F- for Cynthia

Boy, I did something dumb. Nothing terrible happened, but it really could have so I'm feeling sheepish.

Yesterday I took the dogs to the lake, which is frozen, and started walking out. We went past the sledding hill, where Gustav got noticeably tense so I gave him chicken to countercondition. We walked far far out, with Dottie playing frisbee. Then I put Gustav's muzzle on and we saw some dogs with a skier in the distance. I gave him treats and he was able to move on. We were having a good time, with perfect recalls and so forth, when all of a sudden Gustav tore off at top speed towards the sledding hill. I called "Gustav, stop. Gustav come!" and ran off in the other direction like I'm supposed to. No response. Turns out there was a golden retriever along with a skier next to the lake shore. Gustav ran up to the dog, who was in turn about twenty feet from all the screaming sledding running children. He met the dog, tried to initiate his version of "play" (I'm gonna knock you down and it will be fun for me, okay?), then ran back full speed in a straight line to me. Whew. He didn't bother any kids or the skier. I was just in shock. I didn't even know if I should give him treats or not. I called him repeatedly and he didn't come, so should he still get rewarded? I waffled. I praised him and petted him, which was good, but I didn't give him chicken and I leashed him, which was bad (I think?). Then we went home. Hmmm. Was that the right way to handle it? In any case, I was grateful that he didn't find it necessary to address any people (can you imagine a muzzled Gustav charging sledding children? The horror! Oh, I can't even think of it. Oh. Oh.) I was unhappy that he found it acceptable to venture so very far from me. It was so far, it took him a good thirty seconds at a dead run to return. He was a speck. Anyway, lesson learned: he is not trustworthy if there are any distractions at all at any distance. I'm going to have to eventually set up some distractions to work on the recall, since it's pretty good without them and I have to up the ante if he's ever going to come out of a situation like that successfully in the future. Not like he'll have a chance for a long long time, that's for sure. Whew.

Today: a nice, leashed walk with Justin along. I'm taking the day off. No risky dog walks. Just safe, safe neighborhood leash walking.