I think it’s a symptom of country living. We no longer walk to the park. We no longer encounter homeless dudes, kids on bikes or on playgrounds, strange dogs (mostly), mail carriers, PGE workers or cops. We just don’t. Those things and more were fairly common on our walks in Tigard. I AVOID those things the best I could, but both my dogs were made to cope with random encounters at least several times a week.
Now, nope. Other than visits from friends, trips to practice at various barns (with only agility people there) and the occasional hike, my dogs don’t have to deal with strange things.
And I think this is the major source of Rumble’s newish issues with freaking out at shows.
So, in an attempt to challenge my theory, and also to temper his temper, we drove over to the fairgrounds yesterday. We’ll be having a trial there this weekend, and it’s only like 5-8 miles away. Worth the trip. Of course, there’s no dog-related things going on there. It was basically a ghost town. But I watched carefully to see what his state of mind would be and I learned a few important things:
1. My scavenger with NO prey drive is much more likely to scan the ground for edibles than listen to me, or look to me for comfort. I could tell he wasn’t particularly comfortable on this excursion, but my cheese and “me” weren’t that helpful for him. He was certain he’d miss the chance at some good left-over fair food if he took his nose off the ground.
2. Smells of livestock were definitely worrisome. I didn’t think of this as an issue before. But I could tell his level of stress went up as we neared the livestock barns and ALSO in the actual arena. There were horse hoof prints in the dirt - he really needed to sniff those.
3. Man this dog gets hot easily. I’m actually glad it will be cool and wet this weekend. He’s much more comfy in the non-sunny weather.
4. When you’re in a place you’re not supposed to be and grounds keeper dudes try to stare you down, just keep walkin. ;)
We didn’t stay long. We walked west to east across the grounds because the gates weren’t open on the east end where we needed to be. He actually DID find something on the ground worth eating (to him anyway). So not sure that was helpful. But I feel like even the short visit was enough to give him a picture he can carry into the weekend.
Not sure what else to do about the lack of “city dog” socialization. We’re not that far from urban centers. But I’m not a huge fan of the “type of people” that hang at regular Salem parks. Tammy says she’s found a few parks that are nice and not scary. I should probably find those too, and take my dogs on some walk. Just so easy to NOT do that when they can get plenty of physical exercise right at home… it’s the mental work they’re missing.
*maybe NOT this chill*