Sunday, my niece and I met some friends in Boston for the afternoon. We left for home around 5:45, and after hitting some traffic, and dropping her off, I arrived home after 8:30 pm.
Hubby had fed the dogs and made dinner for me, so after dinner we headed out for a quick walk so the dogs could potty.
When we walk the dogs together, Hubby is in charge of Sampson and I have the D-Dog. I have to go on the record here and say, I do not like walking the dogs together.
This is not fun for any of us.
Delilah walks too fast for Sampson, and Sampson walks too slow for Delilah. Even with Hubby walking Sampson, he still wants to keep up and be with me, and he pushes himself too hard.
When Hubby walks Sampson, he also walks him off-leash. While Sampson listens well off-leash, I still don’t care for it. I don’t care for it, for two reasons.
- Sampson can go much farther than I like into someone’s yard.
- You just never know when something wild and crazy can happen.
Okay, I’ve set the scene.
Delilah and I are leading the charge, and I’m doing my best to rein her in. Sampson is behind me, and he’s doing his best to keep up.
After a few minutes both dogs have done their poops, and Sampson has just inched way too far up on someone’s lawn, and taken another dump. As I’m bending to pick it up, I see someone on the same side of the street as us, and I can tell they have a dog. I also note there is someone sitting out on their front step, so I say to Hubby, you need to leash him up, because there are people in front, and people behind and the ones behind us have a dog.
I am already in avoidance mode with Delilah, so we cross the street, and I give her a couple of treats.
As the pair approach, I can see it’s the young guy who lives up the street, and has a Bernese Mountain dog. Really nice guy, sweet dog, but I just can’t vouch for how much training either one of them has had.
Hubby is in the middle of the street with Sampson, and Delilah and I are on the opposite side. She is sitting in front of me, focused on getting some treats.
I wave to the dog, “Hi Bear!” (His name is Barry, but considering his size, I just call him Bear.)
Dave (Barry’s owner….I wish he’d named the dog Buster) smiles and asks, “Can he say Hello?”
This gives me hope, because at least he knows enough to ask.
Now…neither one of my dogs has ever learned the proper way to meet and greet. In the obedience classes we went to, dogs were just allowed to run up to each other, and that usually worked out well…in a classroom situation. But outside of the classroom, well….we do live in DADO center, and most of our encounters have been off-leash dogs that just run strait up to them. Since Sampson’s gotten older, and less mobile, AND Hubby is with him, I feel fairly certain HE can handle it.
BUT, I’m not letting Delilah anywhere near the dog, so I say, “He can, but she’s not always good with other dogs.”
Sampson and Barry sniff each other, and the greeting/meeting goes well. Delilah is still oblivious to what’s going on, because she’s still focused on the treats.
Meet and greet over, and Hubby and Sampson start walking towards us to head home, when Delilah suddenly registers Barry.
She lunges at him.
Thankfully, I’ve had years of practice at catching her before she jumps into a fray, so I shortened her leash. She still wants at the dog, so I grab her harness to keep her from ripping my arm out of its socket.
At this point, Hubby and Sampson have reached us, and she’s still ready to roll. I’m not sure if she was in a “I want to meet you” mode, or “I’ll take a piece of that” mode, but I wasn’t ready to find out.
Believe it or not, I really wasn’t all that upset with her reaction to Bear. Hubby and I have long suspected her vision isn’t great. Since her Endothelial Decompensation diagnosis, I’ve really been observing her, and I think she has a hard time seeing certain things. She sees a white treat on a dark driveway far easier than she sees a dark treat. Since Barry is a dark colored dog, and it was at night I suspect she really didn’t notice him at first, and when she did she was startled.
Maybe that’s just the Pollyanna in me.
At least nothing happened. I always walk alone with Mom and don’t like to meet other dogs. My sisters usually go together and like to meet everyone.
You must have arms of steel. That’s all i can say about that.
I wouldn’t say it’s “the Pollyanna in” you at all. It sounds like a reasonable assessment based on your observations. The fact that it was getting dark didn’t help Delilah either. IMHO, you did a great job especially considering all you had to deal with!
Meet n’ Greet can be kind of scary sometimes but at least all ended up okay!
Delilah has never been predictable but that is what has made her an internet star.
Don’t cha hate when invisible, enormous dog friends sneak up on you, D? That would spook me, too. Personally, I’d much rather meet and greet humans than dogs. #unpredictable.
Love and licks,
Cupcake
Women! They ruin everything … right, Sampson? ~Bear Cat
Always a good day when a little miracle presents itself. Elsa is similar to your D-Dog. Maybe it’s just a girl thing.
No, I think you are probably right about that. When Luke first started his reactivity, more than once he reacted to my hubby or I coming into the house – in low light situations. He is kind of a “react first, ask questions later” kind of dog, and for a while we wondered if his eyesight was not good (we tested it in other ways and it seemed fine). But once we learned to say something first, it stopped happening with us. I think it’s entirely possible Delilah just didn’t see that dog at first, and it startled her when she did. (Luke also has that same hyper-focus on something like treats, and can be totally oblivious to anything else going on around him).