It was a gorgeous, all-be-it humid summer evening the night I took a client to the dog park. We didn’t go in the park, that was never the plan. The plan was to hang around outside to get the client’s dog some decent dog exposure in a setting that we could somewhat, mostly control. I say somewhat, mostly because when you are not indoors, there is always the chance that you can run into a situation that you can not control. The dog park is an excellent place to work, on the outside of the fence, for exposure to multiple different dogs, in a manner where you can “escape”.
The energy from the dogs that night was palpably calm, blissful even. All of the dogs, and there were many, were copacetic, having fun, and clearly getting along. The surroundings, serene, the backdrop, beautiful, and over all it was an amazing experience both for the clients dog, and us in a general, peaceful way. That is, until a certain dog showed up. Interestingly enough, it was almost the exact situation that I had experienced in one of my classes years ago, except this one was going to include A LOT more dogs. That time, years ago, it included Uncle Steve, and I knew immediately that if the dog who showed up to class approached Steve, it would have been a problem, I could just feel it.
There had really been no barking at all, maybe the odd play bark, until the dog in question showed up. I saw him (or her, honestly, wasn’t paying attention to the “parts”) step out of the car in all his glory. A large, majestic, but full of himself, clearly confident, and barely under control Rottweiler. It wasn’t the control part, or lack there of, that was the main issue, it was the stance and energy that this dog presented as he emerged. It was the “I am the man” attitude that oozed off of this dog that caught my attention. I told my client, we need to move away a bit and avoid that dog. I could just feel it, even from the distance that we already were at. There was an energy in the air.
Sure enough, as that first gate opened, that cocky, full of himself, power breed walked in, all hell broke loose. The energy inside the park immediately changed, and there was a small scuffle, lots of alarm barking, and over all a disturbance of the peace when that dog entered. Thank goodness he didn’t seem to be aggressive in any way, just too full of himself, however, that attitude could have most definitely started a fight if there had been another dog in there that decided he (or possibly she) was “the man”. The disturbance lasted a few minutes, a dog left during it, decidedly aroused and reacting to any dogs that were outside the dog park, including my clients dog, even though we had moved away. The energy settled eventually, but not quite to the level that it was when we first arrived. There was an ever so slight tension in the air. We changed our positioning at that point so as not to encounter that particular dog through he fence. Our session ended in a successful manner, and the dog we were working, did very well that evening.
I share this story because, to me, it is very important that you begin to notice the energy of others around you. In this case, the dogs with whom you wish to work around. This is essential when starting to work with reactive dogs. There are certain dogs that emit certain energies that should be avoided in the beginning stages of work, and sometimes for life. Those particular energies can set off even the most non-reactive dog, if whomever is handling the dog in question, with the “big” energy, has no control. When you own a power breed, a sparing breed, a working breed or a terrier (or any dog that has experienced reactivity issues), you need to be aware that no matter how much training you’ve done, and how far your dog has come, there may always be certain circumstances and certain dogs that don’t jive with your dog, and it is best to avoid those ones to keep your own dog on the path to success. The flip side to this is, if you own one of these dogs, even though it may have zero reactivity, you need to be able to show some semblance of control with the dog, for when there is a dog who is seemingly “out of control” I can guarantee that when you enter into an off leash situation, there will be anther dog willing to apply that control to your dog, and not necessarily in the way that you’d like it to happen.
Over all, it was a wonderful evening to experience that relaxed and copacetic vibe from outside the park for a good portion of the time, but was also a fantastic experience to be able to observe and point out how energy can affect a group – this goes for both dogs and humans, and since we were outside the fence, we were able to observe this in a safe, and productive manner.
Lesson: always be aware of the energy projected around you when you are working on improving your dogs reactivity. Eventually you will encounter and have to work around that type of energy, because it is always there, lurking around the corner, but in order to build on success, it is best to start easy, avoid those, and build up to working around that with successful repetitions around “easier” dogs first.
Happy Training!
Smart Dogs Canine Training Milton 