Just returned from a walk. Bramble always takes his ball on a rope with him, but Tara doesn't often take her ball - but today I let her :) It's a small football with ropes attached. We had a nice walk and game with the balls. I put Tara back on the flexi-lead and walked into the last field before home. We stopped in the middle of the field (it's quite large with several entrances and paths right round it) and had a last game - Tara was still on the lead. I glanced up and saw a man come into the field - the field slopes up and I didn't notice that he had a dog with him. We continued with the game, when suddenly, out of the corner of my eye, I saw a boxer charging towards us. Tara flew at him barking - fortunately they didn't get entangled in her lead and the boxer stood a few feet off, while I got Tara back onto a short lead. The man didn't say anything - I shouted an apology to him, explaining that Tara is a bit possessive of her ball. He shrugged his shoulders and walked off - the dog following eventually.

A couple of questions - how can I stop Tara being so possessive of her ball (Bramble doesn't play with her ball and there is no problem at home with toys) ? Should I have felt that I had to apologise - or should the man have stopped his dog charging over to mine ?

Daisy

IMHO the man was at fault for not having his dog under control - yours was under control as she was on her lead (which ofcourse may have made her feel more vulnerable :( )

If you don't normally take this particular toy, and it's not a problem at home, is there really any need to change things?

I'll think twice before taking it again :) We don't have an enormous garden and there is so much more room in a field to kick the ball around :) Weekday lunchtimes, the fields are always fairly quiet. Normally, if I see a dog coming, I would take the ball from her just in case - but today I didn't see the dog :(

Thanks

Daisy

I think it's one of those things Daisy, I wouldn't worry too much about it. You did apologise and I would take the mans lack of response to mean it didn't really bother him. My middle dog sometimes barks at other dogs for just looking at him! At least yours was defending a ball!