My dog Sassafras is for the most part, a very good dog. She loves people, she's well-behaved, she doesn't jump or chew on things. She's known to sneak off and pee on the bath mat if she doesn't get a walk when she wants one, and she's pooped on a friend's carpet twice — but other than that, my little Boston Terrier/Chihuahua mutt is a really good girl.
Well, except when she meets other dogs. Then she turns into a snarling snapping monster prone to lunging and chasing dogs 10 times her size. Stupidest was when she tried to take on a Great Dane. WTF, dog? Are you suicidal? What's wrong with you?
In her former life, Sassy was one of four dogs. I'm guessing she was at the bottom of the food chain and learned to be heinously defensive with the other dogs and so, here we are: unable to introduce her to other dogs without her FREAKING THE FUCK OUT. She makes friends eventually, as we know from her demonstrated fondness for her dogfriend Wyatt. But introductions are always awful, to the point where I apologize to other dog owners before it even happens.
"Is your dog friendly?" they say.
"She gets snappy…" I say.
"Har har," they say. "My Fido is so patient with little dogs," and then Sassfras tries to eat Fido's face.
"Oh I guess I see what you mean," they say, shaking their heads and walking away.
I finally decided that something had to be done. It was stressful for Sassfras and stressful for me, and quite honestly, a little embarrassing too. I'm the lady with the dog she has to apologize for.
I got this book from the library called Click to Calm and have been slowly using its ideas to train Sassafras to be better about meeting dogs… Continue reading »
