Haven't written for a few days because I've been out of town. Zorro is making amazing progress in overcoming his fears. I took him for a run this afternoon and he didn't want to come home. Such a change from a few weeks ago, when he didn't want to wander more than 10 feet from our back gate.
We still have work to do. He continues to bark at the moon, or what he thinks is the moon. Today was overcast, with the sun peaking out from the clouds. That was enough for Zorro: he barked most of the way home from Berkeley Springs.
He understands when I say "enough" that he's supposed to stop barking. The trouble, though, is that when he goes back to the window, the moon is STILL THERE, triggering another round of barking.
We also need to work on his behavior with other dogs. Last week, Denny went running with him before work and didn't see a little white dog right in their path. Zorro pounced on the dog (maybe he thought it was a sheep?) Denny was able to pull him off and I don't think any harm was done, but I'm sure the owner didn't appreciate having a 56-pound border collie on top of her dog.
My strategy is one of constant vigilance: if I see a dog coming, I try to get Zorro off the path, or if that's not possible, turn him around. That works pretty well; from a distance, he will sit and stay, but if we get too close, he loses it.
We had an interesting encounter during today's run. As we were approaching the top of a hill, I saw a woman with two dogs on long leashes approaching the path from a side street. I put Zorro in a sit/stay. Then, one of the dogs became entangled with a biker, resulting in a typical Arlington confrontation.
The dog woman insisted that it was a footpath, available to all, and the biker insisted that she was violating Arlington's 10-foot leash law. That caused the woman to say, "There should be a law against your shorts!" The man responded, "There should be a law against your mouth!" Meanwhile, poor Zorro was stuck in a sit/stay, waiting for permission to proceed. I was very glad I didn't have a dog in that fight.
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Just catching up!!! People are amazing. I do think bikers are riduclous on some of the paths in NoVA...I got ran into by a weekend Lance Armstrong wearing khaki shorts once while I was on rollerblades. BUT people are crazy to have riduclously long leashes. People pay big bucks to train their dogs how to heel for a reason.
ReplyDeleteNice note from the rescue! Happy to hear Zorro is enjoying your runs more regularly!