Not too long ago I stumbled across Susan Garrett's Recallers* videos again, where they all share their success in the class and this one in particular caught my eye:
While all of them struck me as amazing, I was floored at the 2:10 mark in the video when a strange dog comes bounding over and her dog doesn't even care. I instantly thought I want that. And while I still do, I realize that Macy and I already gel really well together as a team.
Today, while on a walk two loose dogs came bounding up to us (and while I wish I could say this was a rare occurrence, loose dogs in our neighborhood are extremely common). Instantly I tensed up and dragged Macy in close. An error on my fault, because it instantly tensed her up, but the way this man acts normally when his dogs get loose has always screamed to me: "My dogs are aggressive don't let them near yours." And while he never actually says that...the hysterical screeching, shouting and yelling he does...well, that's just what it sounds like to me. I don't take chances when it comes to my dogs' safety. So I wanted to be able to put myself between Macy and the oncoming dogs.
Two things happened rather fast. One, both dogs were friendly. Cautious, but curious. And two: Knowing that instantly relaxed me enough to turn and focus on Moose. Who instantly focused right back on me. The man didn't even have hold of his dogs yet and Macy and I were moving away. I dug what remaining treats I had out of my pocket (a whole whopping two training treats), and she snapped right into heel position and heeled away from the dogs.
It was forging, pushy, but she's just learning what heel position even means...but she didn't once break eye contact with me and she was completely and utterly jazzed to be working with me. By the time we'd crossed the street, the man had a hold of both of his dogs, so I rewarded her with her well deserved treats and some tugging on the leash.
I'm very proud of my big girl today. She did far better than I ever thought she'd do. I expected to take a block off then work some attention games to get her focus back. I never expected that with two dogs still sniffing around her butt, that she'd heel away from them, her eyes dead set on mine. That just makes me grin from ear to ear!
*Recallers is an e-course run by Susan Garrett meant to help people improve their recalls with their dogs (though the course looks like it does a lot of self-control building, motivation building and more as well). I plan on jumping into the next one because they look absolutely amazing and a lot of fun! I wish I'd had the money for this go-round. Here are the winning videos from the last class.
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