Well, Shadow's had a bit of boy-doggy socialisation this evening. I went on a two hour walk in a beautiful snowy valley with my friend who has Annie, from the same litter as my two. It was fun, we decided to go a little off the beaten track, I fell down a few holes and ended up in a river. A perfect Sunday afternoon. We only saw two other people, both dogless and just going out on their snowshoes. When we were getting back towards the car, however, we heard barking dogs. Hmmm, this could be fun. Annie can be a bit too boisterous and Shadow isn't any good with boy dogs, so those two were put straight on leads and I jumped out of my snow shoes because I'm a lot more mobile without, and the ground was hard enough where we were to not need them. I left Willow off lead, because she's great with other dogs, and has pretty much zero interest in them if she doesn't know them. Well, as we got closer to the car, my heart sank. There were four people there with four dogs between them. All male. All off lead. One of which was a wolfdog. The dogs all ran to Willow to say hi. They were all very friendly, but Shadow was having a really hard time with it, so I called Willow to me. She came back perfectly, what a good girl But this bloomin' wolfdog kept getting closer and closer. Shadow was barking his head off at it, but it kept coming. We were a good 50m away from the people, and someone started coming to collect it, albeit not very rapidly, and I was doing my best to keep myself between the two dogs. The wolfdog seemed very friendly, don't get me wrong, but Shadow is often bad with other boys and it's made worse by being on lead. Anyway, the owner got to us and wasn't in the slightest bit concerned about my lunging, barking horror. She apologised and I apologised, then she said that her dog was very young, only 6 months old (he was huge!). As I chatted to her, Shadow did calm down, to the point I thought I could let him interact with the wolfdog. It went well. Very well. I called him away and gave him some treats, then let him go again. He was as stiff as normal, but the puppy was licking his face and that seemed to calm him down. Shadow was dealing with things so much better off lead, so I decided to try to get him to the car, past the other dogs, whilst off lead. I was a bit of a gamble for us - I know that on-lead, it would be a negative experience. On the other hand, I have more control of him on lead than off. So I made my choice. By this time, the two girls had had their meet-and-greets with the other dogs and were off ignoring them; again, this made it easier for Shadow because he gets protective/possessive of "his" girls. We continued towards the car and the other dogs. The big black hairy thing was really friendly and came to say hi with a very waggy tail, then immediately wandered off again. No bad body language whatsoever on either side. The wolfdog pup was still popping in and out to try to interact with Shadow. He had a couple of growls at it, and a couple of snaps, but nothing more than gesticulating. There was one dog there that he really didn't like, though - and it didn't like him, either. It was about two thirds his height, and as stiff as him. The body language was very much "come and have a go, if you think you're hard enough" on both sides. They had a few "words" with one another, but the owners were completely relaxed about it, which allowed me to be chilled out, too, and let them sort it out themselves without intervening too soon. So they had their words, went their separate ways, then came back together - rinse and repeat a few times. In the end we had six dogs running around together, all doing their own thing. The fourth unknown dog was put in his crate in their car, so I assume he wasn't the sociable type. As soon as I opened my car, our three jumped in without a hesitation. I was really happy in general. Yes, there was some language and posturing, but it was definitely him being thrown in at the deep and and it didn't end in disaster. Happy days!
Just caught up on your other thread, Karen. I think you're right, that pack mentality when all the dogs are together is a big catalyst. I was fortunate that we had the time and distance to plan the interactions to some extent, so Willow met the other dogs first, then Annie and Shadow met them one by one. Shadow meeting all those boys at once would have been catastrophic, I'm sure.
@snowbunny . I bet that has done you the world of good too, and you might be more relaxed next it happens as well. @Karen hope you are ok - better zip and check your thread....
That sounds really good for Shadow. If only all dog owners were as co-operative and relaxed... It certainly seems to help with tricky moments if you're able to stand and chat and make it a non-threatening situation, giving the dogs time to relax too.
