Doggy brags

This. Those that don't have that deep commitment make it seem like I'm the weird or crazy one for treating a dog "like a human" by worrying about things like being home alone, training, etc. No - a dog is part of the family for life.
These same people will then say, when they see the progress you have made, "Oh, your dog is so good. I wish mine was like that."

But they don't see or acknowledge all the effort that has been put in.

What I really don't like is people yelling at their dogs for... being normal (?young ?untrained ?unsocialised or just plain grumpy) dogs who pull, lunge or growl. How about you spend time working with them and not just stressing them out in what is a foreign language to them??
 

Emily_Babbelhund

Mama Red HOT Pepper
These same people will then say, when they see the progress you have made, "Oh, your dog is so good. I wish mine was like that."

But they don't see or acknowledge all the effort that has been put in.
My two friends in Germany (the ones whose dogs I've dubbed "The Hooligan Crew") are like this. They thought Brogan was born the way he was when they met him at seven years old. They never believed he was reactive (and boy howdy was he reactive).

It was interesting last summer to see them watching Carbon and my first attempts to work with him. They quite clearly thought I was wasting my time because their views are that a dog is a dog and there is no changing 'genetic' behaviours.

As THIS summer will be a big push to get Carbon through a big chunk of his SD training with an eye on certification hopefully towards the end of the year, how will they explain his change in behaviour since last June? I imagine it will be, "Oh, he's gotten better with age, hasn't he?" vs. realising that it's daily training and studying with weekly 1x1 trainer sessions.

But that's ok: as long as Carbon and I can bumble along doing our own thing, they can keep having their 8 hooligan dogs running around us!
 
Brag from this morning.

We walked out of our gate, and I was just spraying the dogs down with insect repellant when I suddenly saw a Podenco standing about 10m away! Gagh! The Labs all ran up to it, it ran off, and another two appeared. Bugger. I managed to get my whistle in my mouth and both Willow and Shadow span back to me. Squidge, not so much, but I was especially proud of Shadow. They both got a ball reward and I put them back inside the gate while I trudged off to find the chocolate lunatic, who came crashing back after a couple of minutes.

In hindsight, I recognised the dogs as ones that Shadow has met and been OK with, but it was such a shock to see them so close and on our land, that I just reacted to get the twins back.

Quite glad I've been topping up the recall the last couple of days!
 
Feeling rather chuffed today . I was walking in the woods as usual, and got talking to a lady who works, as a mental health nurse, for the charity that has a centre there for people suffering with their mental health to use as part of the healing/maintainence process. She was admiring Cassie, so beautiful and so on and so forth, and then said that she'd been watching us in passing over recent months and was full of admiration for the training that I do and what a good girl she is and a credit to me. Which was really nice and I felt rather proud, I don't mind admitting!:angel: There's a lady who knows what she's doing she said! :rofl: (Had she seen Cassie at the water workshop on Sunday, her summing up would be somewhat different, but never mind she doesn't need to know that!!)

Anyway, it turns out she and her husband have an elderly Lab, as well as a recently rehomed young vizla who they realise needs something to do, so I have pointed them in SWMBO's direction.
 
Another brag for the boy today. We've been taking the dogs out individually or two at a time into our local villages, and today was Shadow's turn. We took him to the annual cherry festival in Miravet. It was super busy, but he was a total star. He ignored other dogs, was alert but not over the top with all the goings on. We watched an amazing brass band playing funky music. He saw a vendor with a huge collection of balloons. We played a few games, and he was able to follow cues. He got lots of attention from the people there - it's funny how they all seem to be attracted by the yellow Labrador thing here - and a couple of old ladies, and one youngish girl stroked him nicely, while he remained more than comfortable. There were loads of kids on scooters and bikes, and he took them all in his stride. He ate cherry cake with us, with people laughing at his happy face and puppy-dog eyes that we were obviously falling for.
Only once did I have to ask someone to stay back, as he approached us straight on with his very stocky black Labrador puppy to say hi. Shadow was cool as a cucumber, but no way was I going to allow that. The man was perfectly cool with it, though.

We finished off by sitting by the river and sharing a box of cherries (Shadow loves them, too!) and then he got a chicken foot (which we peculiarly call "fish feet") as a bonus before heading home.

A thoroughly delightful morning!
 
A cheeky one.
I took Homer to Richmond Park this morning. We had walked almost half way round our usual route and had had a swim in the dog swimming pond. Homer did a second poop :dogpoo: so as the poop angel :poo: 😇 I am I picked it up. The main path lead on towards Pen Ponds area were dogs are not allowed to swim and should be under control on lead, bla, bla. About 50m from the dogs must be on lead sign was a bin. I didn’t feel like putting Homer on lead so asked him to sit next to the sign and wait for me so I could dispose of the poop. He waited so nicely :dug: for me to come back so we could continue the long way around the ponds. With much admiration from a young family who watched him wait so nicely. :clap:

I wish I could have taken a picture of him sitting so nicely next to the sign. :giggl:
 

Candy

Biscuit Tin Guardian
When we're at home in West Yorkshire Joy has the opportunity to play with other dogs pretty much every day. Here in Hucknall we have yet to find a dog for her to play with, they're all either on lead or don't want to play. She has been missing her usual fun, and has whimpered a few times when she's seen dogs on lead.:'(.Today we spotted another female black lab, just a bit bigger than Joy on the track ahead of us but once again she was on lead so we kept our distance. Then suddenly she was let off! We kept walking steadily and Joy approached her to introduce herself. This other little girl was clearly as eager to play as Joy and they started to charge around together. It was then that her hoomans informed me that she had injured her paw and shouldn't be playing! I didn't like the idea of trying to get hold of a charging around Labrador's collar with one arm in plaster so I said, with somewhat more confidence than I felt, 'I'll call her away'. I walked off, shouted 'Joy come!' once, she thought about it for a split second then came bounding towards me as if nothing could make her happier! I was astounded and the other dog's owners shouted their thanks and said ' What a good dog!' My head may have grown slightly larger! Quantities of liver paste were then consumed.:clap::dug:
 
100% recall to the whistle in the park today, with 2 or 3 other dogs around, and people. What a good boy! Green lipped mussels were the secret today. And going to this really nice old park that is relatively large and fenced, with fewer dogs, but more large dogs generally.

He also had a really good play with a couple of other dogs, and some ridiculous zoomies, including zooming until he fell over in the mud. Was a lot of fun.

Another positive was that after the initial excitement he was content to putter around next to us sniffing trees and gravestones (it is a repurposed churchyard), ignoring the other dogs that he had already met.
 
100% recall to the whistle in the park today, with 2 or 3 other dogs around, and people. What a good boy! Green lipped mussels were the secret today. And going to this really nice old park that is relatively large and fenced, with fewer dogs, but more large dogs generally.

He also had a really good play with a couple of other dogs, and some ridiculous zoomies, including zooming until he fell over in the mud. Was a lot of fun.

Another positive was that after the initial excitement he was content to putter around next to us sniffing trees and gravestones (it is a repurposed churchyard), ignoring the other dogs that he had already met.
What exemplary behaviour! Well done Chewie.
 

Atemas

UK Tour Guide
she thought about it for a split second then came bounding towards me
Yes this is what Red did on the beach the other day - she hadn’t got as far as playing with the dog ahead (it was a choccy lab - think I want one!!!) who was on lead so I thought it prudent to whistle her back (it was windy). I could see the cogs in Red’s brain going round ‘I want to play with that dog but Mumsie’s blown the whistle, what should I do?’ She made the right choice - makes me so happy (Sky’s recall at that age was not good - our fault)
 
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