Ray – Social Butterfly!

We were on one of our regular walks through our local residential area (so no distractions from food places!) and, as we passed the front lawn of one particular house, we noticed a lady just opening the front door in order to go in. We also noticed that Ray had walked onto her lawn and stopped!

We went through the usual “C’mon Ray.” but to no avail. He clearly had other plans, but what were they? After a few moments of trying to persuade him to move, the lady turned round seemingly intrigued as to what the problem was. We explained that Ray does this periodically but he’ll sort things out eventually ….. but he didn’t.

The lady stepped down from the front door and made some comments about how nice he looked at which point Ray started pulling towards her! She asked if it was okay to touch him (smart lady), however Ray took the initiative to greet her first. This is not the first time that he has made the first move, but typically the person has already been close. In this case he actually pulled across the lawn to meet this lady.

She stroked his head and patted him while he checked her out (probably for treats), and it was then that we heard some muffled barking. The lady owned a dog which was in the house and watching us through a window! We could conclude that he knew she was a “dog person” and was going to try and take full advantage of the situation. She had no treats on her but, as is our current practice in these situations, Ray does get rewarded for being sociable.

The lady seemed so pleased that she met him, and we were so pleased at the continuing progress that Ray demonstrates regarding his social skills. After a few moments, she started back towards her front door but Ray would not leave. He just sat own again and stared at her. As soon as she saw what he had done, she turned around and made a fuss of him once again.

After  that, we were allowed to continue on our walk! He knew from past walks that a dog lived there. Was that the attraction? Was it the lady’s perfume? Perhaps she reminded him of somebody? Of course there is no decisive answer and, in fact, Ray’s actions could have been the result of multiple attractions. We are just so pleased to see him take these kinds of initiatives. 🙂

24 thoughts on “Ray – Social Butterfly!”

    • Oakville (while buried in the sprawl from Toronto) is a relatively low population town and Ray is certainly becoming known. Only the other day we were chatting with another dog owner in an apartment access road when a van pulled up. The driver’s window went down …”Hi Ray! How yer doin’?” 🙂

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  7. I think dogs know who are doggy people, who are wary, and who are not. Maggie has totally ignored someone, even with treats offered, for some reason (could be cigarettes as she doesn’t like the smell) yet with others she’s bouncing around lie a pup taking all the fuss offered and milking it for more!
    Obviously Ray didn’t see this lady as a threat and wanted to say Hello, which is down to you and Carol as his owners for giving him the confidence to do that.

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