How to Talk to Other Dog Owners

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WufWuf
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How to Talk to Other Dog Owners

Post by WufWuf »

http://www.patriciamcconnell.com/theoth ... dog-owners
Whether it’s at the dog park, in the neighborhood, or at a dog class, we’ve all struggled with what to say to the person whose dog is terrifying ours, or whose dog REALLY doesn’t want you to pet him even though the owner is begging you to. - See more at: http://www.patriciamcconnell.com/theoth ... 28w0h.dpuf
Ask yourself. Why do you want to influence the other person’s behavior? If you want to protect your own dog, do so. Putting the other owner on defense won’t help anything and it might make things worse. Are you concerned about their dog? Perhaps their dog didn’t sit when asked and they jerked hard on the leash and screamed at it. - See more at: http://www.patriciamcconnell.com/theoth ... 28w0h.dpuf
Operant conditioning rocks but classical conditioning rules
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Nettle
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Re: How to Talk to Other Dog Owners

Post by Nettle »

Thank you, Wuf - your research links are always well worth reading, and PMcC is brilliant. :)
A dog is never bad or naughty - it is simply being a dog

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Suzette
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Re: How to Talk to Other Dog Owners

Post by Suzette »

That was an excellent article! Thanks for the link Wuf!! :D
My avatar is Piper, my sweet Pembroke Corgi. b. 5/11/11
WufWuf
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Re: How to Talk to Other Dog Owners

Post by WufWuf »

Why thank you ladies :D Patrica McConnell's "The Other End of The Leash" was the first "proper" dog book I read and it blew my mind 8)

I rarely ever rely on other dog owners to control their dogs, they are totally unconcerned that any injury will come to their dog as Honey is so tiny and of course only come at situations from their own perspective so even if they could get their dog back to them by the time I'd gotten it across to them their dog would be on top of Honey. What I do depends on the dog and human in question and with clearly friendly dogs I often choose to bamboozzle them with my stinkyness*, friendly greetings and some fancy foot work until I can get Honey clear or I can put them off trying to get to her. I will sometimes be OBNOXIOUSLY friendly to the dog if they look a little on unsure on approach and this usually gets them to change their mind without upsetting the human :wink: :lol: .

I feel that I should mention that although I ADORE Dr. McConnell I don't personally agree with how she handled the interactions between her own dogs in the second half of the blog.


*By stinkyness I mean my wonderful smelly treats and not my general mingyness of course :mrgreen:
Operant conditioning rocks but classical conditioning rules
ckranz
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Re: How to Talk to Other Dog Owners

Post by ckranz »

It was always very challenging in the early days with Khan, we would be walking in areas where other dogs were supposed to be on leash but often were not. It was one of the few areas I could get a good walk in with him and for myself. Numerous times I would hear people call out "Don't Worry he's friendly." I grew to enjoy the immediate change on their faces when I informed them that Khan was not. They certainly ignored the yellow ribbon on his leash.

Thankfully today things are totally different for Khan as his turnaround has been miraculous. A yellow ribbon is no longer needed as well as warning other people to keep their dogs away.
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Nettle
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Re: How to Talk to Other Dog Owners

Post by Nettle »

WufWuf wrote:I feel that I should mention that although I ADORE Dr. McConnell I don't personally agree with how she handled the interactions between her own dogs in the second half of the blog

Nor would I. But more than one way to skin a cat......ooops..... :lol:

Personally I never treat other people's dogs either. I can often never get rid of them as it is. Must be my smell :wink:


Great job done on Khan, ckranz. I remember the early days.
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WufWuf
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Re: How to Talk to Other Dog Owners

Post by WufWuf »

Nettle wrote:Personally I never treat other people's dogs either. I can often never get rid of them as it is. Must be my smell :wink:
I treat the dogs whose owners I will be walking with as I am rewarding Honey and the owners can feel like their dogs are feeling left out, it also makes these dogs easier to deal with around Honey as they will listen to me (usually no more than a couple of times a week as Honey would be on overload any more than that and she doesn't play with these dogs but she ADORES the people).

I also use my stinky treat hand as part of my bambozzle dance.

I've never been keen on the treat bomb idea but I have laid a treat land mine from time to time :P . If I can see from a distance that I'm being followed by an off lead dog and I need to buy some time I will sometimes crumble/scatter treats in it's path in the hope that it will stop for a snack and give me a little time to get out of the area. I've always felt that any dog with a bit of sense would follow me if I threw a jackpot of treats in their face but I've never tried it so it may have worked for others.
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Nettle
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Re: How to Talk to Other Dog Owners

Post by Nettle »

I do like the idea of a treat land mine :D
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jacksdad
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Re: How to Talk to Other Dog Owners

Post by jacksdad »

Like Patricia, I don't ask people to deal with their dog from a distance. I tend to deal with their dog for them, but unless you are HIGHLY savvy you probably would mistake me for playing with the dog verse "dealing" with it.
ckranz wrote: They certainly ignored the yellow ribbon on his leash.
the whole yellow ribbon concept is a good one in theory, but without a national campaign to educate what it means , and a consensus to actually designate yellow to mean "stay back from dog", you do have forgive people for not understanding what that "thing" on the leash means. outside a very small circle I highly doubt the yellow ribbon has meaning to very many people.

Then speaking for my self, I know what it is supposed to mean, but to be honest, I am watching "your" dog, not checking for yellow ribbons so there is a good chance i would miss it too.

it's a good idea, but not am not sold on the real world practicalities of it yet.
WufWuf wrote: I've always felt that any dog with a bit of sense would follow me if I threw a jackpot of treats in their face but I've never tried it so it may have worked for others.
I have used it a couple times, had mixed results, but never had dogs then start to follow me. the results were a mix of ignore the treats tossed and focusing on the treats tossed.
WufWuf
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Re: How to Talk to Other Dog Owners

Post by WufWuf »

jacksdad wrote: WufWuf wrote: I've always felt that any dog with a bit of sense would follow me if I threw a jackpot of treats in their face but I've never tried it so it may have worked for others.



I have used it a couple times, had mixed results, but never had dogs then start to follow me. the results were a mix of ignore the treats tossed and focusing on the treats tossed.
Thanks for the input JD :D It may be something to consider for folks if the right circumstances present themselves.
Operant conditioning rocks but classical conditioning rules
CarolineLovesDogs

Re: How to Talk to Other Dog Owners

Post by CarolineLovesDogs »

I love Patricia's work but have not yet read this article... will have to!:)
ckranz
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Re: How to Talk to Other Dog Owners

Post by ckranz »

One huge problem with the treat landmine and other tossing of treat are that some dogs are on food restrictive diets. Apollo for instance is on a Kidney diet. Someone throwing the wrong treats down could cause him great harm and kidney failure. Other dogs may have serious allergies that could result in severe medical complications.

Food is also banned in all dog parks in my area.
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Nettle
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Re: How to Talk to Other Dog Owners

Post by Nettle »

ckranz wrote:One huge problem with the treat landmine and other tossing of treat are that some dogs are on food restrictive diets. Apollo for instance is on a Kidney diet. Someone throwing the wrong treats down could cause him great harm and kidney failure. Other dogs may have serious allergies that could result in severe medical complications.

Food is also banned in all dog parks in my area.

Great point but I have to say :oops: I just had a flood of complete negativity/punishment-based training rocket through my head in that my first thought was well maybe these people would keep their freakin' dogs away from others if they came home and pebble-dashed the carpet a few times. :twisted:

I must do more work on my attitude.
A dog is never bad or naughty - it is simply being a dog

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WufWuf
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Re: How to Talk to Other Dog Owners

Post by WufWuf »

If there's any dogs on a restricted diet in my area I pity their owners :P I live in a fairly urban area and I'm willing to bet my homemade treats are the healtiest thing you'll find on the ground 'round here :lol: . I also suppect that there must be dogs who think I'm the equivalent of Doggy Santa or the Easter bunny as I throw threats for Honey on every walk and she definitely doesn't find all of them...

There's no dog parks for me to worry about but I can see how if you live in an area that's cleaner than I do it may not be polite to other dog owners to leave treats lying around, however if someone let's their off lead dog* rush up to me or follow me than I would have no qualms about using food to control them if needs be.

*Non Restricted Breed list dogs are not required to be on lead in Ireland once they are under "effective control" (except in some public areas such as certain parks/gardens or at certain times in those places) so of course we have a huge number of dogs off lead who are not under effective control and it's also possible to run into dogs who are "put out" for the day even though it's against the law (there's 6 of these in my area that I run into on a regular basis).
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ckranz
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Re: How to Talk to Other Dog Owners

Post by ckranz »

WufWuf wrote:If there's any dogs on a restricted diet in my area I pity their owners :P I live in a fairly urban area and I'm willing to bet my homemade treats are the healtiest thing you'll find on the ground 'round here :lol: . I also suspect that there must be dogs who think I'm the equivalent of Doggy Santa or the Easter bunny as I throw threats for Honey on every walk and she definitely doesn't find all of them....
Its not a matter of quality of the treat. I am sure that those of us that make our own treats they are overall far healthier than anything bought in the store. The problem is that dogs with bad kidneys should not be eating anything high in phosphorous or high in protein period. so even the best homemade treat that includes say oats and prime rib would not be good for them regardless of the quality level of the oats and beef. Apollo recently had a gastro intenstinal illness (HGC) that was not identifiable and we had to use boiled chicken and sticky rice for a few days. The sticky rice was chosen as it the best for dogs with kidney issues followed by white rice. Brown rice is not good due to the presence of phosphorous. we could not use the "GI diet" as prepared by Hills or or medicinal diets.

We have a huge list of things he can or cannot have and stick to it religiously.
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