For the past several months I’ve been walking my dog (Cocker Spaniel) at least twice a day. We usually get about 2 total miles in. My neighborhood is an old racetrack and it’s a nice walking route.
I’ve also been using the time to train her to behave when strangers and other dogs pass us, and overall she’s been responding very well. She is scrappy like Spaniels tend to be, but she’s improved a lot - I can hold her attention and reward her with praise and a treat when we pass people and dogs and she doesn’t bark or growl, which is now most of the time - often even when there’s another dog that is reacting badly.
But there’s this one house… They have two medium/small dogs that are almost always left unattended in a fenced yard. They start barking at us before we turn the corner onto their road. The dogs are up against the fence, barking and snarling and nipping at each other. They are extremely loud and relentless. When the owners are present, it’s 50/50 if they scream at the dogs to stop or not, and even then it’s with mixed results. But lately they are just letting it go. I am getting the impression they are upset that someone dares to walk on the street past their house.
This is the only time I lose control of my dog. She behaves fine until we’re right at the fence, then she reacts by growling and lunging toward the fence, and eventually starts barking back. It was so bad a few days ago that I picked her up and faced her away, but she wriggled out of her harness and jumped off me. An Amazon truck had to stop to avoid hitting her, which I couldn’t even hear coming behind us because the other dogs were barking so loud. I was livid and embarrassed at the whole situation.
I’ve tried everything I can think of passing this house - stopping and holding tight till my dog stops reacting, which she does only until we start moving again, or holding the treat in front of her face to try to hold her attention, which doesn’t work. I’ve even thrown the treat away in front of her while she’s barking, which only makes me feel bad.
The obvious solution is to avoid walking past this house, but that would mean I can’t walk the loop. And at this point I don’t want to give the owners the satisfaction of intimidating me and other dog walkers away from walking on their street.
What other training methods can I use to help my dog ignore them? I’m afraid it’s just too much for her. Should I bother making a complaint? Any and all advice is appreciated.
Dave Ramsey is typical right-wing evangelical cult leader, but instead of dipping directly into religion, he is a conservative financial coach. He’s the human manifestation of “stop eating avocado toast” and “get a third job.” He has fired employees for being gay, being pregnant, being non-Christian, and for having premarital sex. He forced his employees to remain in office during the pandemic.
So it should be no surprise that his advice involves becoming a selfish, heartless jackass. He wants his working class followers to be good boot lickers who are self-sufficient and satisfied with their economic ceiling, and not believe in the potential for progress that would benefit society but may be detrimental to grifters like himself. That means his followers need every one of their hard-earned pennies to pay their bills and grow their nest egg, rather than waste any bits on generosity or compassion.
TLDR: If you’re poor and you support mom, you might become too poor to perceive success from Ramsey’s advice. That’s what it comes down to. Fuck him.