We have an 8 month old collie cross puppy. We are taking her to obedience classes and puppy agility, which she loves. She is full of life, but training well; even her dog walker commented how good her recall is.
So far, so normal. The issue is walking her. We live on the south coast, in a populated area but not a city. When we are walking on the greens and parks round here we keep her on a lead. To walk her off lead, we go to the sea, but I don't think we have had a walk by the sea yet where someone hasn't said she should be on a lead.
The issue seems to be that she is a puppy who runs around. She is not barrelling around knocking into people or dogs, she is not barking, she is not biting, she is not aggressive, she is not chasing. Yet we have had comments like "She's a danger to children" (Really? we have 3 dc so she is more than used to children).
Today an older lady told me she should be on a lead because she had run up to say hello to her small dog. Apparently her dog had been frightened by a large dog when it was a puppy, so I understand her concerns (though her dog didn't look remotely upset to me!) and I put our dog back on the lead immediately, but it annoyed me that she was losing off lead time for simply behaving like a puppy. If she were a difficult dog, I could understand it, but this is NORMAL puppy behaviour. It feels to me like puppy behaviour is not allowed, like children were not allowed to be children years ago.
I know our dog will settle as she matures, but meanwhile, walking her is becoming less and less of a pleasure. The nearest contained dog walking area is 20 mins drive away and open countryside further away, so I'm not sure where to take her for off lead. I can't believe that walking her on an extendi lead at all times will give her the exercise she needs!
This is the first puppy we've had; we've had rescue dogs before, so I guess I'm not used to people's reactions to lively dogs. It's the one thing that makes me think I wouldn't get a puppy again
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The doghouse
It used to be children who were seen and not heard.... now it seems to be the attitude to dogs
59 replies
jenniferjane21 · 08/01/2015 16:27
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