Dog Tales: Socialized Joey

As some readers may recall, in our early years together, my dog Joey did not handle encounters with other dogs well. His innate fear of just about everything was exacerbated by being on a leash. Tethered to me, his fight-or-flight response was reduced to a single option: fight. He had terrible leash aggression--lunging and barking and sometimes even snapping at other dogs. After several instances of charting bizarre and mazelike routes through Hudson, struggling to avoid encounters with other dogs, we took to walking in places where there was little expectation of meeting other dogs. The cemetery was our favorite place for walking, but even there we couldn't count on being alone. On a walk there one late winter morning, as I was bending over, back to the road, to pick up Joey's poop, a dog I hadn't seen before bending over rounded a corner, jogging with his human. Joey lunged and barked, and I toppled over, falling right into that which I was in the act of picking up.

Off leash, Joey has always been a different dog. From his first visit to the dog park in Germantown, just a couple of weeks after I had adopted him, Joey has displayed perfect dog park manners. I never have to worry about him getting into trouble, because the minute dog play starts getting a little rough, he comes running back to me.

Even though Joey's dog park manners were impeccable, his street manners were still iffy, even after a year of daily visits to the Hudson Dog Park. Consequently, it was with some trepidation, while walking in Henry Hudson Riverfront Park on Monday morning, that I saw Sala and her human approaching. Joey knows Sala from the dog park, but in the past that hasn't stopped him from barking and carrying on when he encounters a familiar dog while on his leash. Much to my delight, Joey welcomed seeing Sala, and they enjoyed a brief walk, side by side, to the end of the path. 

Unfortunately, I didn't have the presence of mind to take a picture of Joey and Sala on Monday, but this morning, we met up with Sala and her human again in the park. This time, I did get a picture of the two of them, although not a very good one.

Joey is a testament to the benefits of dog parks.

COPYIGHT 2021 CAROLE OSTERINK