Today I was at the only field near us where I can play and train with my dog. (Hate my city and moving soon thankfully). It’s a huge field and usually when I see another dog coming near, I leave ASAP. It’s so big though that many dogs can be there at once and not be near each other. I like to control who my dog interacts with and I’ve been working on getting her to ignore small dogs which has been going well. She’s started ignoring small dogs even on walks and every dog unless I give her the Ok command because it’s a dog we know.
But today... I’m SO upset. We were at the park and this woman RUNS up behind us with a small dog and she’s on her phone of course. I don’t see her immediately and by the time I do, it’s too late to grab my dog. My dog starts running over to play. I tried to call back my dog and she totally FAILED.
Before my dog even gets there, the small dog (Have I mentioned how much I HATE small dogs?) rolls on its back and starts screaming like my puppy was trying to kill it. Meanwhile, my dog seriously is 7-10 feet away!
The owner starts screaming at me and now my dog is excited by all the commotion and runs the rest of the way over. Does not knock over the small dog (it keeps throwing itself on the ground screaming) but starts trying to play immediately. I don’t think my dog understood at ALL that the small dog was upset.
I’m absolutely ashamed and really sick over this that I didn’t have control over my dog.
I did also JUST see the same idiot owner yesterday with the same dog at the same field as I was leaving. And the same thing happened with a lab puppy and that dog. Her small dog was hysterically crying while the literal lab puppy was just trying to play. And nowhere near the dog. And the puppy was much smaller than my dog as well.
We’re immediately going back to on leash and a long lead at all times because her recall is usually 100% even when playing with a dog we know so she has to earn back trust now as she completely failed.
But what else should I do? I want to nip this in the bud ASAP. As far as I’m concerned, she’ll be on lead now until the cows come home. But I’d love other tips/advice on how I can deal with this and how I can do better. I would love to go to 100% no playing with other dogs but I take care of aging parents so half her life is spent with their dog. My sister is also my pet care person on trips and it’s not feasible to keep my dog from playing with their dog at all either.
But today... I’m SO upset. We were at the park and this woman RUNS up behind us with a small dog and she’s on her phone of course. I don’t see her immediately and by the time I do, it’s too late to grab my dog. My dog starts running over to play. I tried to call back my dog and she totally FAILED.
Before my dog even gets there, the small dog (Have I mentioned how much I HATE small dogs?) rolls on its back and starts screaming like my puppy was trying to kill it. Meanwhile, my dog seriously is 7-10 feet away!
The owner starts screaming at me and now my dog is excited by all the commotion and runs the rest of the way over. Does not knock over the small dog (it keeps throwing itself on the ground screaming) but starts trying to play immediately. I don’t think my dog understood at ALL that the small dog was upset.
I’m absolutely ashamed and really sick over this that I didn’t have control over my dog.
I did also JUST see the same idiot owner yesterday with the same dog at the same field as I was leaving. And the same thing happened with a lab puppy and that dog. Her small dog was hysterically crying while the literal lab puppy was just trying to play. And nowhere near the dog. And the puppy was much smaller than my dog as well.
We’re immediately going back to on leash and a long lead at all times because her recall is usually 100% even when playing with a dog we know so she has to earn back trust now as she completely failed.
But what else should I do? I want to nip this in the bud ASAP. As far as I’m concerned, she’ll be on lead now until the cows come home. But I’d love other tips/advice on how I can deal with this and how I can do better. I would love to go to 100% no playing with other dogs but I take care of aging parents so half her life is spent with their dog. My sister is also my pet care person on trips and it’s not feasible to keep my dog from playing with their dog at all either.