by call2arms » November 22nd, 2009, 1:25 pm
I feel for you too, Liz. Some days are ok, I'm more patient, and some days I lose it too.
Last night, it as with a cat. The damn thing sprung out of a corner and just stood there, hacles up and back rounded. Jessie went apes*it, lunging and growling and her leash was around my legs and almost made me fall... She's on a 1.5 inch flat leather collar, I lost it and as I grabbed her collar and pressed her butt to force her into a sit and calm-the-f*ck down she let out a yelp (come on, I give her play-butt slaps that hurt a lot more than grabbing a collar)... We kept walking, and the damn cat kept running after us! It was looking for it, I swear. Obviously with all the growling at the cat and yelping out of no-pain I got a real good dirty look from a guy who just came out of his driveway.
Then this morning... We walk, and someones comes into the same street (other side) as us with a samoyed on a flexi. It didn't even look at Jessie, but as soon as she heard him, she was all hackles up and pulling to get past the car to see him. I was able to really calmly make her sit, and then lay down (she was whining in protest) and you should have seen the look of the samoyed's owner... It was like I was torturing her or something, even though I was standing up straight as she was whining in her down.
But most times I don't care about the way people see me... Because I'm doing my best to keep my dog under control while their dogs just do whatever they want, pulling is ok, barking is ok, running around on a flexi is ok... My dog is simply not allowed to be a jerk and while I'm also trying to keep it positive, sometimes I lose it and just give her a correction/force her into a sit so that she'll actually snap out of whatever she's doing.
Sometimes I do wish I was better at being consistant, she was great in training class, would heel even with tons of other dogs around, but dammit, even the treat-distributor method loses it's interest in the streets.
“Your birth is a mistake you'll spend your whole life trying to correct.” Chuck Palahniuk
I love pus but I hate people.
I can say words like undifferentiated gonads now!