This may be a bit long ... so you may want to get confortable!!!
As some of you know, I have a neighbor who has some "somewhat strange" and some "old fashioned" views on how to raise a dog. You may also know that over the past year I have been offering my knowlege and skills (sometime unwanted or unsolisited) to help educate him and at the same time maybe help them raise the dog to be a respected member of the family.
Well, over the winter I have watched the dog become more and more wild and uncontrolable. The dog is very kind and well meaning. It is not dangerous or mean, but she has NO social skills. On a scale of 1-100 she is a minus 50. She has been allowed to do as she pleases with only minimal training.
Last summer i took Patchs over to play on several occations and after a few minutes of introduction they would play for a few hours with no problems. But today was a different story.
It has been 5 months since thier last play session, but they have seen each other thru the chainlink fence every day.
I walked thru the gate into thier yard with Patchs on a leash. Once I was inside, I made her sit to show proper respect. Keta, (the neighbor's dog) was also made to sit about ten feet away from the gate, but she was not able to remain calm. (She was bouncing all over and trying to pull away to get to Patchs). It took about ten minutes for the "ritual introduction" and then Keta was allowed to get up. I kept Patchs on her leash until we reached the grassy part of the yard (30 seconds) and then i let her go.
Almost instantly, Keta was leaping at and jumping on Patchs. Patchs was NOT happy. She began to snap and bark at Keta and it got pretty physcal. No biting or fighting, but I was afraid that we were going to have a fight if it were allowed to go on, so I took the leash and put it on Keta and used it to control her jumping and charging. Keta was the one making the contact, Patchs was just trying to stop her from doing it.
It was very clear that Keta was not aggressive, she was only trying to play, but she CLEARLY was not doing it in a social and exceptable manor. Her method was to jump and pounce and physcally control the situation.
With Keta on the leash, Patchs knew that I was protecting her, so she went into "teacher mode". For the next hour and 35 minutes, I stood there with my leash on Keta while Patchs held a series of classes on socialization. My neighbor stood there with his lower jaw in the grass as he watched and I explained what Patchs was doing. I explained that with her actions and her sounds she was showing and telling Keta what "was" and wasn't" exceptible behavour.
As the time passed you could see Keta's intenity level drop, and she went from jumping and charging to a more playful posture. Everytime Keta would start jumping or charging, Patchs just walked away and sniffed around the yard, or went up on the deck or something. After a few minutes she returned and they began again. It was really amazing to watch. And i NEVER called her back, she came back when Keta was ready. It was very interesting to see that everytime Patchs walked away, Keta just laid down next to me and quietly watched what Patchs was doing.
By the end of the session, Keta was much more relaxed and she were beginning to approch, sniff and lick Patchs' face like normal dog.
My neighbor was spechless ... we are going to get together tomorrow and start over again. I think an hour or two tomorrow will make a big difference. i hope to have them playing together buy next weekend, but we will need to do this every day this week to make that happen.
OH BTW, did I mention that I was SO PROUD of Patchs????
When Patchs is done, Neka will begin "Finishing School" classes !!!