun Jan 03, 2010 7:18 pm

It was almost a normal walk

Post by MPbandmom »

Today I took Sirius to the battlefield for a nice outing and to get some miles under pack towards her Dog Scouts of America backpacking title. Not long after we started off there was a dog in front of us. Taking care of business off to the side of the trail. I decided passing was the best course of action since prior to the dog stopping the progress of his family had been quite slow. We kept the cannon between us, but were able to pass without any reaction on Sirius' part and while staying on the trail. :D :D :D

We passed every person while on the trail. I did often have her sit off to the side and I fed her treats while the people passed. I had a combination of freeze dried liver and chicken. The freeze dried chicken seemed to work better as little bits would crumble off as she nibbled at it. Well, I have to take that we passed every person on the trail back a little. I had debated taking her to the battlefield today as I had checked the web site and seen that there was a guided tour taking place at about the same time as I would be there. We did move off into the field a ways while the huddle of 25 to 30 people in the tour passed by.

We managed to get close enough to a busy highway to push the walk signal, although she did give some serious consideration to going after a dump truck. We managed to cross the highway twice without any real problems. (Fortunately no motorcycles happened to be going down the road at those moments.)

We did duck and dodge where other dogs were concerned and headed out into the field if necessary to get past other dogs, but all in all it was a very pleasant 2 miles with only 2 little snarks at men and 2 little oh crap moments.

Oh crap moment number one was when Sirius was highly interested in sniffing something and a small child spotted us and started inching his way towards us. He approached quietly and thus didn't startle Srius and he probably got within 2 yards before Sirius stopped sniffing long enough to notice him and the boy's parents picked up that I was speaking to their child. The father came over to retrieve the son and asked if Sirius didn't do well with children. At which point Sirius snarked a little at him, because he was rather close and talking. It was a very minimal snark though. The father asked if Sirius had had a bad experience with a child and I explained that she has issues with strange noises and he filled in the end of the sentence which is children make odd noises.

Oh crap moment number two was as we were just about to cross back over the highway. I had once again ventured close enough to get the walk signal button pushed and then moved back away. Suddenly Sirius alerted to something behind me and I turned to see a lady with a doberman approaching. :shock: She was probably within 5 yards of us. I asked her to stop and stay back which she did. After we crossed the road, we headed off across the field perpendicular to the trail to allow her to pass by. Sirius magnatized a bit onto this dog, but otherwise did not exihibit reactive behavior.

Edited to add: We didn't move away from the approaching child sooner because a certain little dog had her nose glued tot he ground and was refusing to be moved from that spot. I need to work on that. She shifted into hunt mode a couple of times searching out small things running under the grass and getting her shifted back into walk with me mode was quite a challenge.
Grammy to Sky and Sirius, who came to live with me, stole my heart, and changed my life forever as I took over their care and learned how to be a dog owner.
Erica
Posts: 2697
Joined: Fri Aug 05, 2011 9:35 pm
Location: North Carolina

Re: It was almost a normal walk

Post by Erica »

Yay Sirius! :D It sounds like she's doing pretty well! And she couldn't do it without someone who understands her and takes that effort to help her out like you do. :) Good job to both of you!
Delta, standard poodle, born 6/30/14
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