Positive Leadership around an out of control dog

During my walks and, we encounter so many folks doing different activities! We see bikes, atv’s, people and other dogs all out enjoying the fresh air. Something that I often talk about in my posts is advocating for our dogs and I wanted to dive a little deeper into what that means by telling you about an experience that I had on a structured leash walk!

But I’ll preface my story by saying that when I talk about advocating for our dogs, it means from unreasonable situations and unreasonable pressure and unwanted attention. It doesn’t mean making excuses for our dog’s bad behaviour or allowing poor choices! Nope, that stuff all needs to be corrected and the dog needs to be trained to walk properly in a heel and also to do it calmly! To stay tuned into his handler and to follow commands willingly and politely! And in exchange, we handlers will advocate for the dog at all times. Now for my story.

While walking a board and train dog, Sterling, we encountered soooo many pulling, over excited, and reactive dogs. Stirling has learned how to walk calmly past dogs with help from his handler via remote collar communication and also using reasonable space away from on coming dogs (more than a 4’ sidewalk) whereas walking right next to a reactive dog or trying to pass one on a 4 ft side walk would be unreasonable pressure and actually dangerous if the dog lunged at us! In each case I also declined allowing the dogs to meet (NEVER allow dogs to meet on leash!) thereby advocating for Stirling and keeping the dogs out of his personal space. With these protocols in place, Stirling heeled on by without reacting. Then on our last leg of the walk, we came up behind a dog and walker duo who were all over the trail path barking and lunging... well the dog was, not the owner 😜 On one of the lunges the dog slipped his collar (every dog owners worst nightmare!) and was running free like a naked two year old avoiding the bathtub🙈🤪 Rather than continuing on and walking into this now off leash mania with a reactive dog and his stressed out frantic owner hot on his heels, I chose to advocate for Stirling by pulling off to the side and waiting until the dog was under control and back on leash. I’m absolutely all for challenging a dog to do his best work and holding him accountable to that when the situation is fair and reasonable but there is no value for the dog in leading him into a no win situation that I could simply be avoid. It’s up to us handlers to make sure that we are responsible leaders by plotting the best course for our dog ❤️