Hello everybody.
I have 11 months old GSD female, named Kaja. We are doing BH course and we are almost finished. She is one of the best in class, we did some testing and she is suitable for IPO. We are also doing a volunteer work and she is always calm.
When training in school we have a 100% recall - but we are not playing with dogs, we do the recall in a line, someone is holding your dog and you call the dog... On a walk, if there is no dog around I can have her off leash, she will come to me anytime I want. I give her a big reward, I play with her, release her again that she knows that coming to me is not a punishment ...
Let's explain some history. When I got her, she wasn't socialized, afraid of everything, after A LOT of socialization, she started trusting the other dogs. We worked on that, she became very obedient, not lunging playfully to other dogs...
So yeah, Kaja was pretty much the perfect dog, except of recall when playing with other dogs, I asked my trainer and he told me to get her on long leash, go play with other dogs and then train the recall.
Today it suddenly got much worse and I am crying while typing this... What the **** just happened? It fells like I have that young puppy again, not knowing what is right or wrong.
We were on a walk, she was off leash, till I saw a small cavalier dog in front of us and I got her on leash. She came to me, even when she saw the dog and walk on heal no problem, with perfect attention on me. The other owner had his dog off leash, and when the small dog saw Kaja he was fixated on her for couple of seconds ... finally he went after his owner and 'disappeared' behing her and some other objects and trees. I released Kaja, obviously too soon, I trusted her because she didn't do that for about 6 months... And then it happened, the reaction. She smelled the other dog on the floor and ran after him. Owner started yelling on her, kicking her away...
I'm not mad on her or the other owner because of that. It was obviously not his or Kaja's fault, but ONLY MINE! Don't get me wrong, I totally judge myself, cause I am one of the people that has dogs off leash with not trained recall or any basics in general. It was very often that people saw me and decided not to put their dogs on leash ... In my defense, I didn't want that to happen! I ran after Kaja, cause she wasn't in any way responsive to my call. Dogs started to play, but the other owner was so angry, he started calling me something that this forum will obviously censure, telling me to start teaching my dog... I tried to explain that she is going to school and that I am very sorry, I was really trying to make amends cause I would be angry too... And then he kicked Kaja, while cursing him ... and I snapped and attacked him. I give him a slap :/ I don't know what happened to me, I just wanted to protect my dog. If I don't kick her after a reaction like this, who is he, to kick my dog...
I'm not proud of what I did. I'm not proud on myself cause I trusted Kaja too much.
So I am asking for ANY advice what really happened, cause I don't understand what the **** was going on in Kaja's head.
Also, how to minimize those kind of reaction and teach Kaja a proper recall, no mater what.
I have 11 months old GSD female, named Kaja. We are doing BH course and we are almost finished. She is one of the best in class, we did some testing and she is suitable for IPO. We are also doing a volunteer work and she is always calm.
When training in school we have a 100% recall - but we are not playing with dogs, we do the recall in a line, someone is holding your dog and you call the dog... On a walk, if there is no dog around I can have her off leash, she will come to me anytime I want. I give her a big reward, I play with her, release her again that she knows that coming to me is not a punishment ...
Let's explain some history. When I got her, she wasn't socialized, afraid of everything, after A LOT of socialization, she started trusting the other dogs. We worked on that, she became very obedient, not lunging playfully to other dogs...
So yeah, Kaja was pretty much the perfect dog, except of recall when playing with other dogs, I asked my trainer and he told me to get her on long leash, go play with other dogs and then train the recall.
Today it suddenly got much worse and I am crying while typing this... What the **** just happened? It fells like I have that young puppy again, not knowing what is right or wrong.
We were on a walk, she was off leash, till I saw a small cavalier dog in front of us and I got her on leash. She came to me, even when she saw the dog and walk on heal no problem, with perfect attention on me. The other owner had his dog off leash, and when the small dog saw Kaja he was fixated on her for couple of seconds ... finally he went after his owner and 'disappeared' behing her and some other objects and trees. I released Kaja, obviously too soon, I trusted her because she didn't do that for about 6 months... And then it happened, the reaction. She smelled the other dog on the floor and ran after him. Owner started yelling on her, kicking her away...
I'm not mad on her or the other owner because of that. It was obviously not his or Kaja's fault, but ONLY MINE! Don't get me wrong, I totally judge myself, cause I am one of the people that has dogs off leash with not trained recall or any basics in general. It was very often that people saw me and decided not to put their dogs on leash ... In my defense, I didn't want that to happen! I ran after Kaja, cause she wasn't in any way responsive to my call. Dogs started to play, but the other owner was so angry, he started calling me something that this forum will obviously censure, telling me to start teaching my dog... I tried to explain that she is going to school and that I am very sorry, I was really trying to make amends cause I would be angry too... And then he kicked Kaja, while cursing him ... and I snapped and attacked him. I give him a slap :/ I don't know what happened to me, I just wanted to protect my dog. If I don't kick her after a reaction like this, who is he, to kick my dog...
I'm not proud of what I did. I'm not proud on myself cause I trusted Kaja too much.
So I am asking for ANY advice what really happened, cause I don't understand what the **** was going on in Kaja's head.
Also, how to minimize those kind of reaction and teach Kaja a proper recall, no mater what.