I forgot to come back to this thread and missed some great posts. A-r-g-g...
Lynn, his recall is super good in every other situation I can think of. He just seems to get beside himself if I fail to "set him up" before he gets too close. I don't do the thing where he is to focus on me exclusively. I want him to see the other dog at a distance where he's not so aroused and reward him for keeping his composure rather than having him avoid the whole thing by not looking at the other dog at all. It's only when I mess up, am somehow caught off guard and all of a sudden, it seems we're almost face to face with too little distance between. If I had more dogs to practice with at home, day after day, I could get someone to work with me the way it is described in Click to Calm. But there just isn't anybody. And when I'm at home, there is no need for him to have this skill. However....when I'm visiting in Seattle or some other dog-crowded place.....a-h-k-k-k-k...lol.
Tosca sounds like a dream, but you're right. If she's that trusting, she might get herself into trouble. On the other hand, she probably sends out good signals to other dogs, hopefully. When Lyric was younger, he loved every dog he met and still didn't ever really learn how to greet in polite dog speak. LOL. He'd go right up to dogs and thrash his paws around, on their face, anywhere....."Hey! Let's play!" And he'd hardly give them any time to check each other out first.
Zoom....those groups of dogs really get their attention, huh. So, Sawyer wants to organize them. LOL. It's funny because if there is more than one dog, that is apt to make Lyric tend to want to play, not argue. "Oh....this must be a party. Can I play?" Yup...those yellow dogs. Nothing worse. ROFLOL. Too funny.
Angie, People skateboard, roller blade, ride bikes, run, yell, wear weird clothes right past Lyric....inches away and he pays absolutely no attention to them. Somehow, he got use to that and never bothered him. I have a sort of "shooting range" right on my property and while the dogs are inside, my son and I target shoot. At first, I fed the dogs cheese while my son shot. The only dogs that are a little nervous are the girls. My two boys don't even flinch. Thunder storms don't bother any of the dogs.
There are ways to desensatize your dog to those things....just gradually. Start at low, low levels and work up. They sell sound tracks of thunder storms (I don't know where) and you can play them all day long at a barely perceptable level of volume....ever so gradually working it up...over months of time. Skate boards and things, you can get one or ask a neighbor kid to let you fiddle with his. Tip it upside down so it doesn't move and feed treats on it. Or use a clicker for when he gets a little closer to it. Then turn it upright and move it back and forth a little, rewarding as your dog shows curiosity, not fear. Then stand one foot on it and move it....just work up so that eventually you're out in your driveway playing on it. Then try it with other kids. Dogs can get use to these man-made things if it's done gradually enough and where good things (food) is associated with them too. And that attention and fuss isn't made over them when they're over reactive to them.