A little while ago we decided that it was time for our beloved rescue Doberman Skylar to have his first off leash run. He has been running free in fenced in dog parks, but never in an open space area. We have Skylar a year this month and we hoped we can trust him by now to stay around and not take off once his leash is unhocked. Skylar is still easily distracted and very flighty in case something scares him and he is not good on recall, so my husband and I were a little concerned about the whole thing. Admittedly especially I was very nervous, but on the other hand we didn't want to deny him to run free any longer.
To ease the situation we called on our trusted dog trainer,
Alexandra Gant, and scheduled a session with her to help us at least do the right things from our side and decrease our nervousness just by her calm presence. We decided to go to Fiesta Island here in San Diego, which is a huge recreational area right by a bay at the sea. There is also a big dog park on the island, which is kind of semi fenced in. The dog park is so vast that the dog can get completely out of sight and if it absolutely wants to can go around the fences. So the dog will have the feeling it is truly free, but there is at least some protection given.
Alexandra brought her own rescue dog with her, Arya, her Coydog as she calls her. Arya is a mix between a Coyote and a Husky. Skylar and Arya know each other and get along well and we believed that they will give each other some confidence and hang out with each other and hopefully us, too, and not take off alone or with another dog. So the plan was made and off we went.
If you are holding your breath by now, I can already tell you that things went well. Yes, the dogs went out of sight one or two times but they came back. Altogether Skylar stayed much closer to us than we expected and didn't take advantage of the situation that he could take off.
When we reached the sea level something amazing happened: Our water shy dog went into the water the very first time! It was so lovely to observe these two dogs enjoying their freedom to run and play in the water.
Skylar: "What, are you really going in there?"
Arya: "Yes, not a big deal, it is actually fun!"
Skylar: "Alright, you lead, I will follow."
Arya: "Let's catch the waves!" Skylar: "I do what you do!"
Skylar: "This stuff smells wired".
Skylar: "But all in all the water is not too bad."
Skylar: "Catch me if you can!"
Skylar: "If you don't chase me...
...I will chase you!"
Skylar: "Playing in the water is fun indeed!"
Arya: "I am done with this!"
Skylar: "What, are you tired already?"
Skylar: "Mom, Dad, she doesn't want to play with my anymore. Do you want to play?"
Skylar: "If I really try hard,...
...maybe I get to chase her one more time."
Skylar: "Nope she won't play anymore...
...OK then I play catching the waves by myself."
Two tired happy dogs ready to be leashed up, again.
Two happy dog owners and one of them in addition to being happy also very relieved, that's obviously being me, ready to go home. Phew, for the first time the off leash run went rather great! We will certainly do it again and this time alone.
A big thank you to Alexandra for helping us one more time to make the next step forward in our journey with Skylar and to support him to be a happy, confident and well-behaved dog.
Wishing everyone lovely, calm last days of in the old year!
Christina
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