On our morning walk with Yoji who is one, I have just had my first positive experience with an “ off lead “ dog. I posted recently on here a few weeks ago after a terrible experience on a walk. Many people advised “ watch me “ training. We have been working on it and this morning we really had to put it to the test We came nose to nose with a man with 2 dogs - one on lead and the other off, the little off lead dog came straight up to Yojis face barking, Yoji became bouncy, I grabbed a handful of treats, turned him as best I could with the dog still at us, I began my commands all the while releasing an odd treat. The dog was still barking, but, he was good compared with previous encounters, only glancing back occasionally, when we had put some distance between us I changed my command to “ heal “ with that we walked away calmly and somewhat smuggly as the dogs were still barking. I will continue the training with a hope that passing other dogs will become easier as time goes by !
Well done. I'm a big fan of the Watch the Dog - Watch Me game. It is so annoying when it doesn't work because someone's off-lead dog, (and it nearly always is a Labrador), is dancing like a lune round your increasingly uptight dog. It just adds insult to injury when the owner shouts, 'It's OK, he's friendly'. Grrr!
