Warning: this is a rant. 
I had a very rude (and loud) comment from someone on a walk last night!
Nova and I were at the beach. She ran with her long lead on for a long time to burn of some energy, then we went up onto the long boardwalk to do some loose leash training.
An older gentleman (and I use the term loosely) and his dog were playing with a ball on the beach just down from the boardwalk, about 40 feet away. Nova wants to play, of course! But she can't. We're training! It's a distraction so it's a good time for her to learn. I know it's tough, but I know she can do it!
As we walk past it's painfully obvious that we are training. We walk two feet, she pulls on the leash, I come to a halt and wait for her to take the tension off the leash before we go forward again. While we're doing this, he says to his dog "Let's go see the puppy". Ok, somehow he didn't notice what we are doing, but ok. I'll fill him in. "Oh, sorry. We're not meeting dogs this evening. We're training." He rolls his eyes and walks away.
It takes about 10 minutes to walk about 50 feet with our "red light, green light" fun. But she does it like a champ and I'm confident that she'll pick it up eventually. We walk alllll the way down the rest of the long boardwalk without incident and as we walk back the guy and his dog are still playing with the ball. From about 50 feet away (with lots of other people and dogs around) he scowls and yells "LOOKS MORE LIKE TORTURE THAN TRAINING TO ME!"
*cough* *choke* *scoff*
"Yeah? I think she's JUST FINE THANKS."
Don't try to make me look like a villian because I am training my dog. People think it's torturous to come to a halt when a dog pulls on a leash? My...what would he have said if I had my usual puppy training equipment with me...cattle prod, bullwhip... :rofl1:
People.
I had a very rude (and loud) comment from someone on a walk last night!
Nova and I were at the beach. She ran with her long lead on for a long time to burn of some energy, then we went up onto the long boardwalk to do some loose leash training.
An older gentleman (and I use the term loosely) and his dog were playing with a ball on the beach just down from the boardwalk, about 40 feet away. Nova wants to play, of course! But she can't. We're training! It's a distraction so it's a good time for her to learn. I know it's tough, but I know she can do it!
As we walk past it's painfully obvious that we are training. We walk two feet, she pulls on the leash, I come to a halt and wait for her to take the tension off the leash before we go forward again. While we're doing this, he says to his dog "Let's go see the puppy". Ok, somehow he didn't notice what we are doing, but ok. I'll fill him in. "Oh, sorry. We're not meeting dogs this evening. We're training." He rolls his eyes and walks away.
It takes about 10 minutes to walk about 50 feet with our "red light, green light" fun. But she does it like a champ and I'm confident that she'll pick it up eventually. We walk alllll the way down the rest of the long boardwalk without incident and as we walk back the guy and his dog are still playing with the ball. From about 50 feet away (with lots of other people and dogs around) he scowls and yells "LOOKS MORE LIKE TORTURE THAN TRAINING TO ME!"
*cough* *choke* *scoff*
"Yeah? I think she's JUST FINE THANKS."
Don't try to make me look like a villian because I am training my dog. People think it's torturous to come to a halt when a dog pulls on a leash? My...what would he have said if I had my usual puppy training equipment with me...cattle prod, bullwhip... :rofl1:
People.
