That dude with the huskies

You may not remember, but I do, the blog post I wrote about a guy in my neighborhood who walks a pair of reactive huskies and insists on stopping with them in front of my yard while they freak out, my dogs freak out, and I hustle to get my dogs inside. I remember because it was my first blog post on reactive dogs, which began as a flyer that I posted on an envelope on my fence, and hoped this dude would take a copy before someone took it down and scattered my fabulous handouts all over the neighborhood, which happened after a few days. 

This guy has continued to be a thorn in our side, stopping in front of our yard, belligerently yanking his dogs around, and refusing to budge when we encounter him on walks, standing squarely in the middle of the sidewalk while my dogs and I try to get behind someone's house or venture into traffic to get around him. I have daydreamed about a game of chicken in which I would not budge either, but just stand there happily treating my calm, unreactive dog(s) and talking to them in a joyful voice until this guy decided it was time to get himself around us and move on. But that day has seemed far off with my particular pack of nutty excited reactive beasts.


I have reported some success when Fozzie and I can quickly, happily turn and walk away, then walk back towards an approaching dog who is calm. This hasn't worked with the huskies, as those poor dogs are reactive too. Their lunging and stares just make it too hard for Fozzie to get ahold of himself.

With all of Fozzie's work in new training situations, and with learning calm responses through TTouch, we may be getting closer to a day of triumph with the huskies dude. The other night, I was walking Fozzie with his head halter and step-in harness contraption and lo and behold there was that dude with the huskies up ahead. Fozzie tensed, the huskies started lunging, and I backed into a driveway to give us more space (because this is the right thing to do for the dog's well-being). The dude stayed right where he was (because he suffers from an overabundance of pride, machismo, and/or delusional misinformed outdated dog-training mumbo-jumbo that tells him his dogs need to be flooded with the things that upset them until they just get over it). 

Fozzie and I were maybe 20 feet away from them, and once upon a time, I would have had to keep backing up or get behind a building. But at this distance, Fozzie was OK.


He didn't lunge, he just looked. He tensed, but then he sat down and ate treats while watching the huskies. 


I was so blown away I just did a bit of flooding of my own, flooded Fozzie's mouth with tasty delicious treats and flooded his ears with joyful praise as my own heart flooded with pride and relief and happiness. To the guy and his huskies I singsonged out "We'll wait!," letting him know that I was not going to back up any further and that he could figure out how to get around us for a change, while giving in to my essential nature as someone who tries not to make others' lives more difficult by giving him a bit of extra space and not forcing him to walk out into traffic to get around us. 


I am not sure if I strike the right balance. Maybe I should learn to be a bit more...reactive...myself?


More in keeping with my nature is to set the right example, and to continue managing Fozzie in the way that works best for Fozzie. 


If we continue with our program of slow and steady, positive, sub-threshold counterconditioning and desensitization, Fozzie will inevitably become calmer in the presence even of reactive dogs. And it will become impossible even for the likes of our young friend to deny the power of what we are doing. Which would be good news for those huskies indeed.