Last night I was walking Maddi in a place that I walk very regularly (4+ times a week). I also walk her other places, such as the city (where I live), on a well traveled dirt road, and hiking places etc. I even take her in the local petco once every couple of weeks. I do this for socialization because she generally still doesn't trust people and she started to get... I dunno, reactive I guess towards other dogs when we had one bad encounter on previously mentioned dirt road. Nothing terrible happened, except we were harassed by an off leash dog while his owner sat in the car reading. The dog barked at her than ran all over and barked some more... typical unsure-dog-that-needs-to-be-on-a-leash-with-supervision type stuff.
Anyway, within the week, Maddi started going south quickly to the point where she started lunging and snarling at a little pug across the street from us. I took a proactive approach and began rewarding her for civil behavior upon the sight of other dogs. Once she was doing well with that, I trampsed all over the city with her. No response to dogs barking at her got lavishly rewarded, but reactive behavior resulted in us walking the opposite direction and stopping until she made good, solid eye contact with me whenever I said her name. That was rewarded and then we'd try again. She's made great progress, making eye contact with me and obeying commands even with a dog screaming at us through a fence with probably only 15 feet between the dog and us (and of course, the fence).
Fast forward to now. The same problem I've always had keeps popping up. Maddi really does love other dogs, but her interaction with them is limited. Almost always, other dog owners avoid us when they see us coming. For instance, last night a couple with an off leash black lab turned around well before we were close to them... they got in their car and left. It's very frusterating because I don't even get the chance to say "she lacks some doggy social skills, but she's friendly" before they are high-tailing it outta there.
She interacts find with a co-workers dog, my bosses dogs, and my uncle's labs whom I house sat for. Last winter, she and an Akita ran on a trail together. She's played with boxers and let the older female playfully pin her. She's met a male leonberger. When she sees other dogs though, she gets very focused and very excited. She pulls on the leash, especially when its an off leash dog. I think it'd kind of intimidating to some dog owners. But I wish they'd give her a chance. I'm afraid that I will have a dog aggressive dog if I don't amp up the social interaction.
I'm going to check out a doggy day care today that I've been meaning to since the pug incident. But, I also want her to interact with other dogs from everywhere. I'm hoping that doggy day care will help to tone down her excitement... but, I guess besides my rant, I wanted to learn from you guys. What do you do when other dog owners avoid your dog?
Thanks for anyone who listens,
Becky.