Bear has been doing very well with most of his exposure we have been working on. I posted a thread earlier about his problem with joggers and working on it he has been doing great. A jogger past him last night and he glanced over and just continued sniffing the grass. He has been great with people, passing by or if they want to say hi to him.
Other dogs are a problem. We are in a small town and we haven't really passed that many other dogs walking. The best shot of seeing any are at the same recreational park that the runners practice, even then we only see one occasionally. He has been around my beagle an my senior dog. He is very submissively loving to my curmudgeon senior dog. Never any bad experiences there. He also plays sometimes with my eldest son's shepherd mixes, no problems with them either.
The first stranger dogs he saw he was afraid and the owner wanted to meet and I was backing up trying to keep him behind me saying he was not ready to meet other dogs. They were big and scary looking but friendly. He barked at them afraid. Another dog he saw was being walked by a guy on a skateboard. He barked, scared they guys dog and derailed the skateboarding. It ended up the guy was a friend of our son. So he wanted to talk with my husband. Bear reacted with a mixture of fear barking and wanting to play. The dog was friendly, but backed up when Bear barked. I was trying to keep Bear behind me. The best encounter was at Lowes in the outside garden section. Another dog was there and again the owners wanted to talk. They kept their dog back and Bear did fine sitting looking at him for most of the time, but at the end he barked, but I think it was not fear, he was wanting to check him out or play.
I'm not sure how to get him to ignore and pass other dogs when everyone wants to come up and talk, and the lack of enough passing by dogs to get him desensitized to.
Other dogs are a problem. We are in a small town and we haven't really passed that many other dogs walking. The best shot of seeing any are at the same recreational park that the runners practice, even then we only see one occasionally. He has been around my beagle an my senior dog. He is very submissively loving to my curmudgeon senior dog. Never any bad experiences there. He also plays sometimes with my eldest son's shepherd mixes, no problems with them either.
The first stranger dogs he saw he was afraid and the owner wanted to meet and I was backing up trying to keep him behind me saying he was not ready to meet other dogs. They were big and scary looking but friendly. He barked at them afraid. Another dog he saw was being walked by a guy on a skateboard. He barked, scared they guys dog and derailed the skateboarding. It ended up the guy was a friend of our son. So he wanted to talk with my husband. Bear reacted with a mixture of fear barking and wanting to play. The dog was friendly, but backed up when Bear barked. I was trying to keep Bear behind me. The best encounter was at Lowes in the outside garden section. Another dog was there and again the owners wanted to talk. They kept their dog back and Bear did fine sitting looking at him for most of the time, but at the end he barked, but I think it was not fear, he was wanting to check him out or play.
I'm not sure how to get him to ignore and pass other dogs when everyone wants to come up and talk, and the lack of enough passing by dogs to get him desensitized to.