Himself and I were away at the start of the month for a few days. We left Gus with Daughter no 2 and off we went.
We went to Mayo, a county we’d not visited much before. Despite missing Gus, we had a lovely three days at a very nice hotel, eating too much and relaxing.
On the Thursday morning we booked on the guided walk round the hotel grounds and the neighbouring extensive woodland. I have to admit that although the walk looked interesting, the thing that attracted my attention most was their advertising – it invited people to join Reese the dog and a warden on the walk.
Reese turned out to be a lovely, friendly, quite elderly, German short haired pointer who ambled along with us, happily stopping for the warden to tell us about some feature or other. But she had one foible. Perhaps unsurprisingly, she had decided that the woods belonged to her – I’d noted she had been marking frequently from the very start of the walk. And then she barked and growled at every other dog who walked past. Most of these other owners obviously knew her and remonstrated in a kind though frustrated voice as they passed – “Reese, you know us, silly dog.”
As we came back up to the hotel after a very pleasant 90 minute stroll, we saw a grave to “Valhalla. Born in my arms and died in my arms aged 19 years.” I was initially horrified – how awful to lose a child so young, even with such a dreadful name… But it turned out that the grave was for a much loved predecessor and forefather of Reece. And of course 19 years was a tremendous age for a pointer, so it was not quite so sad to see, once we understood.
A few days after that we came back home to an effusive greeting from Gus who tried to tell us that he’d been abandoned, but who had clearly been very well looked after by Daughter no 2. It was good to be home again though we’d had a great break.
Dogs who react to other dogs are common and a regular reason we’re called in to help. There can be a whole range of reasons why dogs react to other dogs. Common ones include:
– having another, older dog in the household
– lack of socialisation from the owner not understanding its importance
– lack of socialisation because the dog had an illness that stopped them being able to go out and about
– a bad experience, usually at a young age
If you are struggling with your dog reacting to other dogs, please ask us for help. We’ll come and show you how to help your dog to be comfortable with other dogs around.
Keep training
Carol