One of my favorite parts of our neighborhood is all the invisible fences, I know on any given walk I am going to have at least 2-6 houses were dogs run out at us but remain within the confines of their yard. It has provided many opportunities to work on Reyna's reactions to barking dogs and my timing and techniques, what works what doesn't etc.
Yesterday we had a whole new adventure that tested everything we have been working on and then some...
We were out for a walk and I noticed a little white dog in a driveway ahead of us. Reyna noticed, looked at me Yes, Treat. The dog starts barking Reyna's ears go up that's our cue to retreat and create a larger buffer before she gets anymore aroused. Oops, the dog is now following us, that's new and exciting, we turn around from our retreat and BAM little white dog starts barking at us now from about 10' away instead of 20, Reyna hits the end of the leash hard, (no growling, barking or raised hair though GOOD GIRL) we turn a quick 180 and retreat further back with the dog still following, we keep going until eventually the dog stops and we have the buffer I wanted in the first place...then we start advancing again, any arousal signs from Reyna and we retreat back a little ways. Okay now I'm in familiar territory...this we can handle...
The dog moves to one side of the road, thanks to how much space all of us have covered Reyna has had a chance to sniff some spots where this little dog has been, usually once she can do that the odds of her reacting go WAY down. Now we are ready to pass the dog, if we can just get past we should be fine....everybody hold your breath...and we're past Hurray we made it jackpot! man that was a challenge...
Suddenly Reyna turns and leaps to the end of the leash headed back toward the little dog....WHY?! oh maybe because the dog decided it was a good time to come running after us. So now we are only 6 feet from this little dog and the cycle goes...Reyna is calm, we move, dog jumps after us, Reyna leaps after the dog, dog retreats to outside The Zone, Reyna relaxes...cycle repeat...it was exhausting, but at least at this point neither dog was barking and Reyna was bounding to the end of the leash because she wanted to play and showed no signs that lunging and barking were even on her radar screen.
We finally made it past the house, it was challenging, it was crazy, I'm sure there were things I could have done better, but we made it through the whole ordeal without a single growl, bark, or even raised hair on Reyna. I count it a win....
...Oh did I mention I had two kids in a double stroller at the time?
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