A gorgeous January morning, and Sami and I were out for a caniwalk. We learned this ‘sled dog walking’ from Alexandra Sgier, who presented it in Susan Garrett’s Home School Wag Nation.
Sami had struggled with leash walking; everything in the environment would send him into overdrive; whether it was dogs, people, or bunnies. Caniwalking was something he took to, with confidence.
Today, we were greatly tested, and he came through like the champion he is.
A woman approached with a large bully breed dog. Her body language and the dog’s suggested that things might not go well, but Sami was trotting ahead of me beautifully, staying on his line, on the opposite side of the street, so I decided to continue.
We passed them, Sami calmly trotting forward; me walking briskly behind him. I kept my eyes and chest forward. From the corner of my eye, I saw the dog lunge at us, pull the owner off balance, and heard his deep snarls as he dragged her towards us.
I turned in one smooth, subconscious movement, and gathering Sami’s line, we leapt down into the low ditch to my left, scrambling up the other side, and into the neighbour’s yard. Luckily, she held fast to his leash. I was less lucky last time, when an American Bull dog escaped its handler, chased and attacked us. Here’s where you can read that story.
I turned to find the woman yelling angrily at her dog, berating and physically threatening him.
“Don’t punish him”, I called. It’ll only make things worse” She continued.
“Just move him along, so we can go our own way, OK?
She was unable to respond, but in a few moments, she did as I asked.
When they had gotten far enough away, I emerged from the brush, jumped the ditch back to the road, and we continued on.
From the moment we passed that staring, lunging and snarling dog, Sami hadn’t reacted. He had smoothly followed me into the ditch and beyond, then waited calmly as I spoke to the woman when she screamed at her unfortunate dog. My high drive, intact male Schipperke didn’t react. He followed my lead, and trusted me. It doesn’t get any better than that.