Today is the day!

Today is the day I will face my fear. I'm going to take Rolo back to the park land that I avoid. After a couple of incidents 6 months ago, I have become totally over protective of my boy. I stopped letting him off lead certainly anywhere the public are, I avoid open spaces where dogs could be loose and I've realized I'm hurting him, through no fault of his own. He's the sweetest nature just purely over excited and desperate to say "Hello" to everyone.

So here we go, I have my bag with poop bags! His squeaky ball, his ball on a rope and his raggy rope. I have a bag with ham chunks and cheese chunks (his favorites) and last but not least The Long Line!! We've already been for a lead walk and now to pack him in the car and do this!! Fingers crossed!!!

good luck.. im sure he'll be fine he just needs all the socializing he can get

Your story sounds exactly like me to be honest. I too became nervous after a few bad experiences and because of that I over protected Logan and avoided potential problems. Like you I also knew this was doing him no good. I've been doing a lot more lately to try and get past it and let him enjoy himself again.

Good luck and let us know how you get on

Hope it all goes well

Good luck, and more importantly try and relax and enjoy it

Don't forget to let us know how it went!

We're back!!! He was a star.. ( I knew it was me with the problem!) Kept him on the long line, first few dogs he met I made sure i kept the long line loose and relaxed, loads of happy chat and kept the meetings short and then moved on. In a quiet area we dropped the line and had a good play with the ball, before I saw a group of about 7 dogs? Rangeing from Collies, GSDs, Spaniels and a ABT so I decided to go for it... exactly the same again, keeping the line as loose as I could but keeping him close, we walked towards them, Well they were full on, barking, manic sniffing, hackles up everywhere... but Rolo was a star, he stood there and let them. The ABT went to grab him, but that was because his owner was fussing Rolo as did one of the Spaniels, but I just gave Rolo a firm "NO" and he backed up closer to me
I'm so proud of my boy today and myself, now to try and make it part of our weekly routine. Over the next few weeks i'll start picking a quieter time so we can start going off the long line but another few trips like that and we'll both be a lot happier

Awesome! It feels great when it works.

Nothing like a good confidence boost.

Well Done

Thank you! Keep at it Mat, you are quite right it's a huge confidence boost, I know there will be the occasional "issue" but we have to keep going. I really hope you and Logan keep going too, my plan is to go and find as many new places to explore as I can locally so that I don't find myself worrying about certain locations just fab new walks

Haha I'm doing exactly the same too. Such a similar situation. I'm actually making a point of walking towards areas where I can see dogs because I know now he is fine

Just gotta keep at it!

Great news!

It's amazing how easily dogs pick up on whether we are confident or not!

Sounds like you have been having the same kind of issues as we have with Rocky. Pleased to hear it went OK for you both. I'm sure that once he realises you are there to take care of things for him he will gain more trust in you and then his behaviour will become much better. Just takes a bit of time that all.

Thank you all Having been out at work and had time to reflect, Rolo's only main problem really is that he's young, stupid and everything is done at full speed. I need to stop expecting him to be like my collie who is now 13 and has always been so reliable. The irony is.... I walk dogs for a living!! I let dogs off all the time, but when it came to Rolo... I was just overprotective and ended up putting way to much pressure for perfection on myself. Lesson learnt... Trust your dog and just have fun

Thats great, well done xxx