Walking the dog

It sounds like such a simple thing to do, you put the lead on you take the dog, you throw a ball as you stomp round, of course nothing is ever as easy as you think sometimes.

We try and walk Max (the dog) a minimum of 2 times a day, its normally 3 and recently we have introduced a 4th walk, late at night on lead. Normally the other 3 are off the lead.

The field we walk him in is used a lot by dog walkers, but its huge and Max with all his issues towards other dogs won’t go near another dog, if they are close to him, its when he will go for them. On this basis its my responsibilty to make sure he stays away from other dogs, we have sussed out when the field is less used and we use that time to walk him off the lead and throw the ball for him, which he loves.

Having said that if we do see a dog, which seems to be walking towards us, he goes on the lead and we walk away. Just to add Max’s recall is amazing, we have worked hard on it, because we might have to call him at a moments notice.

Also I am usually with the toddler and Max on at least one of those walks so I have an eye on the dog and an eye on the toddler, those walks are usually the shortest, which is why we have introduced the fourth walk.

What happened today was when I was with both the toddler and Max. We walked to the park, and I noticed a golden retriver at one end. I took Max and my son to the opposite end, it was as we walking I noticed we had Gizmo following us, I think maybe you can see where that is going. But we were a football pitch (soccer) away from this dog, so I kept walking away. Turned my head to see the dog bounding up to Gizmo, I am not sure if he caught Giz or not, but Giz fled, and while I get this is going to happen, for a dog owner to stand, watch and laugh rather than call his damn dog back really pisses me off.

Its at that point I should of called it a day, but no, my stubborn streak sets in, I am now a good 3 football pitches away from this dog and his owner.

I manage to throw the ball a good few times, when I notice the dog and his owner had moved to maybe 2 football pitches away and even though I couldn’t make out his  features I am fairly sure he was watching us, we move away again and by this point we are at the edge of the park.

Throw the ball a few more times, I think I have given you an idea of how big this park is and yet this damn owner keeps moving his dog closer.

I am still sure I can call Max back at this point since there is like a flimsy fence the dog would have to jump over for a direct line. Yep thats right, he jumps over the fence and comes closer, by this point I have had enough, the guy is calling the dog, I can hear him whistling. I get this retriever was only trying to be friendly but there is only so much I can do to let people know he is not friendly towards other dogs. The harness, which isn’t much good if you are going to stand so far away I can’t make out your face, then you are not going to make out his harness. Walking away, which ever way I took Max the dog would run that way and lie down and wag his tail.

But this dog had no recall, don’t take the dog off his lead if he is not going to come back.

And then we hit the snag, the terrior that has a thing for Max suddenly comes charging in to the park, guessing someone opened his front door, cause his owner was charging behind him yelling his name. So I am now blocked in, I was just debating if I could boot the terrier when the retriever suddenly decided that the white thing making a beeline for my dog looked much friendly and ran towards him. I don’t know what happened, as I hustled my little boy and max, and thankfully Giz jumped out of a tree out this park.

I was tempted to go back and confront the retrievers owner, but it would of involved me taking my son, which is not good. So I have left it.

If you got to the bottom of this well done