Perfect, natural sharing - or engagement and disengagement (with 2/4 dogs who used to have resource aggression). Can you tell who? It’s slow, it’s quiet, they’re patient, and their expressions are soft and lazy looking. This isn’t coincidental, this is one way happy, safe dogs communicate.
Holiday Hiking
If your dog is new to hiking in off leash public spaces, try to avoid holidays. These dogs are pretty set to go any day of the week because they have excellent emotional recovery and they trust my suggestions.
Part 2
This was a direct benefit I saw pretty immediately once we came up from the beach. Melon(husky) has never rolled in front of me. She’s a very self embodied girl leaning rigid or stiff. So that took a lot for her to roll like that. I have another post on why rolling is so special. This is the result of Sky’s fine tuning of the energy. She guided Riley over and over back into regulation. When the whole pack is emotionally regulated, that’s when everyone feels safe. When everyone feels safe is when you see novel behaviors and sweet connections can grow.
Each dog gets to express uniquely and is guided to safe ways of doing that.
Part 1
Sky doing her thing. Riley gets over stimulated by Gunther running and wants to control his movement. Sky does not like uninvited advances, so she keeps him in line. She puts the pressure on during inappropriate behaviors, and takes it off as soon as Riley relaxes. This is what mama dogs do to bully/needy/bossy babies. They annoy them into retracting/relaxing. She’s not trying to play with him, she is training him. Watch her attentiveness to me, her body language and timing. She was breed to guide animals and maintain safe movement. She gets to do that on Fridays. And everybody else gets to sort of soak up the benefits, Riley included.
Re-socializing dogs… slow start to this one but the reason this whole interaction even happens is because I planted my feet in the beginning, encouraging these dogs to talk to each other.
Some really beautiful play between some big boys
Does your dog get pins and needles?
Anyone interested in seeing in depth behavior explanation videos like this? Here is some slowed down, indirect communication, a precursor to learning appropriate direct communication and engaging in safe play.
Some short clips from our socialization session.
1. Lying facing away from each other communicates, “I feel safe,” “I’m not worried about you, you don’t have to worry about me.” It’s a bid for safety and the beginning of trust.
2. The very beginning of play. Melon gives him space.
3. Stress yawn. Melon is trying to calm herself down. Stress is not bad, mild stress is the learning zone as long as the dog has the tools to cope, which Melon does in this situation.
4. Gunther checks on Kizo. Kizo says, “that’s enough, I’m making new friends.”
5. Kizo allows a really good sniff. Melon gives space when asked.
The pattern of this socialization shaping is, interest ➡️ mild over stimulation ➡️ self sooth OR seek help (pets, reassurance they are doing well) ➡️ return to a learning frame of mind ➡️ try something new ➡️ repeat! ❤️
Riley finally has a friend that will chase him through the maze ❤️
Off leash group dog hikes where your dog can socialize, smell, run, swim and explore!
