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I tried to send this via pm so as not to bore the entire forum with my story
but for some reason, each time I click "submit" it says "this page cannot be displayed" and the message doesn't go
)
Ahhh, I feel your pain. Two solid years of obedience and agility training and you just described my walks with Ginger...until DH stepped in.
He decided enough was enough and he walked her exclusively. When she bark, he'd kneel down, hold her firmly by the harness (no pulling) and calmly say "leave it". (Ginger knows "leave it" but I could never get it to work on walks)...Of course, I'm looking at him like "you aren't doing anything I didn't do, it's not going to work". Well guess what? It did. Not only is she the perfect well-mannered pup on our walks now, I can even walk her and she is well behaved for me.
I've reflected on this quite a bit. My trainer always told me that your "emotions travel through the leash" and that I am a bit afraid of the big dogs (true). I thought I was controlling that, but realized...that I do panic a bit and would panic a bit more when she would bark back. I know how quickly a big dog could take her out.
I would have sworn that I wasn't communicating that, but apparently I was. DH's calm assertiveness worked. And it worked faster than you'd think!
P.S. I'm not saying you have to get someone else to walk her, just think about how you are going to react and "feel" when it happens, be prepared, and be calm.
Judy