Walking through the woods tonight I had two separate moments of being so so proud of my boys...

I somtimes worry cos to be honest they are a handful and overly bouncy compared to some breeds and being all alone I worry over am I 'raising them' properly, but every now and again they do something that reassures and gives me more faith in just relaxing and enjoying my time with them...

Firstly we were walking along quite a distance from a guy walking his two dogs way ahead... One of his dogs then spots me and mine and races back towards us... it gets a few feet away then throws itself on its belly to creep towards us... It was a king charles spaniel so not sure if this is a behaviour trait or something?! but I thought 'uh oh here we go, it's gonna pounce' and it did The owner realised his dog was hurtling towards us, but did he come back, say anything?! oh no... he just called it once and kept on walking with the other dog his dog promptly ignored him completely and kept jumping on Archie... fortunately it was Arch and not Sonny this dog had picked on, but what I'm getting at is how well behaved my boys were... Cos of a few previous incidents involving my dogs (past and present) being jumped on by dogs off lead whilst mine are on lead (due to irresponsible owners ) then I've tried to get my dogs to calm down and 'sit and wait' if we're being harassed by some nippety hound like we were tonight.. And my boys were wonderful Esp Arch who normally freaks out and gets all submissive and lets the 'attacking dog' do whatever it wants to him... Anyhow, they sat like angels... The owner finally realised after calling his dog about 10 times and it ignoring him that it was being a nuisance, so he started to head towards us, his dog finally seemed to hear him and legged it away.... the owner didn't even apologise or anything, in fact I think he 'tutted'

Hmm... anyways, carried on with walkies, proud that the guys were calm and not phased and hunky dory...

Gets nearly to the end of the woods, and see a couple, don't spot a dog but see a lead in the womans hand, so am sure there'll be a dog somewheres nearby... All of a sudden a terrier comes flying out of nowhere - it really was a fast 'un! Again, straight for Arch... am hoping it's just cos Arch walks slightly ahead of Sonny that he gets all the unwanted attention rather than sending out a radar signal or something The woman and the man to be fair tried calling the dog away, it was a fiesty little thing and completely ignored them (why do owners take dogs off lead if no recall skills at all?! thats exactly why mine stay on lead in public places!!) ... but the thing that made me proud of my boys again was a. Sonny was completely ignorant of the dog, it's owners, in fact everything he just lay himself down with a sigh as if to say 'what, again' And Arch did me proud cos the other unruly dog was also called Archie and as the woman owner was shrieking out 'Archie stop, Archie sit, Archie down' etc etc in a bid to reclaim her muppet, then my Archie was sitting, doing down, doing stay it was really quite funny, and I'm so proud my training with him really has sunk in and is so worth it ....

was funny and stressful all in one go, but the boys did wonderfully and no harm done so no major problems...

Tho I do miss the times when I could walk my dogs and not be set upon by other dogs whose owners just look on and do nothing .... one of the downsides of owning and walking dogs in a built up city I guess - no quiet places to escape the other members of civilisation

Well done

Let's hope there aren't too many Archies near you Tinks, at least not the wayward ones or your poor Archie will be getting a real training workout

Steve