honey
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Posts: 4
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Post by honey on Aug 25, 2011 21:53:12 GMT 1
Can any one give me advice with 2 issues i have. I have an 11 month female whippet x she has great recall except if she sees another dog in the distance then shes gone, she will return after a mad run around which worries me as the other dog may not be friendly, the other thing is she jumps up at the owners & licks their nose ;D. although she is being friendly i dont think i wouldnt like to be greeted by a strange dog in this way. Any advice welcome
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Post by Boothros on Aug 26, 2011 5:03:09 GMT 1
I do sympathize with you as I also have a young bitch who is so full of the joys of spring that she will quite happily tear up to other dogs to play without a care in the world, so I'm hardly the ideal person to answer this question! I do hope someone has some tips though as you are right to be concerned. If the position were reversed and a big strange dog came hurtling up to you, you would rightly be scared and your dog might rightly act defensively. Your girl is a teenager in human years so although you know that her behaviour is joyful & friendly, she is also old enough to be considered tenacious and rude. I would be very worried about the human face licking, how many people would realise they are only going to get licked and not attacked? Fortunately I think this will be the easiest thing to overcome as it is behaviour that you can correct all the time at home. One of the reasons dogs get so excitable around humans is that's exactly what we put out to them - excitability. Imagine for example the way you greet your dog after leaving her alone at home. Is it calm, quiet and demanding of the dog be the same until she gets attended to or is it all smiles and squeals and hugs and Hellos and general chaos as you are so pleased to see each other? Most pet owners are the same and sure of course its ok to have playtime with your dog and to love them but you also need to command her respect to the extent that she would rather than be with you than ANYTHING else be it another dog or prey or other lickable people or anything. After all, she has no inkling that all the other people in the world don't want to love her and play with her just as much as you do as they look very similar to you in her eyes. Practice her recall at home often, get friends and family to help as well, if she is too over excited in her greetings then make sure she is ignored until she calms down and behaves well. With other dogs, until you can be sure that she won't bolt off the only way you can protect her safely is by leashing her when you see another dog approach. Obviously this is not much fun and often much easier said than done with a sighthound who probably sees other dogs before you do anyway, but you must act responsibly until you can rely on her. At 11 months she is still young enough to attend classes, whether or not she went to them as a small pup. At this stage in her life it won't be for socialising purposes but to teach her that good behaviour and manners are expected from her even in the presence of other dogs. I do wish you luck with her, pups are such great fun but there are so many worries in the big outside world for us owners to worry about! Please post some pictures, we'd love to see her!
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honey
New Member
Posts: 4
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Post by honey on Aug 30, 2011 15:47:24 GMT 1
Thank you for answering. Honey does attended training but it was off for a few weeks over the summer. I have been watching her over the last few days & think my children have been letting her do things she is not supposed to so she is try it on a bit. I was also advised to get a 10 metre lead for the park but im having real trouble getting to grips with it. Im back at training tonight so hopefully il get her back on track soon.
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