We’ve lived in our current house for almost five years.

About two years ago the neighbor’s daughter moved home with two kids and a dog.  Their yard is not fenced in and Gunner (their dog) is tied out when he needs to do his business.

He is not a chained dog, he is very much part of their family.  Whenever they are outside Gunner is out there with him, secured of course with a lead.

Sampson and Delilah know Gunner through the fence, Hubby did say a few weeks back Sampson and Gunner met on the street, but other than that one encounter, the dogs have had no real interaction.

A couple of months ago I ran into my neighbor in the woods at the top of the street. She, the boys and Gunner were sitting on top of a large boulder enjoying the day and a late afternoon snack.

The dogs were all eager to greet each other, but with Delilah’s snarkiness I was a bit leery, and I told her so.  She said Gunner was very chill, but the only time she had ever seem him aggressive was when other dogs  were around the children.   I said I’d rather wait until Hubby was there thank you very much.

Yesterday as Sampson and Delilah were having our walk we heard voices.  The dogs were going nuts and kept trying to figure out exactly where the voices were coming from.

I could tell they were in the field and there were children, so I decided the best approach was to bring the dogs down to the field and ask if they could greet everyone so we could enjoy the rest of our walk.

I leashed up both dogs and we headed into the field.

As we entered the field I saw our neighbor and she said, I just let Gunner loose.

I asked if he would be okay and she said yes, so I dropped both leashes.

Accompanying my neighbor was her sister and her sister’s dog, a 4 month old yellow lab named Sadie.

Sampson and Delilah rush forward, as did Gunner and Sadie.  The dogs all sniffed each other and then kind of did their own thing.

Now, this type of greeting might be great for when dogs are off-leash or meeting each other in the woods or field, but what is the proper way for dogs to greet when they are in a public place, a place like let’s just say…..Blogpaws?

I’m really considering bringing Sampson to Blogpaws next May, but his greeting skills are a concern to me.  He has a tendency to rush up to other dogs. Besides not wanting to be pulled across the floor on my face, I’d like to make sure he is properly behaved.

The probability is that if Sampson goes, Hubby will as well.  Hubby of course will not be attending the seminars and conferences, his job at this conference will be to handle Sampson, and Sampson does listen well to Hubby.

None-the-less I would still like Sampson and Delilah to learn proper greetings.

What are your thoughts on this?