I figured that was the case
Oh and for the record, myself and my dog-savvy friends are always pretty sympathetic and forgiving when we see people actively working with their reactive dogs. I am lucky in that I haven't had a dog who was particularly reactive, but I can imagine it would be embarrassing and frustrating. I just wanted you to know that not everyone is out judging you
Yeah thankfully it seems the experienced good dog people we've run into are completely understanding. We have a local pet shop we frequent and the owners there love him (they have a pom themselves) and have been super patient with his occasional bouts of barking, so that's been a great place to bring him for socialization. Same applies to his puppy classes of course.
It's more in the condo complex where I run into issues. There are a LOT of dogs here, and very narrow walkways with lots of turns, so we just end up running into other dogs unexpectedly a lot. So far no one has ever complained to me thankfully, but I still worry they're thinking "Oh god, why does she have such a horribly behaved little dog?" Actually did over hear one guy we passed unexpectedly on a walk (and Tyrion of course barked at their dog) turn to his friend and say, "It's always these little dogs man..." I wanted to say, "I'm sorry! I'm trying! Please don't judge them all by a still-learning puppy."
Of course I've had my fair share of off-leash dog frustrations as well. We had a (medium sized, for the record
) off-leash dog suddenly run up to us yesterday which was not a good situation considering Tyrion's current reactivity. Thankfully I was able to get him away pretty fast.