DOG PARK SERIES

This is a collection of emails announcing my Dog Park Series to students and friends followed by posts describing each one in the series.

Saturday, March 12, 2005

REDFORD, A FOLLOW UP

I would also like to tell you a bit about Redford, the Golden that Kathy is fostering. At Saturday's Dog Park we put Redford in with the good teachers. His behavior with other dogs was a complete unknown.

"Aztec and Redford both elicited a more watchful eye from the teacher dogs.The two of them were similar in their styles of approach - just a little too fast and too head on. The dogs, even Daisy!, were right on top of that and kept very tight boundaries on both of these dogs. Aztec never got into any kind of a play rut which was great. We did not challenge either of these dogs by exposing them to much in the way of players at this time. Next time we'll up the ante on these two a little bit."

Kathy brought Redford over yesterday to have a harness fitted. We put him off leash with Joey and BJ. BJ hung out in the background while Joey andRedford tried to sort out how they might play together. It was quite impressive to watch!

Redford pushed Joey too much and Joey would just flop to the ground in a submissive pose. This wasn't doing much for changing Redford's approach! Joey had to do some hiding between Kathy's legs or mine every once in a while. Just when Joey thought he could make a play signal, Redford would come on too strong. Joey would go running off with a mix of play and running away which further aroused Redford.

A few rounds of that and Redford started to get it that play wasn't happening and he backed off nicely. This gave Joey a break in which he was able to stop making play signals and just sit back. That then gave Redford a chance to sit back too.

From there they evolved to more appropriate attempts at play. Joey could even turn his head away and Redford even read that correctly!! This is a big step for both dogs. Joey for giving a signal and Redford for reading it. It was quite impressive. Had Joey continued to respond with dramatic submissive responses, it could have easily brought out the worst in Redford.

BJ, of course, had things to say about them occasionally. There's a reason I have him out with me when testing new dogs!

Eventually Redford and Joey started play wrestling in close and Redford started nose-poking Joey while grunting/growling. Joey tried submission, that didn't change things, Redford kept poking. We gave Joey a good chance to change things but he couldn't so we interrupted Redford (a la JeanDonaldson) and had him relate to me for a minute. Then back to play.

And that was the end of the poking!!!! That was pretty darned amazing!! From then on Joey and Redford were at the sniffing/getting to know each other stage and they did very well at it.
What I found so interesting is that one interruption of Redford stuck in a play rut and he got out of it completely. Wow!!

Helix