An incident yesterday. Make me feel better.

[TheGoldenAbyss]

Please be gentle

I have a 3 year old Bichon. He’s as stubborn as a mule. He has been to puppy classes, adolescent training classes and intermittent refresher training classes we do a few times per year as well as training at home.

He has recall but can sometimes be distracted so I’m very wary of where he is let off lead.

At the back of our home is a huge grassy area which leads in to woodland. It is frequented by dog walkers but I only take him when he is only likely to come in to contact with one other dog whom he loves to play with and they get on great.

Yesterday afternoon, he was playing with said dog and I did not notice a man in the distance coming out of the woodland with his terrier.

My dog shot off in that direction and would not recall . He’s not vicious and just wanted to play with the other dog but I completely accept this is not acceptable. I ran over to get him but again , he would not recall as he was too distracted trying to engage the other dog in play. The other dog did not want to play .

Thus ensued a ridiculous scene of me trying to grab my dog around the man’s feet (dog was dodging me) on my hands and knees in the mud. I eventually had to ask the man if he would mind putting his dog on lead so I could manage to grab mine. I got him on lead and marched him away . At this point, man’s dog decided to play and started to approach my dog - but his dog did recall.

I apologised profusely but I was so embarrassed and stressed, I burst in to tears .

I scurried home covered in mud and shame and am furious at myself and DDoG. I still feel bad this morning.

Nobody was hurt , there was no aggression from any dog but I’m mortified . More so because there were other people about and I know I’ve been judged as a bad dog owner. I feel terrible as I try very hard to be a good dog owner . I plan to keep Ddog on a permanent long line now.

Please tell me this has happened to someone else?

@villainousbroodmare
That's hilarious 😂

I’m not sure if there’s a reason why I shouldn’t do this, but I was advised by someone else. I let mine loose but with a light long line still attached when I think other dogs could suddenly appear. It’s a lot easier to grab the end of a trailing long line than try and get to the dog when they’re not listening to me. If there’s a reason I shouldn’t do this I’m happy to be educated but so far it’s taken a lot of the anxiety out of training/practicing recall.

@villainousbroodmare

I once had a client come in with an absolute looper of a Great Dane. 80kg of drool and excitement. In for gastroenteritis. She was dog-sitting him and I asked how it was going. She told me that the previous day he'd wrestled away from her on the common, galloped over to a family who were having a picnic, hurtled straight through their food, grabbed a quiche and pissed on their baby. Feel better?

I can't even imagine how that must have felt for all concerned, but thank you for sharing

One of my dogs cocked his leg against a child's ball. I had to take my cardigan off and wipe it down. The embarrassment has never left me

It's just horrifically embarrassing, isn't it? Imagine the terror as this maniac thundered over them, and then the pee.
An absolute oaf of a dog.
I have a hideous garden ornament that I felt obliged to buy from a roadside vendor after my (generally very reliable) dog cocked his leg on it.

I have a longline for my dog
He just gets tangled and it’s a pain in the arse. He’s going through adolescence and I’m ready to jump off a cliff hes a nightmare

I'm with you IAmKnackered1979 worst thing is I know if i DID jump off a cliff then he'd stand at the top barking at me. Relentlessly for ever. The cat has left home.

OP - I think you did fine today. There's nothing like dogs for full immersion therapy in indignity. I fairly regularly have to ask people to grab the collar of my dog because he dances around them like you say, i've come extremely uncomfortably close to reaching through strange mens legs before now. Nobody's perfect.

@villainousbroodmare that is hilarious! Made me feel better about my dog! Honestly, we all do our best OP and sometimes our dogs let us down. Most owners understand that, most of us have some story to tell. In a safe country park when mine was small, she disappeared into the undergrowth and went deaf. 20 minutes later my phone rang….someone else had found her looking lost. She is 3 now and brilliant unless the squirrels taunt her and then it’s a different story. Just nod and smile if you see your bloke tomorrow, no harm was done save to your dignity!

I don’t understand long leads, though I’d like to. Don’t they get tangled/wet/filthy/covered in poo that other people haven’t picked up??

It happens, dogs have their own mind and aren’t perfect all of the time. I’ve found the best thing is to take chicken, sausages or cheese as a treat and then my pup will do anything I ask of him! In fact I don’t need to ask, he’ll run a short distance, loop back and sit in front of me to say “I’ll have my treat now thank you” 😂. He is a food orientated lab though.

I wish people with other dogs would just be more understanding.

It happens to most of us at some point.
I have a singularly stubborn minded beastie who has shamed me more times than I'd like. One day she is perfect, the next she is NOT. We go off lead in fields etc and usually I can spot another dog at adistance and tell her to wait ..9/10 times she does so I can check whether it's ok to leave her off lead. 10th time she ignores me completely..and the last time she WAS on her longline and took me waterski-ing face first along a stream!

We are still working on it...