Just chilling

We haven't done much at all today, we went out for a 2hr hike in the woods this morning with Mossy and family, Sam was a bit more fractious with Busby than usual when Buz was racing around, but walked nicely side by side when he wasn't racing. Sam was off lead but still muzzled, his recall still needs a lot of work.
This afternoon the dogs just lounged about, the guinea pigs are still in there hutches, its really windy and they don't like the wind, the kids are just playing and i actually sat and did nothing and now i feel exhausted, i'm just about to get organised Mossy and family are coming shortly and so are some of my family, Ian my husband is 40 tomorrrow so its a mini birthday gathering, i think i need a nice cup of tea first.......

Sounds like you had a lovely day. Wish Ian a Happy Birthday from me, I hope he has a 'gud un'

We sort of had a break through with Archie today. We went out for our morning walk as usual and on our way back we found a tennis ball in the street. Now I never realised just how many tennis balls there was laying around in the streets but since we have had Archie it has brought this new phenomenon to our attention. Archie on the otherhand likes to bring them home so we now have a garden full of what were once homeless tennis balls. Anyway, since his castration we have not noticed much change in him towards other dogs and he almost always kicks off if one comes any where near, but today, after he found this new tennis ball and was busy carrying it home, we found ourself being approached by 2 women walking a big yellow Lab. This is normally the point where we cross over but we decided to carry on and see what would happen. The answer is not a lot. Archie looked at the other dog but was more interested in getting his new ball home. We are now going to take a tennis ball out on our walks and see if it helps or to confirm if this is a one off

Thats good news, Ian says thank you by the way. I wonder if Archie would respond to the distraction technique, this was something the trainer taught us but because Sam is always muzzled we can't use it.
We have a special toy that we play with Sam with, we never let go of the toy so as to 'loose posession' he is not allowed the toy at any other time other than when we choose to play with him with it, the point being he associates the toy with fun and play and becomes focused on the toy. We are supposed to take the toy out with us and before he becomes fixated on the other dog, whip out the toy and play whether its at the side of the road, or in the middle of the street, therefore distracting him and by the time he realises the dog has gone and its turned into a positive encounter. However you can't play tug of war with a muzzled dog, but i do still play in the garden to practice the leave command, it might be worth a try with a special ball, one that makes a noise or a tuggy toy but it must be a new one and he's not allowed to have it at any other time, it does work Sam gets so giddy when i get his green tuggy toy out.

Whilst out on his walk this morning we passed another dog and I took the ball out of my pocket and gave it to him. He again only looked at the other dog and made no fuss. I like to think the ball is like a dummy - I just put it in his mouth to stop the barking and growling

Although, it might be worth getting a special toy just for our walks. I think you might be on to something there drab, thanks

Anythings worth a try, and for a couple of quid its worth trying!
I'm glad to share the info the dog trainer gave me, it might work, it might not, but i've tried allsorts -yes even bananas!!!!