Oakville Mutt Strutt!

Last Sunday, the Oakville & Milton Humane Society had their annual fundraising Mutt Strutt. We participated last year with no undue problems so we once again entered Ray.

Well, to be totally honest, we didn’t enter him until we received an email from one of Ray’s friends at OMHS saying that she was looking at the registrants list and noticed that Ray was not there! It was just an oversight on our part!

Our weather over last weekend was refreshingly cooler however, with that lovely temperature drop came a very drizzly spell of weather which started on Saturday and went right through until early Sunday morning. The resulting turnout seemed disappointingly low so we were really glad of the reminder otherwise we may have overlooked it completely.

Ray has done so well recently with meeting people and other dogs that we did not muzzle him, and he was the perfect gentledog (like gentleman). Pretty much all the dogs were friendly and after the usual greetings, they went their separate ways except for one little guy who just loved everybody. He kept coming up to Ray and saying “Hi”

Mutt Strutt 2015 1

Ray just stood still and was very calm throughout the inquisition by the other dog. He would look back at us periodically as expected. (Okay…… so where’s my treat?”) After doing some “meet and greets” with people that we knew, the actual Mutt Strutt walk was started.

We have participated in a number of dog walks now in order to get Ray more comfortable around people and dogs that are strangers to him, and are constantly surprised at Ray’s cooperation. We must assume that the other dogs are so absorbed in their adventure and Ray simply senses that. It may of course also be reassuring to him that everybody is going in the same direction!

After an uneventful walk, Ray was very happy to go and check out any tents that were promoting food (no surprises there) and particularly liked the BBQ area. When we thought that we should be heading back home, and was getting ready to get Ray into the car, he resisted his car harness. This was very unusual. He normally gets very excited when he sees one of us approaching with it because knows that it means a car ride.

We decided to let him wander and see where he went. As soon as knew that he could go back to where the tents were, he was on a mission. With leash tight and us two following behind, he took us back to the BBQ area! After a few basic “tricks” to justify more treats, he was agreeable to going home. The rest of Sunday was, for him, a time to chill which he did very successfully!

22 thoughts on “Oakville Mutt Strutt!”

  2. Michael (GoldenKali.com)'s avatar

    Hi Colin – so Ray does ok with other dogs? Has it always been that way or is this a result of all the work you’ve done with him. Know from your posts that meeting new people has been an issue for Ray but I wasn’t sure about other dogs. Interested to know the process you’ve used to get him more comfortable with dogs assuming it has not always been that way… Thanks.

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    • colinandray's avatar

      Hi Michael – Ray had a similar problem with dogs as he had with people. The dog issue was addressed with the B.A.T. program, which then allowed us to develop on the concept that good things happen when another dog approaches (dogs = treats). The tricky part was finding the timing so that he could be treated AFTER he had noticed an oncoming dog (so he knew why he was being treated) but BEFORE he started to stress out over it (so you don’t treat the wrong “event”). That timing was where the B.A.T. program was invaluable. Hope that helps.

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