We do a lot of our training in the local city parks. It isn’t ideal, but it is convenient. Last week I posted this picture of one of our recent training sessions.
This happens all of the time. People will see us working the dogs and pull up a seat or stop and watch. Sometimes they will ask questions and sometimes they just move on.
We are thankful to have these parks close by, but training in city parks can also provide some challenges. There can be a lot of distractions for the dogs, which can be good and bad.
We have to fit in with the other people who are also using the park. Say with people who are fishing. Sometimes we have to adjust what we were planning to train because there are just too many people using the a certain area of the park. We try to find areas that are not being used at that moment.
We also have had some interesting encounters. Many times a dog off lead has run up on the dogs while they were training. People think their dogs have perfect recall until there is a big time distraction and then recall? What recall?
One time we were trying to train water and there were some people who were training their 10 month old puppy. Even though we were there first, when they showed up, we moved to the other side of the water area to give some space. We had Freighter with us so of course the guy had to come over and compare notes on puppies. 🙂 Unfortunately they did not have the best recall (or any recall) on that puppy. When it came time to work with Thunder, we were using ducks and when puppy got a whiff of them, he came a running. Thank goodness he did not get to Thunder or the duck. There is a good reason to use a check cord on a puppy. 🙂
This training session was a bit frustrating because as we were working the dogs, trying to avoid the people with the puppy, a guy showed up to run his remote control sailboat in the pond. He set out these float things on a long line.
I guess it was another good training experience for Thunder because he had to sort of swim past the float right in front of him to bring back the duck. The weird thing about the guy (in the background of the picture) was that he dragged all of that stuff out, ran his boat around it once, and then packed up. We weren’t going to be using the water more than 10 minutes tops, so you would think he could have just asked how long we planned to be there and then we could have worked it out so we each had our space. Ah well maybe next time.
One of the most interesting encounters we had recently was Memorial Day when we went to train early in the morning to beat the heat. Since it was a holiday there was only one other person in the park and they were fishing way around the other side of the lake. All of a sudden this guy showed up walking his dog on a long lead. He was sort of milling about where we had our set up for water training. Now this is a decent sized lake with a lot of room to spread out if he wanted to swim his dog. But he was just hanging around where we were working. After we finished training Storm, my husband went to bring Freighter out and was working on his recall before we threw him some water marks. The guy was still just hanging around with his dog. Freighter spotted the dog and of course he wanted to play. First we don’t let him play with strange dogs. But more importantly, this is training and we try to keep play and training separate.
Finally I said to the guy: “We are trying to train our puppy.” I hoped he would get the hint and move on. He didn’t. He said: “It is hard, isn’t it?” I take that as my chance. My response: “Yes, it is and I would appreciate it if you would move down.” With that he left to walk around the lake.
Too blunt? 🙂
I have found that many people are completely clueless about their dogs (and kids). I train my dog not to run up on strange people and dogs. I wish others would extend the same courtesy. I think it’s a naivete that leads them to believe that all dogs are excited to have a playmate.
Sometimes I just don’t know what people are thinking. You’d think you would naturally give everyone there space. It sounds like training at the city parks can be a real challenge for both dogs and humans. Good distractions for the dogs to overcome though! 🙂
Sometimes we have no other option than to be blunt. People suffer from HUTAS (Head Up Their A** Syndrome) it is a huge epidemic, millions upon millions of people have it and it isn’t even officially listed as a disease so sadly no-one is working on a cure. 🙁
Sampson has a good recall until there is another dog…..or person that interests him, then he forgets totally about me. Never fear though, we will be working on this.
I love the parks you have, I suppose I should check out parks in our area where the dogs might be able to swim. It looks like you had a fun time though. 🙂
Gosh! You guys are lucky ~ where we live dogs have to be on leashes at all times in the parks. It makes it hard to do any distance training or have any fun swimming! Mom’s trying to find someplace (safe) where she can take us to swim and so far hasn’t had any luck. 🙁
Your Pal,
Hero
Regardless of the PEOPLE in your city, the park is astonishlingly beautiful!! And what a great opportunity to train!
Blunt is sometimes necessary. Obviously, it is a public area in a park, but some people just don’t get it. Happens to us all the time with me being a very small dog….even on a leash, sometimes it’s just easier to pick me up and move away from the scene. Not fair, especially if we were there first, just easier.
Sometimes, blunt is the only way!
In our area, dogs can’t be off lead for any reason in parks. People follow that rule for the most part, but when someone lets their dog off, others never waste time in calling park officials. And why is it that it’s always untrained dogs who are let off lead?! LOL Your park looks really nice, you’re lucky you don’t have such strict rules.
BTW I thought of you guys today – I saw a woman jogging with a Chessie! 🙂
We are even more impressed with the brown dawgs given that they train so well with all of these distractions! Keep going dawgs!
Bella and DiDi
Nah, you gotta do what you gotta do. And honestly, people are dense so he probably didn’t mind. I find your training experiences so interesting. I wonder if we’ve ever encountered someone training while we were in the park and I didn’t get it either. I am going to pay more attention next time!
No, not too blunt–You were there first and as you said there was a lot of room.–Some people just don’t get it, and I have a feeling they may not have. I’m glad it was a good day what a great place to be able to use!!
Hah, I can be downright abrasive when I think people are being bothersome, I don’t think you were so bad at all! Maybe the guy wondered what kind of training you were doing?
I was discussing today with a coworker how lovely it would be to just have my own private island.
Good for you for being blunt to that guy with the dog on the long line. I never seem to be able to open my mouth, and it is so frustrating working in public places. It’s also hard when you have a dog that is not dog friendly, and you are working on lead, and an off lead dog comes charging up and the owner says, “Don’t worry, he’s friendly!” Argh. I feel your frustration!!
Two years ago I was training with Sophie and Dakota at our local park and the police chased me off because I didn’t have them on leash. I normally like the distractions that others cause, because although it makes training tougher, it teaches the dogs to focus in the midst of distractions. But I’ve had to chase off other people and dogs as well – now that our dogs are older,I can tolerate bystanders but have a real problem with strangers who start giving advice. Those kind of distractions are especially tough when you’re training a pup.
Not blunt at all, and I need to learn how to stand up for my dogs and my training and ‘tell people off’ nicely, especially when doing desensitization training. Some people just don’t get it …
Oh – I wish I could be more blunt like you! I’m always a wimpy Chinese polite pathetic thing, fuming inside but too scared/nice to be blunt to people outside!! 😛
Loved this post! I am one of those people who actually really enjoys training in public places as I love the unexpected challenges that dishes out – I feel that it keeps me & the dog our our toes, instead of falling into some kind of zombie ritual (which is what I complain about with a lot of the ‘formal’ obedience competitions, where the dogs know exactly when to turn righ/left and it’s just like a drill inside the ring – not a real test of the dog’s obedience under pressure at all!). Besides, I feel that the whole point of training is so you can use it when those “unexpected challenges” pop up – I always remember Ian Dunbar saying at a seminar that no dog is really fully “Trained” until you know he can perform/respond in all situations – and since you can never cover ALL the situations, training is never finished! 🙂 But every situation you test and conquer, is one more under your belt. It’s what makes your dog “reliable”. What’s sad is that most people don’t really make the effort to work their dogs in any situations beyond the training class and around home – or in those sterile competition rings. That’s just like teaching a child just to read 4 books over & over again – as opposed to constantly taking them to the library to keep borrowing new books and learning new things.
Hsin-Yi
Argh!! Think my comment has gone into the spam folder again!! 😉
ps. forgot to add – we also follow your rule about not playing/mixing with strange dogs (in general – although I will make a case-by-case assement when we meet people in the park. If we meet a particularly nice dog & sensible owner, we will make an exception – otherwise we would never make friends!) – and also about separating training and playing. We also don’t socialise when on leash – which is something the average pet owner just can’t understand. Then they wonder why their dogs keep dragging them up to every dog in the street that they see…duh…Honey knows that when she is on leash, she can’t just barge up to every dog she sees because that’s how we raised her – very rarely, she might get permission from us to greet another dog on leash but it’s only by permission. Of course, the problem is when you meet idiots who have no idea of dog manners and no control over their dogs – and they just let their dogs drag right up to you! GRRRRRRRR! Hsin-Yi
It’s all good experience but it sounds nerve wracking for you!
People will always stop to watch, its mesmerizing. The dogs being trained are fun and beautiful to watch. However people don’t think their dog is a problem for the training dog (or kid or anyone else). I must admit to stopping to watch, but never with my dog.