My dogs aren't very prey driven but my pup, Bjorn, does get too excited with other dogs to the point where he goes mental if he is restrained in any way. He is also quite dominant towards other dogs and he is getting a bit big for his boots so I am always extra cautious when we meet other dogs. On Sunday, we went for a walk around the top of the village where we live. To begin with we had a couple of horses walking in front so I slowed down our pace and even though he was excited and sniffing the air a lot he managed to stay close and to not pull too much. Then as we walked passed a garden a ball came flying over the fence and two dogs where right up at the fence. I managed to get him to move own with only a little bit of a growl as I pulled him away but he was mostly wanting to go for the ball. After that we had to walk past a field that had a fire that was crackling and apart from a little bit of curiosity he managed to walk past without an issue. Once we got to a nice field I put him on the long line for a bit of a run and some play. While we were there a child ran past, followed by a dog and lastly the father and he only gave them a quick glance. Then a young labrador came up off lead and even though the owner was calling her back the dog just wanted to play and kept sneaking up and doing play bows the whole way. I decided not to shorten the long line and watch as if I pulled Bjorn back I was more likely to get a reaction. They both did some play bows and had a little bit of a play for a few seconds then the owner got close enough that the other dog listened and left and I called Bjorn and he came back straight away. When I thought it was all over a local couple came by with their boxer, who Bjorn does not particularly like as she is very intense. However, she was off lead and I decided to just stand next to Bjorn but not put any pressure on the long line at all. They sniffed each other rather tensly and Bjorn was putting his head over the other dog's body in quite a dominant way. I was getting prepared to interfere when Bjorn gave a growl and the other dog looked away and walked off and when I called Bjorn he turned and happily followed me away.

@Christina Brewster Bjorn is still a pup at only 8 months old so for him most situations are high arousal. At the moment we are working on the basics so simply being able to listen when he is very excited so, for him, it is when there are other dogs around. He works better with movement so we are working on spins, middle on the move and hand touch while there are dogs at about 10 metres. He is still too overexcited if they are closer. Although I do occasionally mix in Freyja's training with Bjorn's as she is a very big distraction for him so he has to do exercises while she stays lying on her bed right next to us or viceversa, he stays in a sit or a lie down while Freyja works on something close by. We are also working on being able to throw a toy and getting him to stay still until we verbally release him to go get it. We started that by using a flirt pole to begin with and asking for a sit after he had had a run around, then releasing him to chase again but we have moved on to actually throwing toys and only letting of of the harness and verbally releasing him when he doesn't pull and sits down first. He has got a bit worse as he has entered the teen phase but we will keep at it until he can listen no matter what is going on around us.

@Christina Brewster Yes, both my dogs are Boxers so they are pretty slow to mature at the best of times. I have to keep reminding myself that Bjorn is only a pup. It can feel like an uphill battle at times but I know we will get there in the end 🥰

The first time I managed to walk past another dog on a path without Freyja losing her mind!. To anyone else it would just be a normal dog walks past dog but for Freyja it marked the point where she felt relaxed and trusted me enough to keep the dog away from her so she felt no need to react to the other dog at all. There were far more important things to pay attention to such as the ball in my pocket 😆

I am really proud of my two this week as we have finally cracked doing a spin without a hand gesture! Sometimes the silliest things are the ones that make me the happiest 😆

So true. It is interesting to see how different dogs take the same thing. I have met dogs in class that a slight raised voice can be taken as the worst thing in the world while other actually love the attention and think raised voices are just part of the game!