Quote:
|
Otherwise, as long as she's had her exercise that she needs, she's a perfect gentlewoman when greeting guests.
|
Exercise is so important. I feel like people REALLY underestimate the amount of physical activity that a dog needs. Ours was owner-surrendered back to the shelter because she was "too active". First off, she's part shepherd and was about a year old at the time, so I'm not sure what they expected, but second, honestly, she's not that active! Give her a good walk, then let her run her fool head off at the park, and she sleeps pretty much the entire rest of the time.
I have a love-hate relationship with the dog park, honestly. I love it because my dog loves it, and is a really good dog park candidate (not aggressive to dogs or people, playful, very good at dog-appropriate play, very good at giving clear warnings when she's getting bothered and giving other dogs a chance to back off, very attuned to whether other dogs are getting overwhelmed and good at backing off, good with dogs of all sizes, good at listening to her commands when distracted so she is under my control, etc).
But I don't like it because most of the other dogs aren't like that, and are either not dog-friendly enough to be at the park (either because they are scared of other dogs or dog-aggressive) or not under good enough owner control to prevent problems. Plus the owners who bring in their dogs with tons of pent up energy from being inside all day and the dogs just go nuts. We're careful to read the energy of the place before we go in and monitor appropriately. Ellie has some good playfriends at the park, so usually things go alright during the week (with the owners who are out at the same time every night, your dogs learn to play well together). Weekends are iffier, because you end up with a lot of strange dogs who don't get enough exercise during the week and don't have a lot of park experience flooding in.
One more pet peeve - people who accuse me of being over-cautious with Ellie around other creatures (people, dogs, whatever). For example, yesterday, Ellie had a tennis ball and decided she didn't want the other dogs to have it, so another dog came close and she raised her lip back in the "I am about to snarl at you" warning pose. I immediately took the ball away, because she's not allowed to guard her stuff like that. Other owners were like "Oh, the dog taking it needs to learn"...um, no. I am preventing an undesireable behavior in my dog...if it was a toddler taking the ball away from her, would it still be OK for her to growl? No! So let me train my dog please! I'm also very attuned to what is "play" and what is "discomfort" from my dog, and can't count the number of times that Ellie has been getting uncomfortable and throwing warning signs, and I've called her away from whatever the situation was, and been told "Oh, they're just playing". YOUR dog is playing, maybe. Mine just curled her lip up, and that's her sign that she is DONE. The ones who say this, BTW, are always the ones whose dogs are humping other dogs, jumping on the people, and generally under poor control.
I'm rambling. Clearly this has been on my mind!
