Most Eventful Walk Ever

Took the belt with me that lets me clip on the long line (love it, very useful) and went to the field. Lots of kids but no dogs, so Loki had a good sniff about and a run and we played with the frisbee. Unfortunately he was then distracted by the wing of a bird (an already-dead bird, I should add). He started eating it and wouldn't drop it so I took it from his mouth which, happily, he let me do without so much as a growl . On the other hand, he did manage to eat a few small pieces of bone that he swallowed too quickly so it seems that, although he isn't possessive or growly anymore, he's very hit and miss with actually dropping things. Need to work on that. Then he found a seagull head and decided to eat it but thankfully dropped it when I told him to, but he must have eaten a piece because he was coughing a bit.

Then with all that drama over, we continued playing with the frisbee when loads of people with dogs came onto the field. I'm sorry to sound deluded, but Loki was the best behaved dog there he was ignoring them for the most part, but even when he was looking, he wasn't trying to run to them. Then a young Labrador came up to him, ignoring his owner, and they had a good sniff, Loki didn't even bother jumping on it like he usually does. The woman was a bit rude, she gave me a glare like I'd done something wrong when Loki was on the long line. He did give me rope burn by unexpectedly running the other way though, so that was injury number one. Injury number two was the frisbee bending my nail back on the same finger he hurt a while ago. I'm cursed

All in all, some good and some bad, but mostly good. I'm hugely impressed by him ignoring other dogs, and more importantly, because I had my hands free because of the belt, I discovered that getting him to do tricks even when dogs are around (there were five at one time) keeps him focused on me. I complain about the bad and ask for advice a lot, so I wanted to share the good too (sorry it's long, by the way).

Sounds like a really positive walk. Ignoring other dogs is a hard one to master. Any time Logan does it I'm nearly in tears from being happy

Well done.

Ah sorry about your injuries but other than that sound like it was good and Loki very well behaved, great stuff
Is the belt better than holding it then? Not seen those but if there good maybe I should get one

That's great Tara, good boy Loki sounds like you had a great time, love the dead bird, head of seagull incident, I haven't had the pleasure of this thank god

Sounds like a rather nice walk and I am pleased to hear that the belt is of benefit. They all suffer from selective deafness at times, even the most perfectly behaved dogs! Really nice post to read

Sounds like Loki has been a very good boy, cannot see why you got the glare from the lady with the Labrador, some people are strange.

I have to wear gloves when Rocky is on the line my hands are in shreds as it is.

Sazzle wrote:Ah sorry about your injuries but other than that sound like it was good and Loki very well behaved, great stuff
Is the belt better than holding it then? Not seen those but if there good maybe I should get one

It is for me, it's a belt used for people who go jogging with their dogs, so it's got a shock-absorbing lead on it, which means he doesn't drag me off my feet. It's useful for me because then my hands are free to throw toys around without worrying about any people or dogs, or to take pictures when I bring my camera

Kathy wrote:Sounds like Loki has been a very good boy, cannot see why you got the glare from the lady with the Labrador, some people are strange.

I have to wear gloves when Rocky is on the line my hands are in shreds as it is.

I'd wear gloves, they'd be very useful, but they'd probably make the lead more susceptible to slipping, so I've been suffering the rope burn. That's the only downside to it really, but it was mostly because it was unexpected so the line just went sliding through my hands.

I might look into that then, thanks Tara