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Aria has had her second set of shots now, so I feel more comfortable taking her out and about. She's about 12 weeks old, and 2lbs.
Today I took her over to the park across the street. She LOVED bounding through the tall grass, but when a family approached, she shrunk away and tried to hide. They didn't approach aggressively or too quickly, so I picked Aria up and held her for them to pet her.
Then we made our way over to the off leash area and there were only two other dogs there, so I thought we'd give it a try. At first, it seemed like it was going well, the one dog was also a chihuahua and he made some moves to invite Aria to play and she started to show interest in it, I encouraged her and she started to go running after him, but as soon as the tables turned and he started running after her, she tucked tail, YELPED and tried to run away. I picked her up and the other chi basically lost interest (which was too bad, because he seemed really nice and quiet).
I put her down again after a couple of minutes and the other dog came over to investigate her. It was also a nice quiet dog who just seemed very curious about Aria, but she would have none of it, she hid behind me, cried, tried to climb into my lap etc.
Now, when I've taken Corona over to the off-leash park, she has shown serious terror, to the point of drooling, and everything in her body language screams "FEAR"... it's NOT that bad with Aria, but I obviously really don't want it to go there with her.
What is the best way for me to handle these situations? With people I'd just pick her up and hand her over to them.. that method worked really well for Corona.. but with other dogs, I just don't know what to do.
We are going to a Chihuahua meet up on Sunday, and then on Monday I start puppy gymboree classes with Aria.
I don't think "rescuing" her from these situations is the best way to handle it, but I'm not sure what is.. help please?
Today I took her over to the park across the street. She LOVED bounding through the tall grass, but when a family approached, she shrunk away and tried to hide. They didn't approach aggressively or too quickly, so I picked Aria up and held her for them to pet her.
Then we made our way over to the off leash area and there were only two other dogs there, so I thought we'd give it a try. At first, it seemed like it was going well, the one dog was also a chihuahua and he made some moves to invite Aria to play and she started to show interest in it, I encouraged her and she started to go running after him, but as soon as the tables turned and he started running after her, she tucked tail, YELPED and tried to run away. I picked her up and the other chi basically lost interest (which was too bad, because he seemed really nice and quiet).
I put her down again after a couple of minutes and the other dog came over to investigate her. It was also a nice quiet dog who just seemed very curious about Aria, but she would have none of it, she hid behind me, cried, tried to climb into my lap etc.
Now, when I've taken Corona over to the off-leash park, she has shown serious terror, to the point of drooling, and everything in her body language screams "FEAR"... it's NOT that bad with Aria, but I obviously really don't want it to go there with her.
What is the best way for me to handle these situations? With people I'd just pick her up and hand her over to them.. that method worked really well for Corona.. but with other dogs, I just don't know what to do.
We are going to a Chihuahua meet up on Sunday, and then on Monday I start puppy gymboree classes with Aria.
I don't think "rescuing" her from these situations is the best way to handle it, but I'm not sure what is.. help please?