I've never really trained A to B. That's where you make a 180-degree turn and walk away rapidly to get out of trouble. It's been on the list for forever - you know, that list that just keeps getting longer and longer? Well, this evening, I thought enough is enough and, during a LAT walk with Shadow (who is nervous, leash-reactive and male dog-aggressive), I spent ten minutes teaching him the game. He loved it, got all sorts of bouncy and thought he was the cleverest thing in the world. Which he is, obviously. As we were walking home, disaster! Let me preface this by saying where I live people don't treat their dogs like we treat our dogs. Most of them are penned for the majority of their lives and have pretty severe behavioural problems because of it. It doesn't usually cause us problems because, well, they're penned. But, when they escape... So, four loose Breton spaniels came HOONING down the road towards us, barking and snarling. Just as Shadow saw them, I performed the A to B, he just went "oh, I know this game, it's FUN!" and instead of lunging at them, turned and ran with me as I sprinted back down the road and up the opposite hill. What good luck that I had chosen today to start working on it! That's fate
Well, of course it didn't end there... the problem was that they ran down the hill that my apartment sits at the top of. So I still had to get past them. First, I had to deal with four spanners chasing us. Luckily they didn't follow far. I think the fact we ran away from them satisfied them. So, this bit of road is a hill in both directions. I was on the flat bit at the bottom doing figure-8s when they appeared from up the hill on one side. They are penned about 20 metres up the hill on the other side, so I ran until I was past the open door to their pen, thinking that might be enough to pacify them. I turned and looked and they were still advancing, but at a walking pace, so I did my A to B again (Shadow had raised his hackles this time) and legged it another 50m or so up the hill until I could get off the road. I'm glad I've been running on my elliptical a fair bit recently The story actually continues a little, because I then took a mountain footpath that cuts around and joins back up with the top of the road that the spanners had come from - about 200m from where I had been when we first saw them and above my apartment block. There is a bit of waste land a bit up the hill from our apartment building that, now going in this direction, I had to pass. As I did, I heard the spaniels barking on that land. Luckily (we had a LOT of luck this evening!) there is a big snow bank on the road side of this piece of land where the plough has cleared the road, so we legged it again to get past and in our door before they clocked we were there. Even then the story doesn't finish. Because getting in the door of the apartment block, there was a family with two young children. Of course, Shadow is also scared of children and can bark and lunge at them. We have done a huge amount of work on this and, choosing the kids to be the lesser of two evils, I squeezed past them in the tiny little area between the two weather doors while they held the door open for us - which was lovely but they had no idea wasn't ideal for us! Thankfully, Shadow's "children training" paid off and he was as good as gold. I'm still eyeing up the gin bottle
How did you manage to outrun spaniels? I've only had to do an evasive manoeuvre once, and I hadn't trained for it. I can only assume that Xena felt the threat posed by the dog as clearly as I did and was happy to leg it back to the road.
Luckily, they were a way away when I spotted them and obviously got appeased by us running away! I didn't watch what they did as we were running, but when I turned back to look once I was past their pen, they were just approaching slowly, dancing about and barking towards us. The second time, I had to drag Shadow a bit because he was preparing to have a go, but once I started running again he got back into the "game".
I'm 57 days alcohol-free with 52 left to go... I'm not going to let a trifling little heart-stopping episode spoil my streak
Ah ha! I get it and you gotta keep that streak (congrats by the way). May I suggest my favourite go-to guys? I just call Ben and Jerry.
Well done, that sound like multiple stressful situations averted. I would literally have to have carried Monty away from them
Haha! I have a home-made chocolate brownie with my name on it for after dinner. Right now, I'm considering that I should go on the elliptical. Just trying to build up the enthusiasm. It appears it has its benefits, though, so I really should
Off topic I had my first ever G&T yesterday... Though monts was with me so I guess there's a lab link
Underwhelmed. Our local now has a gin menu, I picked one which was meant to be raspberry and strawberry flavoured, it was bright blue? Then I had light tonic in it, some organic brand, and there were redcurrants in it which made it more pinky coloured when mixed. Certainly fewer calories and units as I nursed a single measure for an hour and a half, but have to say I prefer my Pinot. There were about 10 gin choices ( was tempted by rhubarb and ginger) so maybe I have to try a different flavor and perhaps the elderflower tonic mixer.
Oh, yeah, I'm not a fan of flavoured gins to be honest. That's not a proper G&T. I have a lovely Edinburgh Gin rhubarb and ginger liqueur but that's best neat. You never get proper measures in the UK either. You normally can't even taste the gin.
I'll take a picture of the menu next time I'm there and maybe you can pick for me... Or if it all looks monumentally pretentious tell me and I'll stick to wine
Wine is good, too I saw a T-shirt today that said "All I want to do is drink wine and pet my dogs". I very nearly bought it!
I saw a lady wearing this at an obedience trial once. It seemed appropriate. What an adventure though! I find that Ella will spin and follow me just about anywhere IF I spot the "danger" far enough in advance. Might be worth proofing this against incoming dangers though so I'll add it to the list. Thanks!
Love the hoodie!! The game is, you run your left hand down the lead so it’s close to the collar, do a 180 with the dog on the outside and walk briskly away. Feed once you’re turned. Shadow really enjoyed it and got a real spring in his step.
Glad you managed to avert the dangers. I think I will do some training around this with Harley as we often get dogs hurtling towards us and she hates it. Chocolate is a very good substitute for alcohol!!
