Our first German Short aired pointer dog walk was a massive success
Normally we don't herald every new clients dog with its own article, especially only after one walk. And what makes this dog more special is that its only on a short term pet sit engagement.The difference between owner assessment of their dogs and true in the dog park behaviour
Previously I have found that many people think there dogs are little angels, very social and great recall, and yet in the dog park often the opposite is true.
Owners seem to feel that by telling the truth their dog won't get walked or that they are speaking poorly of their beloved dog, but the reality is they will be keeping the dog much safer if they let others know what to really expect when their dog goes off lead.
A dog that isn't very socialised is often anxious and will do the traditional fight or flight response. They won't handle other dogs coming in for a sniff and being friendly. And in fact can get attacked in the park by mostly balanced dogs that don't want such an unstable dog influencing their pack.
I will suffix this comment with the note that very rarely in the dog parks do you see real dog fights and even rarer is any dog getting injured or bloodied. Most owners are very good with their dogs, because they are usually regular walkers.
Back to the GSP dog walk
The surprise about this dog was that I was warned he might have pulling and bad recall, that he had acted aggressive with dogs in the neighbourhood a few times.
But these comments were from responsible owners giving me the worst case scenario. They didn't want any surprises for me because they wanted their dog kept as safe as possible while walking.
I even saw video of the German short haired pointer flushing quail from bushes in areas near Melbourne. This was a dog that had experienced real hunting, something they were originally exclusively bred to do.
What I fo8und with this dog is that he was indifferent to the other dogs in the pack, and just quietly went about sniffing the ground for tracks much like my spoodle does. More remarkably was he didn't really pull and he kept trotting alongside me so most of the time I had a loose lead ! This is often much better than many of my long term client dogs !
What I can tell is that this dog has been trained and socialise, that it respects humans and understands it will be treated to good things in the humans time. It knows that it will get to go on a good walk if it is lead outside of its property and behaves for that privilege. Essentially he acted like an idea companion dog today in the dog park.
An absolute credit to the owners and to the dog itself that appears supremely quietly confident without being dominant !