Question about associating one thing with another.

I'm just curious about this after our morning walk today.

Cali and I were strolling along when she looks back to see two women walking on the other side of the road. She gets a bit behind me and when she feels a slight tug on the leash, she runs to catch up and proceeds to slam relatively hard into my leg, I think she was trying to look back and run at the same time. Anyways, she then becomes almost panicky and starts running ahead, tail down and is continuously looking back at the people walking. This continues for a couple more minutes until they're no longer anywhere's to be seen.

So, I'm wondering if perhaps she associated the pain from hitting my leg with the people walking. It just wasn't like her to act like that, and the only time she's ever done it before was when a larger dog ran at us barking from behind a fence.

I have no definitive answer, but my gut says no - that she wouldn't associate the slam into your leg with the women. Only because they were so far away. But obviously I can't be sure.

Perhaps she was just quite spooked by them for whatever reason. Unfortunately Abby has a long standing dislike of people walking behind her. The same people can walk beside her or in front, but when they are behind she keeps looking back and is obviously uncomfortable. I've taken to letting people overtake us or crossing roads as I want walks to be as fun and enjoyable as possible.

Yeah, I think it was more that those particular women spooked her for some reason. Sounds like she was already checking them out before she ran into you.