You just summed up our life with Ella in a couple of lines!!! Maybe our choccies aren't nutty, just super super super friendly? ☺ I've been putting a lot of time into getting Ella to stop, sit and watch me as other people and dogs pass us on walks (Ella doesn't discriminate, she'll say hi to anyone) and I'm pleased to say it's starting to pay off. I've noticed recently that,on a few occasions, she's actually automatically turned her focus to me (ready for her treat) as someone approaches so hopefully the message is slowly getting through ☺ zanacal, I completely understand what you're going through and I get the nervousness so you're not alone ☺
It's very rare that I let Tess say hello to anybody (as you say, she doesn't need socialising, she needs to learn self control!). When we're somewhere busy I'm focussed on her and don't speak to anybody so the people she does meet are more likely to be dog walkers who I have asked whether their dog is OK to play - she's usually more interested in them than their dog! I will have to manage those situations better.
I've read through all the posts on this thread as when I first read them, Dexter was easily managed in our busy areas like the beach. What a difference a month to 6 weeks makes. He's totally into going up to everyone/every dog to say hi, he's always friendly or over friendly and now deaf . I'm glad I came upon this thread again in my search as was thinking perhaps I should try a Halti or stop taking him to places with people or dogs but have decided I'll just go back stages and find a pathway to use as @JulieT, did with Charlie. There isn't many places to take a dog where I live so we are always in the thick of it. If we play ball, he'll ignore anything and everything but that's not going to help where we can't play ball. The trouble with our beach is it's not very spacious and therefore difficult to get enough distance unless it's horrid weather then we have the place to ourselves but again, I don't have the distractions to work with then. I work very hard on training him to get to the promenade calmly so I'll keep this up and go back to just getting in and out of the car calmly at the car park, then when he's mastered his self control, I can start moving nearer to the entrance. I'll write out our progress so that I can see how we are doing too. Oh, I do have a lot to learn
OMG, today started well at the beach then found ourselves surrounded with total over the top distractions for Dexter and no escape route . How I sometimes envy people with their small dogs but there again, I said to my OH last night that I sometimes wish we had a smaller dog but if we did, I wouldn't have learned all that I have so far and am still learning and finding out. So all in all, I know I have the right dog to teach me how to become the best dog owner that I can be . Plus I LOVE MY BOY SO MUCH, I wouldn't swap him for a million pounds.
