[NAGDU] {Spam?} Re: Loose Dogs

Tue Aug 30 23:20:16 UTC 2016

Rachel,

I've been stopped by friendly loose dogs before. I'd rather be mugged by 
friendlies than unfriendlies, but one does feel pretty stupid being 
stalled like that. Honestly, I just stay calm and encourage my dog to 
move now and then until she feels comfortable doing so after the novelty 
of the love fest wears off. Mitzi learned to somehow communicate "not 
now, I'm working," pretty effectively, so that helped. Loki doesn't 
quite have the knack yet. There's one dog in a store we pass, and Loki 
just idolizes him, so we're still working on going past. The owner is 
usually right there, so we have a chat, then she gets her dog back 
inside and Loki moves on. I would rather work on the problem gradually 
with lots of encouragement rather than getting snarly about it and 
possibly creating dog reactivity. But that's just me.

It doesn't do much for my pride, either, to need another human to come 
rescue me from friendly dogs, but honestly, when you need to stick with 
your guide, there's not a whole lot you can do. Most dogs around here 
that have come to greet my guide just mosey on themselves, so then we 
can move on. If they don't, though, then there we are. The only time I 
got really stuck by a loose dog was when Loki was really young, way 
before he was ready for guide training, so I couldn't go anywhere even 
with my cane, since I had to hold onto my pup two-handed and keep him 
from getting over-excited and taking off for a run in the streets. The 
other dog just would not go away! Some woman way up at the street corner 
was making noises of distress and fear, which confused me at first since 
the dog was just stinking friendly and sweet. Then the woman got close 
enough to tell me she had called animal control, and she ran off, 
terrified. Huh? I felt about as foolish as I ever have in my life, 
waiting for animal control to come rescue me, but I could not figure how 
to shake that dog. The AC officer got there right away, took stock of 
the situation, and cracked up. "I was expecting blood!" she said. The 
caller had told her there was a woman cornered by a pit bull. /lol/ I 
guess if I'm going to be cornered by a pit bull, I'm glad it was that 
one. I was pretty fond of her, actually. But my face still gets red when 
I think about it. How ridiculous!

Well, I hope your two new bffs made it home safe and will stay there now 
they've been rounded up. I think you handled the situation well, and so 
did your dog.

Tami

On 08/30/2016 03:05 PM, Rachel Grider via NAGDU wrote:
> Hello, NAGDU Friends:
>
> Twice this month, Demi and I have encountered dogs that were running loose with no leash or owner.
>
> The first time, these two very small dogs just started following us. I don't know if they had collars, but there was no one else around. They were not aggressive or anything; they were just flirting with Demi. At first, Demi was interested, but I gave her a verbal correction, and she showed no more interest. The dogs followed us for several blocks, and they seemed to find it fun to run circles around us which caused Demi to slow down to avoid them. I planned to call animal services, but after a few blocks, they ran into the open door of an office building, so I decided to let someone else figure it out. No harm was really done, and I thought that Demi behaved fairly well under the circumstances.
>
> What happened today was a different story, and I know I didn't handle it very well. Demi and I were walking down a very busy street, and there was no one else on the sidewalk. I heard a soft pattering sound coming from the street, and I didn't realize what it was until the two dogs which were both about Demi's size ambushed her. They weren't trying to hurt her, but they were trying very hard to engage with her--and Demi, who is normally very good about not engaging with anyone but me, dog or otherwise, while she is in harness, was sniffing and licking right back. I tried everything to get her to move, but everytime she would try to take a step forward, the dogs would either step in front of her or draw her attention again in some other way. I probably should have given her a high-collar correction, but it literally didn't even cross my mind at the time because I never have to go that far with her--but even if I had done that, it wouldn't have gotten rid of those dogs...Anyway, after about a minute of trying to get Demi to focus and shew the dogs away, these two ladies came and pulled the dogs away from us by their collars. They were really nice and said that they had me having trouble with them and that they would call animal services to try and find their owners. I thanked them, but I felt really stupid that I couldn't handle my own dog well in this situation.
>
> What have you all done in similar situations? If this happens again, I want to be able to handle it without help...
>
> Thank you,
>
> Rachel
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