jessemini14
New member
My dog is reactive to dogs, strangers, small animals, cars, bicycles, sometimes all of reality... He's making huge progress; on his good days you wouldn't know he's a reactive dog unless you knew what to look for. But but he he still has bad days. Sometimes those bad days are VERY BAD (i.e. a leaf blowing in the wind triggers a full on melt down).
I, like all of us, have had many frustrating encounters with off leash dogs, people coming too close, people trying to touch him, etc.
One week ago I put yellow tags on both our regular 6 ft leash, and our long 30 ft leash. They say "ANXIOUS- IN TRAINING" and "NERVOUS RESCUE".
So far it has worked really really well! Dog owners have been noticing and giving us space. Humans have stayed further away. A few times dog owners have called out from a distance to coordinate how we can move past each other. One guy and his dog came into the empty park we were in and called out "I was planning to let her off leash, but she will come over to say hello. Want me to keep her on lead for now?". Once my dog was curious about someone and wanted to go say hello (he sometimes wants to sniff and explore, but never wants to be pet). The person asked me if I wanted to let him approach, and asked how they could act that would be helpful. My dog got a positive interaction with a stranger!
I'm feeling very encouraged by all of these lovely, respectful interactions. People care! They want to help! All those times I felt like it was obvious to the whole world that were struggling, and they were indifferent or hostile- not so! Most of the time, they probably just didn't realize we were having a private little crisis in the corner of the park.
I still strongly believe that the standard should be that dog owners never allow their off leash dogs to approach leashed dogs without communicating first, and people should always ask before approaching/ touching a dog. We shouldn't need yellow tags for this basic etiquette/ safety protocal. But it is nice to know that when other people have a clear signal that we need space, lots of them respect it! (at least that's my experience so far). Maybe a lot of the bad experiences we've had were caused more by ignorance than by malice.
Long story short- I LOVE the yellow tags. My dog loves the increased space from triggers. I recommend it!
Here are the tags I bought:
https://www.amazon.ca/JXGZSO-Traini...82700366&sprefix=anxious+dog+,aps,167&sr=8-10
https://www.amazon.ca/JXGZSO-Nervou...682700466&sprefix=anxious+dog+,aps,167&sr=8-7
I, like all of us, have had many frustrating encounters with off leash dogs, people coming too close, people trying to touch him, etc.
One week ago I put yellow tags on both our regular 6 ft leash, and our long 30 ft leash. They say "ANXIOUS- IN TRAINING" and "NERVOUS RESCUE".
So far it has worked really really well! Dog owners have been noticing and giving us space. Humans have stayed further away. A few times dog owners have called out from a distance to coordinate how we can move past each other. One guy and his dog came into the empty park we were in and called out "I was planning to let her off leash, but she will come over to say hello. Want me to keep her on lead for now?". Once my dog was curious about someone and wanted to go say hello (he sometimes wants to sniff and explore, but never wants to be pet). The person asked me if I wanted to let him approach, and asked how they could act that would be helpful. My dog got a positive interaction with a stranger!
I'm feeling very encouraged by all of these lovely, respectful interactions. People care! They want to help! All those times I felt like it was obvious to the whole world that were struggling, and they were indifferent or hostile- not so! Most of the time, they probably just didn't realize we were having a private little crisis in the corner of the park.
I still strongly believe that the standard should be that dog owners never allow their off leash dogs to approach leashed dogs without communicating first, and people should always ask before approaching/ touching a dog. We shouldn't need yellow tags for this basic etiquette/ safety protocal. But it is nice to know that when other people have a clear signal that we need space, lots of them respect it! (at least that's my experience so far). Maybe a lot of the bad experiences we've had were caused more by ignorance than by malice.
Long story short- I LOVE the yellow tags. My dog loves the increased space from triggers. I recommend it!
Here are the tags I bought:
https://www.amazon.ca/JXGZSO-Traini...82700366&sprefix=anxious+dog+,aps,167&sr=8-10
https://www.amazon.ca/JXGZSO-Nervou...682700466&sprefix=anxious+dog+,aps,167&sr=8-7
