Off the lead

Everyday I take Jade down to the local park, let her off the lead and let her burn some energy chasing her beloved balls. She is fine without a lead, her recall is brill and she takes little notice of other dogs as long as they don't come to close. When they do I get her straight back on the lead and in a sit position. She tries her best not to snap but she has never been great with other dogs and gets protective of me and aggressive towards the dog. When another dog approaches us and starts sniffing around Jadey I always get petrified that a fight is going to break out - has anyone got any suggestions as to what I could do? Often the other dogs owners are miles away and have no control over thier dogs. It frustrates me that I have good control over Jade but in that situation I feel helpless and its starting to put me off taking her out wothout my OH around.

Any ideas would be great!xx

I know how you feel hun as Dixie is dog aggressive...we only let her off when NO-ONE is around. I know she wouldn't just take off, but it is better to be safe than sorry. We all know what the breed are capable off and I am not willing to risk her getting in a fight with another dog.

When an off lead dog approached us, I get her in a sit (on lead of course) and I try and block the eye contact...if a dog stares are her, she will snap. But when she is being good, I praise her lots as I am trying to reassure her that there is no need to be scared of other dogs.

It is very hard when idiots are no-where to be seen and their dog is harrassing you and your dog. Try and remain calm, cos if Jade picks up on the fact you are worrying, it will cause her to worry too. Try and wait where you are and hopefully the other dog will get bored and bugger off! When the owner does appear, have a word swith them, and suggest they do not let their dog get so fair ahead of them.

x

Is there not a private area you can go to? Like a enclosed park, it's stupid you can't just go out with your dog now but with so many idiots owning so many dogs now the only place to have a nice time with your dog is a enclosed area, where I live theres a basketball court which is rarely used it's concrete but it's got a cage with a gate on it.
Or is there a group of dog walkers that you can get to know? That walk at certain times you can meet up with? Introduce Jade to them correctly and she might have a few dogs she can play with or you can let her play with her balls and have a chat with the other owners?

I dont know of any dog walkers in the area - not sure if Jade would take to it anyway. It would be great if there was though - dunno about her sharing her balls though!!

There is an enclosed basketball court but there are always kids in there. It just drives me mad that I'm frightened to go out with my well behaved and controlled dog because of stupid people that usually look down thier noses at her!

What about a Astro Turf nearby? Where football teams train on see when its not empty and go there for Jade to run about

Milo is a nightmare in an open field, my recall is appalling! He just legs it, i only catch him when he stops for a poo! When i take him round the syndicate lake, he's fine though, just snuffles about. I've said it before, he's odd!

We have a huge backyard so we play with them out there and walks are just walks, Bonnie and Max are way too hard to get back on the lead when you take them out so we have given up and keep their harnesses and leads on.

You're really lucky - we only have a smallish back garden and Jade loves to run after her balls so its nowhere near big enough.

I think she would refuse to go now if we took her for a normal on the lead walk without her ballies!

Yeah we admit we have been exceptionally lucky to be able to get a house with a nice big yard! We find something new each time too, we found Bonnie had been ripping out tree roots on the weekend and it explains the brown nose she has had recently. She must be sick of the taste of the branches - apparently bones are not enough for our princess!

TBH irresponsible dog owners are part & parcel of dog walking and the old sayin "once bitten twice shy" is pretty ironic as it usually takes a stafford retaliation for these dim-wits to realise they have as much a responsibility to keep their dogs under control as you do! . . my dogs have retaliated over the years and they have always been the harassed dogs on the lead!

we as a breed have a responsibility to make sure we at least have a certain amount of control over our dogs though and i would say that a fairly decent recall is a basic need & 1 of the easiest commands to master IMHO

plenty of practice in the garden & moving onto walks outside will bear fruit with a dog of any age eventually but i find they pick it up fairly quickly. . when training mine i start off by literally recalling and praising them every 20seconds or so until they get the message

just remember to treat or praise everytime & always use a stern or normal voice when recalling as most ppl will panic and shout in a real emergancy and the dog will then think he is in trouble if he is used to soft squeeky recall commands . .save the squeeky stuff for praising lol