Hi
I could use some objective feedback on a problem that came up yesterday.

I have a 2 ½ year old dobe female who is in schutzhund training. She isn’t perfect in her OB but when she gets into drive I can call her back to me easily. If we’re out hiking, I can recall her off a squirrel hunt. I practice recalls under all types of distractions.

She’s fairly neutral to dogs and people; has a sweet disposition when interacting with everyone. She is highly socialized and not at all dog aggressive.

So what’s my problem? I was shocked by what happened yesterday. We went to the beach where we’ve been before with no problems. We were playing in the water with other dogs around and a sweet husky was loping off in the distance. My dog took off like a rocket! I couldn’t recall her, she ran up behind him and nipped him in the butt. It looked like she was in total prey drive. She ran around in front of him and started barking at him; the same bark as when she wants to get me playing with her. She didn’t seem aggressive but certainly rude behavior in dog talk. The poor husky ran back to his owner and barked back at my dog with a defensive bark.

I was mortified! Dobes already have a bad reputation and here I am like the bad owners I can’t stand. I was so embarrassed. The only way my dog snapped out of it was when my husband slapped her face! He couldn’t catch her because she kept running around him. She snapped out of it and ran back to me. All was ok after that and I went home and had a beer!

Obviously, I need to do a better job on my recalls under distraction but can you give me any insight into her behavior? Like I said, she’s not dog aggressive – I don’t think. I’ve lost some confidence in her socialability.

Don't beat yourself up too much.
Our dogs' main purpose in life is to make liars of us.

I would, however, give a great deal of consideration to introducing an e-collar, for incidents like this.

Sh*t happens, but proper prior planning prevents, well, you get my drift.

Aren't dogs like children...alwyas doing the worst when we least expect or warrant it? I applaud your control for just the ONE beer...Ever learning, I eagerly await the responses from the experts here as I am sure you do...

I;ve also had some slap-in-the-face, heart-in-your-throat moments that made me realize the dog (read: owner (me)) was not as far along in training as I thought. I also get angry at "irresponsible, rude" dog owners and then later am humbled and embarrassed when my dogs are running around loose just out of my reach barking at someone else's poor dog.

For me, it was those kinds of moments that made me realize I wasn't being as responsible a dog owner as I thought, and showed me where my "holes" were and where I had to shape up and manage better.

My dogs are also large dogs that have the potential to inflict some serious damage if they so choose.

Take this opportunity, don't dwell on it but learn from it. Go back to leash, long line or e-collar as a step towards making sure this never happens again (and God forbid, your dog decides to take a bite out of someone's cat or something)....

Thanks and I'm all over that ecollar. I've dusted it off and I'm off to more training with distractions.

Yeah, one beer! But I didn't mention the tequila later :-)

It occurs to me a few things may be happening here. First, it's a learning experience and your dog had a dog moment. They happen.

The first thing I would think about is how your dog approached going to the beach. Was she already excited? Anticipating something? Looking for a queue of what she should be doing?

Second, a long line and an e collar would go a long way to help proofing some of this training.

I'm sure it was the heat of the moment but dogs I find never give you the right reaction when you chase them around. It works them up more or scares them, the key I find is to not give them the option either with a drag line and replacing a command that they're proofed to do under super high distraction. For my dogs around here that's usually the down.

Best of luck, don't let yourself get too far down about it. Stuff happens, we learn, and move on.

Melissa, good questions. I took her for a long walk before the beach but I could see she was still too excited. My guts told me to take her home and I didn't listen. Well, there ya go.

I'd order this: http://leerburg.com/729.htm

You will never be sorry you bought it. I have one coiled by each door.

I would get and watch this while working on the distractions and using the long line at the beach:

http://leerburg.com/318.htm

Thanks Connie. We've got these, I just thought we were way past them by now so it's off to more training.

 Quote: angela burrell

I;ve also had some slap-in-the-face, heart-in-your-throat moments that made me realize the dog (read: owner (me)) was not as far along in training as I thought. ...

So have I. I had not worked hard enough or long enough on "Don't slither under the gate" with a wonderful distraction, like a dog-friend of the dog in training, on the other side.

But now we have been!