Annie Day 11 Dog Park Exercise
Like 0 Dislike 0 Published on 30 Aug 2013
One of my goals at the onset of the Annie project was to see if we could get this dog relaxed and confident enough to allow her to become interested in play with either humans or dogs. Although I was gradually able to coax her to play with me (I'm human BTW) I had been unable to get her to commit to play with any other dogs........ that is until she decided to surprise us all on her last day at the dog park.
The dog she becomes enamored with is a female named Skruggs. When they first met, only a few minutes prior to the video, there was immediate animosity on Annie's part which surprised me since this was not a behavior I had seen for several days. Skruggs had been calm and polite but for whatever reason Annie took an instant dislike to her. It took me about 10 minutes to work it out between them. I did this by using ever escalating levels of dominance. Annie was finally forced to submit to Skruggs's presence and once she had given it up, they became friendly beyond even what I might have hoped or expected.
For all those that believe that dominance rituals are "old school and ineffective", you may want to rethink that position. Every dog is different and none should be pigeon holed by a trainer simply because the trainer is uncomfortable or lacks sufficient knowledge about a given technique to see it's merits or use it effectively.... Just ask Annie.