When we are walking towards each other on the same path through the park, and I very deliberately step to the side of the path and shorten my dog's leash, that should be your first clue.
When you say, "Wow, I guess these two aren't friends, huh?", and I concur that no, they definitely aren't friends...that should be clue number two.
So when you say, "Okay, how 'bout you just sniff then" and allow your dog to immediately draaaaag you across the path to "sniff" my dog (who I am rapidly feeding string cheese to in order to distract and keep focused on me), please understand why I am visibly upset when your dog BITES the back of Lucy's legs and the two start snarling at each other.
ARGHHHH.
His comment? "Wow, I wasn't expecting that!"
Lucy's fine, no battle scars. But ughhhhhhh we've been working intensively on "look at that" and increasing her threshold for MONTHS and MONTHS, and I'm so afraid this is going to be a major set back. It all happened so darn fast I didn't have time to process and react quickly enough to yell at him to stop (not that it would have done anything). I just feel like I failed her
Just in case someone hasn't seen this before:
Space Etiquette For Dogs by lili.chin, on Flickr
When you say, "Wow, I guess these two aren't friends, huh?", and I concur that no, they definitely aren't friends...that should be clue number two.
So when you say, "Okay, how 'bout you just sniff then" and allow your dog to immediately draaaaag you across the path to "sniff" my dog (who I am rapidly feeding string cheese to in order to distract and keep focused on me), please understand why I am visibly upset when your dog BITES the back of Lucy's legs and the two start snarling at each other.
ARGHHHH.
His comment? "Wow, I wasn't expecting that!"
Lucy's fine, no battle scars. But ughhhhhhh we've been working intensively on "look at that" and increasing her threshold for MONTHS and MONTHS, and I'm so afraid this is going to be a major set back. It all happened so darn fast I didn't have time to process and react quickly enough to yell at him to stop (not that it would have done anything). I just feel like I failed her
Just in case someone hasn't seen this before:
Space Etiquette For Dogs by lili.chin, on Flickr