Hi everyone! 😄
Nala is a very nice dog. She is affectionate and wise. All people are her friends and she wants to hug everyone she meets. But with dogs it is a bit more difficult; some bad experiences have made her bark at dogs and be quite anxious.
It's a difficult behaviour to change because it's instinctive, it's a kind of defence mechanism. She has her own vital zone and no dog is allowed near her shell.
If a dog tries to play with her, she interprets it as agression and that makes me very sad. I would love to see her play with a dog. It's becoming less and less often because, in addition to trying to multiply the positive experiences by meeting other dogs, I am again confronted with other bad dogs, which makes her even more distrustful and reinforces her behaviour.
I'm very angry with unresponsive dog owners who minimise their dog's aggressive behaviour and don't realise how complicated it is to train a dog who has suffered a trauma. 😣
It's often the owners of small dogs who play it down, telling themselves that even if they bite, they won't do too much damage because of their size... and it's often the same people who look at me badly because Nala barks, just because it's a big dog and only big dogs are dangerous... 🙄
Anyway. I've had my say lol
Now let's talk about what I'm trying to do with Nala to help her feel more comfortable around other dogs.
I'm doing walks with other dogs because I've noticed that when she walks with another dog it relaxes her and over time she integrates them into her pack.
Unfortunately, it doesn't make her stop barking at them, but I have noticed that she can appreciate their presence. It's like "I appreciate you, but not so close to me" and it's my job to accept this particularity of Nala. Every dog is different and it's OK if she doesn't like the idea of playing with other dogs. The most important thing is that she feels good.
So here was a walk with another golden retriever (I really like meeting some of Nala's cousins 😁).
She wanted to play with Nala but quickly realised that she was a bit difficult to approach lol
We couldn't photograph them within 2m of each other 🤣 every time the other dog approached Nala, she fled!
So she tried to find a way to get close to Nala without scaring her and started crawling towards her 😂 that was so cute!
She also met other dogs along the way and even played with sticks. I was surprised that she didn't bark when the other dog approached her and her stick, but after a few seconds she did.
As she doesn't want other dogs to come near her, it's even harder when she's playing with a stick 😱
I've noticed that she also wants to protect me and my belongings, for example if a dog comes near my bag that I've left behind.
She's got this whole 'stay away from my cocoon' thing going on.
Still, she's a very nice dog, and it's much better that she has this problem with dogs than with people, which would be much more annoying.
Don't hesitate to discuss this in the comments if you've ever been in this situation, or if you have any advice on how to deal with this anxiety problem in other dogs! I would appreciate it.
Thanks for reading me and see you soon for more adventures with Nala 😊
