Join Our Community of Dog Lovers!

Subscribe now so that you get email alerts about all new content and/or updates from Champion of My Heart!  +

FREE e-book "8 Things to Know About Veterinary Care"

January 14, 2011

With all the herding excitement, I haven’t had time to report on our recent trip to one of our drop-in, advanced dog training classes before xmas. We really, really wanted to see Gigi Moss (our awesome dog trainer), so on the first official day of our holiday break, we hauled ourselves up to Boulder for class.

That was December 22. It wasn’t entirely pretty.

The park where we so often had class when we first started training with Gigi years ago has been completely torn up in the last year, with new layout for the dog parks and such.

This means that the new sidewalks are mostly flanked by that orange, plastic fencing used on construction sites.

Visually and functionally, Lilly found the whole setup pretty frightening, but she coped pretty well … considering that ALL of the other dogs were ones we did NOT know at all.

A whole slew of strange, mostly adolescent dogs.

*sigh*

Lilly did not SNARK at anyone. She worked hard and stayed quite focused … remarkably … even when the big construction equipment around us rumbled beeped incessantly.

Lilly’s Green Mile

It’s been a LONG time since I’ve seen Lilly go completely flat in public, but toward the end of class when it was time to do off-leash recalls. She got very, very bummed. She threw herself to the ground and refused to budge.

At first, it caught me off guard. Seriously, I was like, “What the @#$@#?”

But, then I realized the trouble. Those orange, plastic fences turned the walk from where we were … having a nice little stroll with classmates … into Lilly’s Green Mile.

I might as well have asked her to walk nicely with me to the electric chair. She saw no escape. Just a long, lined sidewalk that led straight to the new DOG PARK.

Lilly hasn’t been in a dog park in YEARS.

But, there were no other dogs in the park, so Gigi felt it was the best/safest place to do off-leash recalls.

The Long Away Around

So, Lilly and I did our own thing. We walked clear around a big dirt area so that she didn’t have to see the dog park gate. We climbed UNDER a bunch of the plastic fencing, and then I begged her to go inside the dog park with me.

I promised we would NOT stay long.

We took our turn last so that all the other dogs had moved away in their recalls, then I ran like holy heck toward the OTHER dog park gate so that Lilly knew coming to ME meant getting closer to getting out of the dog park.

And, it worked.

I jackpotted the pants off of her … so much so that she nearly choked.  (oops) Then, we ran for the other gate and got the heck out of Dodge.

Tussle

It’s a good thing too because as soon as the other dogs were cut loose to play … a little tussle happened. There was snapping. There were cries. Everyone was fine. Just one of those things that happens when several dogs end up over threshold.

But, Lilly looked at me like, “See, momma! That’s why I don’t go in there.”

I replied, “I understand, baby girl. I understand.”

P.S. I was in such a tizzy that I forgot my camera. Sorry we do not have photos.

About the Author Roxanne Hawn

Trained as a traditional journalist and based in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado, USA, I'm a full-time freelance writer for magazines, websites, and private clients. My areas of specialty include everything in the lifestyles arena, including health and home, personal finance and other consumer interests, relationships and trends, people and business profiles ... and, of course, all things pet related.

I don't just love dogs. I need them in my life. Seriously.

  1. Oh my, it doesn’t sound pretty. And, I think that Dec 22 was a Wednesday, usually when the more experienced dogs show up. Oh well. It sounds like you got out of Dodge just in time!

    We keep thinking about going to class… but then so many things get in the way. I think that we don’t really “need” class anymore which is why our attendance record has gone to heck.

  2. Get the hell out of dodge … unfortunately true. It does usually work out without real problems many (most) times in a dog park. Problem is just there is always a time where it does NOT work out.

    Am I am so happy Kenzo is not a fearful dog like Lilly (or Viva, my other dog) and is able to take care of these kind of situations so nobody gets hurt. But it is my responsibility not to expose him to these kind of situations. Get the hell out of dodge … my motto.

  3. I love how well you handled this. I am such a hard core rule-follower and so unfortunately I have made my dog do things she doesn’t like just because that’s the way the trainer wants it. But your attitude is so much better. I am trying to be more creative in my training. If someone says something that I know won’t work for us, I need to learn to ignore the “rules” and attempt the exercise in a way Shiva is much happier. Dogs learn differently anyway, right? And we have to put them above the lesson plan of an instructor.

    Thanks for the wonderful reminder. I am so glad you and Lilly had such a successful day!

Comments are closed.

{"email":"Email address invalid","url":"Website address invalid","required":"Required field missing"}

Free!

Stay Tuned for Something New!

big things in the works ... promise

Success message!
Warning message!
Error message!