Out of sorts

We head out yesterday for our morning walk, things were different right from the start.  I head downstairs with Luke and Jessie at my heel.  I normally take the girls out together and then Luke.  With Tilley at 13.5 and Jessie 14.5 they are a good match, speed wise.  Luke needs more physical exercise so this was different taking slowpoke Jessie and speedy Luke out together.  The difference was instantaneous, both Luke and Jessie are dominant dogs, they have always butt heads, but mostly butt head Luke is the instigator.  One step out the door and he was wound, chomping at the bit and completely consumed by being out front.

Right away I ask for control, we are not moving forward before Luke get's a grip.  Jessie is in my arms, this is fueling his obnoxious behavior.  Asking for control is not easy for a reactive dog on a "top dog" mission in this state.  So with high pitch shrieking, spinning and a bark here are there, I waited.   I received lots of eye contact as he tried to get a grip, Jessie waited patiently in my arms.  Being nearly deaf and blind, being in my arms is a must.

As soon as Luke was able to achieve a sit we moved on and he was more calm.  It is essential to nip over excitement in the bud, it is much harder once they are in the zone.  The ride to the park was pretty normal until we got to getting out.  All of my dogs are trained to remain in the car until told otherwise, again very important.  I don't want dogs diving out of the car and endangering their lives.  Both Jessie and Luke wanted out first, Luke won this one as I assisted him out.   He waited patiently as I lifted the old gal out and hooked her up.  After that we were good; Luke looked back at me several times as we walked along.  He seemed to ask "what's up?"  We were walking slowly, really slowly.  But he got into the swing of our snail pace walk before too long.  For a boy who likes to speed walk, he did pretty darn good.