Went to practice Talon's car sensitivity and actually practiced his dog reactivity. lol
Took him to the park by the busy road, right before I was going to head home a lady and guy with GSD and Doberman came out of no where. The dogs were on lead and non-reactive so I decided to quickly practice some attention etc, which Talon did great. I thought they were heading up the hill, but they suddenly made a b-line for the center of the park. So I pack my things up to go, but then they let the dogs off lead and the dogs run to either side of the park and ignore their owners every time they called them. :yikes:
I was going to go to the other side of the park and walk around but then the dogs ran off towards the side I was going to as soon as I started walking. I decided to try to cross the busy road so I was at least on the other side if they came towards us, maybe they would stop. Of course this took forever and Talon was by that point a bit overwhelmed by all the cars and it was getting dark so the headlights (which he finds harder to resist chasing) were all on, he did well. Had to get off the sidewalk to let two people pass and of course they stop to talk when all I wanted to do was get home. They gave some advice too, "I had border collie before, let me tell you some advice. They won't listen to a single thing you say and they are nuts Until they hit 2 years old to the day! As soon as they hit their second birthday they are magically perfect dogs!" ...... I was like... suuuuure ok. Because my dog who is sitting there nicely doesn't listen to a thing.
Than we finally started walking again and not 10 steps later a lady with a black dog on a flexi comes around the corner. There was no room next to them and she obviously wasn't planning on stopping it from running up to us if we wanted. We aren't past the park so I can't cross the street so I have to wait while this dog does it's business, which took FOREVER! Than we start walking, almost reaching the corner were we can cross back to our side and a guy comes up with his big brindle mutt that's barking/growling it's head off at us. I go off to the side and keep Talons attention as they pass. Talon kept his cool!
Than on the way back I had to cross the street and there's this yellow lab on a chain a foot away from the fence going nuts. I can't cross the street because there is no sidewalk and it's a busy road. So I immediately do our "oops, this way" and turn around so Talon doesn't react. And wouldn't you know it, the brindle dog is headed right at us! >_<
I pull him towards these apartments so we are on the other side of these cars and but they are actually going to the apartments. oops. So I tell Talon this way again and get him to sit and he did SOOOO well!
We then have to make our way past the fence running lab going nuts a foot away from the sidewalk. I was a bit worried because it was soo close, going nuts, AND Talon already had a lot of self control, but he did so fantastic! Attention was kept on me except two times where I had to bring him back to me by walking backwards a bit. But both of those time there was no reaction, he just stopped to look at the other dog for minute and came back to me as soon as I started moving backwards, no tension on the leash even.
So, even though we were bombarded by so many dogs within a block of walking, a few of the dogs were being super reactive, and it took 30 minutes to get home along a busy road at night, Talon did fantastic!!
This kind of makes me think he's ready for a visit to an agility trial (at least for a short while) even more. If he could handle all of that so well within a block of walking, for nearly 30 minutes, I don't think he'll have a problem outside an agility comp. ^_^