Sorry if this sounds really silly!!
As you may know from other posts, Buster is lacking in socilaisation with other dogs, however he is getting much calmer (he's friendly, just prone to getting excited) around other dogs now.

Yesterday while walking him, a lady had an off-lead boxer bitch. As I approached them the lady sent her dog over the other side of a stream to wait out of the way (wow, what control she had :) ). Once Buster spotted the boxer he stood still, calmly watching her (I think he was willing her to come & say hi :) ) and it took a lot of persuasion to get him to carry on walking (cheese wafted in his nostrils & me making sqeeky noises, LOL).
Once we're walking again and it's obvious to him the other dog is not going to come over to us, he doesn't bother looking.

I wanted to move on past quickly so I wasn't posing any more of an inconvienince to the lady & her dog, but after I had moved on, I thought that perhaps I should have just allowed Buster to watch the other dog, until he had had his 'fix', so the next time he sees a dog it's a litte less interesting and therefore easier to move him on (if I am making any sense?).

Any suggestions? Would it be better for him in the long-run to stand watching dogs for now (like a desensitization excercise), or better to get him used to me moving him on as I want?  .......Oh, what to do for the best!!

Once again, sorry if this sounds really silly & trivial *blush*

I have no advice but am interested in the answers you get because Vic can be a bit like that, I know the frustration of the spurned cheese!

Despite having plenty of socializing and going to weekly dog training since about 5mnths (we still go) Vic can be a complete nuisance when he sees other dogs if he's in the mood to play with them but can't.
Because of his size (bet he'd be weeny next to Buster though!) and his exuberant play style I don't really let him play with really little or elderly looking dogs even if the owner says its ok, he'll stare and stare the only difference is that once we walk off he'll keep looking back over his shoulder every few steps for ages.

> only difference is that once we walk off he'll keep looking back over his shoulder every few steps for ages.

Awwww!!  Bless!

I always have the opinion that if I come across a strange dog which is off lead and seems friendly and the owner is fine with their dogs saying "Hi" then its always best to give your dog the benefit of the doubt. With meeting and greeting as the more experiences your dog has, the more resources it has for coping in situations.
I always found that starsky would be very fearful walking low not make eye contact then it developed into heckles up and going nose to nose but he has never attacked a dog, still fearful but being aggressive as well?? only it was all new in meeting strange dogs he never knew how to greet. Luckily he has turned a corner in his social skills and can be on occasion very friendly with dogs now wagging his tail always wanting a sniff. Even when I was at my most tormented with snoop after the dreadful incident I never moved away from dogs just tried to be calm and handle whatever happened. I feel if I had always kept him away from meeting dogs he would of always had his attitude with them and never of improved. I would of ended up walking him at night...which i know a lot of people do because there dogs are so anti social.  

Well done magica for making such progress with your dog :)

I don't think I explained my post very well. I'll let Buster greet any dog with thier owners permission  :) I do warn them that Buster is friednly but is likely to do big play-bows and prance aorund on the spot with excitement though!
What I was wondering about is when we see dogs that it's obvious will not be allowed to come over to us, do I continue walking (which takes a lot of persuasion to move Buster as he wants to stand and watch them), or I do let him stand watching them untill he's ready to move on?

I really don't know what would be best, if I allow him to stand watching them, then in time the dogs wont seem so interesting anyway but I worry that by allowing him to stand still as he pleases he will think he can do that anytime he wants to.
Him deciding that he can stand still and refuse to move may not seem like such a problem but he is so big that I can't physically move him without massive effort, so if he learns to stnand still and ignore me when the mood takes him, I worry I will end up stuck in situations. For example, he decided one day (earlier on in his training) that he was not going to carry on crossing the road, he stood stock still in the middle of the road With some quick thinking, I hooked his long-line around the back of his legs, so I could drag him over by his collar and pull him with the long-line. I only just had enough strength to get him out of the road (if I pull him he'll pull back, he doesn't like being pulled by the lead so it was a struggle!). That really shook me up, luckily it was our residential road, not a main one so we didn't have a close-call with traffic, but it still worried me. I spent a lot of effort in making it fun to cross the road and he'll cross on command now.

But knowing what an impovable object he can be if the mood takes him I worry that by allowing him to stand watching dogs will teach him he can do as he pleases, I really can't afford to be teaching him bad habbits like that. I need him to be as responsive as possible. On the other hand, if he is allowed to watch dogs as he pleases, perhaps they will eventually be something that he doesn't feel the need to stand still watching......

Oh dear, I do give my self a headache!!

> Vic can be a bit like that, I know the frustration of the spurned cheese

LOL, spurned cheese!! yes, it's frustrating when you can even hold it up thier nostrils and all they do is move thier head to get a better view as your hand is blocking thier line of sight!!

I can see your dilemma now with your big lad lol,
but I can see that it is not funny at all with him deciding to stop in a road for instance.... I used to call it making roots when my Snoop's hit a grassy area and then would never walk on! it is a struggle but then snoop was teeny compared to you boy :-)

I do use the command "walk on" as when I do when on a horse, maybe that key word with a treat might sink in and make him realise that yes you will stop and have a butchers at interesting things but when its walk on time thats when its time to.... yep walk ;-). I don't think any dog likes to be dragged but not many of them have the size and strength to protest as yours can. 

Thanks for big'ging me up about Starsky, it has been touch and go with the little fella at time's, but do love how he's turned into such a handsome confident chap.

> I do use the command "walk on" as when I do when on a horse, maybe that key word with a treat might sink in and make him realise that yes you will stop and have a butchers at interesting things but when its walk on time thats when its time to.... yep walk

Brill :)
I allready use the command 'walk on', it just isn't very effective when there is a dog to watch! I'll work on getting a better response from the command :)

He met a staffy today, we've passed her the past few days but she has barked at Bust (think she was a little wary) but today she wanted to come & say 'hi'. They met, both acted like idiots jumping and prancing around doing silly OTT play bows (she looked like a 'mini-me' of Buster, asshe waa brindle :) ) when we parted ways I thought Buster would never move but it was no problem getting him with me. He was all ready excited so he's  lot more 'ready' to do anything then, I need to remeber to be more energetic in my commands when he's standing around watching a dog, so I can 'rev him up' into actually acting on the commands. He's a bit like a friction toy, you need to wind him up before he'll do anything!!!

> Thanks for big'ging me up about Starsky, it has been touch and go with the little fella at time's, but do love how he's turned into such a handsome confident chap.

That's great :)

Its great when they've met a new doggy bud and its gone really well....sounds a bit silly but I get a real warm glow about it??...I must be a bit tapped lol

Meeting a staffy will be great as there fairy diddee compared to your lad but being staffies they love rough and tumble so can handle a few hard play blows, if their confident enough.

I would to just love to introduce my Tinkerbell to Buster- she is a mad whizz and has no trouble coping with any type large or small... She even made friends with  3 coonie coonie pigs no less!

> sounds a bit silly but I get a real warm glow about it??...

No, it's not silly :)
Most of the time I have to try to convince the other owner that Buster is being friendly, not nasty. Or the other dog gets so intimidated it wont do anything other than bark & growl or want to get away. So when he meets a dog that actually LIKES him - I feel so proud. LOL, it's a bit like watching your toddler take it's first steps an overwhelming feeling of pride & love :-D

Gosh, any non-doggy people reading this must think we are total mental cases!!

> staffies they love rough and tumble so can handle a few hard play blows,

I could see the staffy was definately up for rough & tumble :)  Bless her, I expect her behaviour would put-off a lot of dogs, she was making some almost 'growly' play-noises, but that is right up Busters street!

> I would to just love to introduce my Tinkerbell to Buster- she is a mad whizz and has no trouble coping with any type large or small... She even made friends with  3 coonie coonie pigs no less!

That's just the sort of dog Buster likes to meet - confidant, rufty-tufty, ones :)

heeeheee  yeah :-)

I love it when I see a breed that are fairly rare, never forget when I had a belgian terv (I thought she was fairly big ha) on this particular day I also had my friends puppy border collie about 12 weeks and this Irish wolf hound came lolloping around the field... it took my breath away and came right up to me & pup , my kye became protective of this dog going nose to nose with the puppy and literally flew up like 3 feet into the air to have a pop this dog! He was just well mighty and swaggered off like floating ha ha.

> Gosh, any non-doggy people reading this must think we are total mental cases!!

Nope!  I think you're both deserved a pat on the back for having the patience to do it the RIGHT way.