Please respect the dog's personal space!

Bongo is improving really well with our training. Today was our first day of non-individual training, we were in the group with other dogs (puppies). At the start, Bongo was very afraid of the puppies, it took more than half an hour for him to calm down and see that he can control the situation without panicking. The puppies were really helpful as they did not mind Bongo and were taking care of their own business. 

Bongo

Puppy training

Dogs as Bongo, who are very fearful need more space and other dog owners should respect that! If you see a scared dog that does not like the company of other dogs, please recall your dog and put it on a leash, so it can not harass the other dog. This is very important, because the scared dogs seem to attack more often than the aggressive ones. The aggressive dog will bark and most often not bite, but the scared dog will do right the opposite. It will move away and try to escape, but when he will not be able to escape (that happens if the other dogs come too close), he will attack to protect himself.

Who should we blame in that case? Definitely not the scared dog, but the owner of the other dog, who did not respect my dogs (the scared ones) personal space and let his dog come to greet him. Please have in mind that not all dogs like to hang out with other dogs like your does! That goes for people greeting dogs too, so keep in mind that not every dog likes to be petted by strangers or children and try to teach your children how to behave around animals. If you really want to pet the dog you see, always ask the owner first, otherwise you are responsible for your own behavior!

In case of Bongo - we are working on that problem, we are exposing him to well behaved dogs that does not invade in his personal space. If he would be exposed to socially aggressive dogs, he could not improve. We started with introducing him to puppies and we will later continue with more mature dogs. In that way he can improve really fast and we will continue with proper socializing until he gains his self-confidence.  

When we are not with our school group that consists of well behaved dogs, we try to avoid meeting other dogs. In that way Bongo will get only positive impressions from dogs, that will help him improve faster. When we are alone we are practicing the recall, because we did not do it properly when he was a puppy. So all in all we are doing a good job with the help of our great dog trainer (without her, all this would be almost impossible)!

Do not forget to put your dog on leash, especially when you meet unknown dogs!

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