Summer brags!

MissMutt said:

That sounds awesome - I wish you had video. Honestly though despite the major agility accomplishments I think the no-snark day is extra sweet.. because I know what that feels like!

I have a question, though, because from your posts it seems like Summer is a bit dog-reactive.. how do you deal with it in offleash classes? Did her focus get better with time? Marge has snarked a couple of times at fast moving dogs and I haven't really tested her being offleash with other dogs training hard offleash in very very close proximity.

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Yeah, Summer's dog reactive. It can be a challenge but she's not *too* bad. In our class we have 2 DR dogs and a DA dog and we manage just fine. Two dogs have decided they want to kill each other so that's always a challenge. They were okay until an offleash playdate, not during class obviously, where the JRt got run over by the lab. Now the JRT has a vendetta against the lab so those have to always be separated. Our class is mostly on a leash until we're working that dog. So we go out and wait our turn, then when you're in the fence you pull the leash off your dog. Summer is very good though and I tend not to hold her leash if we're just waiting around. She'll just sit there and chill fine until it's her turn.

Summer is a pretty mildly DR dog, imo. She's fine with dogs close to her so long as they don't come up to her face or sniff at her. You can put her next to any dog just fine and have her in crowds with other dogs and she will never react to one. She's also very snooty so if given the choice she will NEVER go greet or go near another dog. Offleash, whatever, it doesn't matter, she ignores them all and pretends they don't exist. As long as the other dog pretends she doesn't exist as well, she's fine. She has a fantastic recall and is very focused so in class she's never started anything with another dog. The only problems we've had are when the other dog approaches us. This only happens when either me or the other owner aren't paying close attention to our dogs and we get too close to each other and the other dog tries to befriend Summer. Usually she just gives a warning growl but she has snapped a couple times. It takes her a LONG time to be comfortable with another dog. It took 3 weeks of constant living with my other dogs to get to where she wouldn't snap at them if they came near her.

As we've been working in group setting, she's gotten MUCH better. She's accepted a couple dogs we've had in class for the most part. (She still likes to set rules for behavior that she won't tolerate) She's sniffed noses with a few no problem (finally!) and taken treats near them. I think the group settings are good for them if you handle it correctly. I made sure everyone in the class knew she was DR at the first class. Most everyone understood because at some point they've had a DR or DA dog and they all do their best to accommodate her space issues and help us try to work through them a bit.