Last fall, I took Cat-dog to a pack walk. Unfortunately, it is just too far out for a weekly one hour walk (the drive is longer than the walk). So I decided to try to start one locally. I posted on the nextdoor app and got a good number of interested folks. Tonight we had our first walk. No dog interactions. No expandable leashes. It went great! Everybody was wonderful. We had some reactive dogs (Cat-dog included), but everyone worked their dogs great. Tornado-dog made a new friend - one of the walker's daughter was there and she walked him. He did real well with her. We're going to do this weekly. Hopefully a few other walks for different times and locations will start up. I'd love to see this become a regional thing.
That sounds great fun. We used to attend mass Beagle meets in secure freedom fields. It is amazing how they form an instant pack, and get on so well when they have the chance to be their natural selves. Except for my angel Merry - who quickly worked out which owners had the best titbits, and would tell them that they were the nicest hoomans in the world, and she would be their devoted slave. An absolute tart!
This is on leash only. The local shepherd rescue group mentioned the one to help Cat-dog with her dog fear. She is truly terrified of other dogs. This lets the dogs and people walk near each other in a controlled setting so the dogs learn that being near another dog isn't always bad and that they will ignore her so she can ignore them. She is still extremely stressed when outdoors at all. But she is learning to handle that stress. My goal is for her to be able to be outdoors without that constant fear of being attacked at the sight of another dog.
