More puppy info at the breeder’s website Shiloh Ridge Retrievers (SRR) or here

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After practicing off-lead heeling.

Very Nice

And a little running.

Thunder In The Lead

And a little searching for birds.

Trying To Catch A Scent

Still No Birds

The 2 brown dawgs made their way down the road to the point where they are normally put back on lead.

Wrong Way Storm!

Back On Track

Just About To The End Of The Road

Where the road curves, you can either go left into the forest, or right which keeps you on the road.     Jodi Stone thought maybe we put the dogs back on lead at this point because it is a busier road.  Yes and no.  It is not busier in terms to cars because we really are in the middle of nowhere.  There are other houses and cabins, but it isn’t on the way to anyplace so there are normally few people except on lovely fall weekends when people are trying to rake leaves and get their places ready for winter.  More people mean more dogs.  As is typical of a place in the middle of nowhere, people don’t tend to leash their dogs.  We have found that once we round that bend in the road, if there are going to be off lead dogs, that is where they will be.

Storm Still Wondering Where The Birds Went

This walk was no different.  I don’t know what it is about the 2 brown dawgs, but dogs always seem to want to run up to them.  It is one thing if they are friendly dogs.  However, more often than not they are not friendly and when the other dog gets up to the 2 brown dawgs, it looks them right in the eyes and starts growling and showing teeth.  Usually the owner of the dog is running behind calling, but the dog is ignoring them.  Well neither Thunder and Storm are going to put up with an aggressive dog in their face.  They won’t go looking for trouble, and have nice even temperaments, but once a dog tries something, they lose all patience.

Image by photos for fun via Flickr

The first dog we met up with on this walk was a black lab.  He looked friendly with tail wagging.  He got part way to us and we stopped and waited.  He actually returned to his owners when called.  The people were raking leaves in their yard and they promptly got some rope and tied him up.  OK that was no problem.  We continued on.  We were almost home when out from a neighbor’s front yard, came a charging Bull Mastiff.

The dog belongs to the neighbor’s son and is an intact male.  He ran right up to Thunder and started to growl and show teeth.  Thunder did not care for that.  Thunder has a personal line with unfriendly dogs.  He is OK until that line is crossed and then he will let the other dog know that it should back off.  He growled and snapped back at the dog.  The mastiff probably had 30-40 pounds on Thunder, (he was big), but he backed right off.  Thunder is not one to pursue a fight and as soon as the other dog backed off, he relaxed a bit.  Thunder was on lead, so a gentle pull moved him several feet  from the other dog and luckily the other dog did not move toward Thunder.  Our neighbor called the dog and he returned to the yard.  Of course there were apologies and the usual, “he never did that before”, but for a few minutes it was tense because the other dog sure seemed like he wanted to throw his weight around.

We just don’t understand what it is about our dogs that attract all of these charging dogs.  I have even had small, aggressive dogs, come charging across the street when I have been walking Thunder.  (Small dogs don’t seem to bother him, except that they can get all the way under for sniffing.  ).  Maybe it is because he is intact and they somehow know it even though they are quite a distance away?  It is a mystery.  I suppose we could chalk it up to Storm being an intact female, but it has happened enough times when Storm was not walking with us that I don’t think that is it.  Thoughts?  Ideas?

Don't Tread On Me

Luckily another weekend has arrived.  Waterfowl season is drawing to a close for us, so Storm is getting her chance to go this weekend.  She hasn’t gone at all this year and we are hoping she can get some retrieves.  Thunder will be miffed because he will be stuck home.  I hope to catch up on my blog reading/commenting since I will have some precious free time.  I have been trying to go back and reply to some of the great comments posted over the last few days.  I hope to catch up on that this weekend.

Have a great weekend!

Related articles

• Fall Walk (2browndawgs.com)