Yesterday my pack and I headed out for a nice walk in the falling snow.
When we got to a certain part of our normal route, we saw a black doodle who'd run out the front door (again) and was frantically exploring the neighborhood (this dog *never* gets walked). I had about 200 lbs of dog with me and 4 leashes in hand. Once this dog caught sight of us, he made a beeline towards us and proceeded to circle, charge, bark, and carry on for 15 long minutes (felt like an hour). We just kept movement going, we turned, pivoted, made detour after detour.... keeping fluid movement going. The dog continued to run circles, charge towards us, back off, bark, etc. while 3 of his humans were running around frantically trying to capture him. Zero recall. Zero control. Zero influence. Zero relevance. There were a few hairy moments and little Franklin was stepped on at one part by one of the dogs, so he had the red light therapy unit on him as soon as we got home.
Overall, I was incredibly proud of how all of my dogs handled it.
I'm using this as a PSA moment to iterate one very important thing to understand if you have a dog......
****Training yourselves and your dog is not only your responsibility to you, the dog, and your family.... but the public and the community you share space with, as well.****
Just like it is teaching, training, and equipping our children. *Preparing* them for participating in "the real world". Rules and boundaries. Meeting needs so they feel connected, safe, comfortable, secure, and balanced. Social etiquette. What's "ok" vs. "not ok". Teaching them what they need to know so they can share the world with us.
*Teaching. Preparing. Equipping.*
Dogs who are not getting their daily needs tended to, who are not being properly equipped and taught are a *LIABILITY*.
This experience was absolutely hairy and had the potential to be very, very ugly.
Teaching and equipping your dog ("having a dog" and "raising a dog" are two entirely different things), as well as *yourselves* so you understand *how* to effectively raise, teach, guide, and communicate with a dog is not just your responsibility, it's a necessity.
