This happened yesterday evening and it’s been playing on my mind all night.
I have a 3.5 year old rescue GSD called Loki. She’s very anxious, reactive, and startles easily. To deal with this I’ve been walking her at 4am to avoid most people and dogs.
I’m spending a lot of money and time on training with a behaviourist and it’s making a notable difference already. One of the things she’s said to do is to walk her in the evenings around other people so she gets used to them - hence the incident last night.
We were walking and I saw a jogger coming towards us. Loki is usually okay with people at a distance, so I wanted to get as far out of the way as I could.
The pavement was very narrow with a hedgerow and no path on the other side so we didn’t really have anywhere to go. I saw a slightly wider section further up and sat Loki down in it. She sat down, and looked up at me. Just as I reached into the pouch to get treats to distract her, the jogger appeared and startled her so Loki lunged.
The jogger did the most exaggerated jump back - she literally did a full on star jump backwards. It’s a good job there were no cars coming!
I went to say sorry and explain we were training but before I could get a word out she started swearing at me saying to “control your f**king dog!!”. I said I was trying and again went to say we were in training and she just kept shouting at me “control your f••king dog for f••ks sake!” before walking off.
Loki and I carried on walking, but it really shook me up.
A few things to note:
1: Loki isn’t currently muzzled. She does have one but it’s too big. She’s got an awkward sized nose so is between sizes. The trainer is trying to help me find a muzzle that fits but so far I’ve bought 6 that have had to go back because they’re either too big or too small.
Our trainer has said there’s no point using it as she can pull it off anyway.
2: Loki has a harness on so I have full control of her. She’s attached to me so that she can’t get far.
3: I have a hi-vis vest on that says SPACE NEEDED and IN TRAINING.
What else could I have done? Loki seems completely unphased by the incident and as soon as the woman stormed off, she shook. But it’s really shaken me up and I feel like I’ve failed.
I have a 3.5 year old rescue GSD called Loki. She’s very anxious, reactive, and startles easily. To deal with this I’ve been walking her at 4am to avoid most people and dogs.
I’m spending a lot of money and time on training with a behaviourist and it’s making a notable difference already. One of the things she’s said to do is to walk her in the evenings around other people so she gets used to them - hence the incident last night.
We were walking and I saw a jogger coming towards us. Loki is usually okay with people at a distance, so I wanted to get as far out of the way as I could.
The pavement was very narrow with a hedgerow and no path on the other side so we didn’t really have anywhere to go. I saw a slightly wider section further up and sat Loki down in it. She sat down, and looked up at me. Just as I reached into the pouch to get treats to distract her, the jogger appeared and startled her so Loki lunged.
The jogger did the most exaggerated jump back - she literally did a full on star jump backwards. It’s a good job there were no cars coming!
I went to say sorry and explain we were training but before I could get a word out she started swearing at me saying to “control your f**king dog!!”. I said I was trying and again went to say we were in training and she just kept shouting at me “control your f••king dog for f••ks sake!” before walking off.
Loki and I carried on walking, but it really shook me up.
A few things to note:
1: Loki isn’t currently muzzled. She does have one but it’s too big. She’s got an awkward sized nose so is between sizes. The trainer is trying to help me find a muzzle that fits but so far I’ve bought 6 that have had to go back because they’re either too big or too small.
Our trainer has said there’s no point using it as she can pull it off anyway.
2: Loki has a harness on so I have full control of her. She’s attached to me so that she can’t get far.
3: I have a hi-vis vest on that says SPACE NEEDED and IN TRAINING.
What else could I have done? Loki seems completely unphased by the incident and as soon as the woman stormed off, she shook. But it’s really shaken me up and I feel like I’ve failed.