Reactive Behaviour And Given Situations

[Reddii]

I've posted a couple of times about my 14 month old BC boy. On our walks he does like to 'eyeball' some other dogs or at least watch them very closely until they are past. He is getting better at listening to me and is ignoring other dogs more and more as he becomes more confident, but it is a concern at least for me, but probably not at a level many people would even worry about.

On the weekend we gave him a run with our flyball 'team' dogs instead of his beginners class - just the recalls and passing exercises as he is only just beginning box work and send aways. I was a little concerned about how he would behave because there are a couple of quite dominant males in the group and these are the type of dogs he tends to eyeball. These particular dogs do not take kindly to other male dogs, especially if they are eyeballing.

My little man was perfect! We started with obedience which he hasn't done for months and used to have a bit of a problem weaving around the other dogs - he was focussed on me, except when he passed his kennel mate. Then with the recalls/lineups and passing exercises his eyes didn't go near the other dogs, despite the high energy environment and barking dogs all around him.

I still kept a close watch on him, but there was no inkling of a problem.

My question is this - how does he know/why does he differentiate between a situation on the street and one at training where I would have thought there would be more cause for concern?

[kamuzz]

My question is this - how does he know/why does he differentiate between a situation on the street and one at training where I would have thought there would be more cause for concern?

Are you different somehow, and he is picking up a different vibe?

Was this a new situation and therefore he had no memory to use as a guide to his reaction? So he thought about his response and based this on the newer skills he has now?

[Reddii]

My question is this - how does he know/why does he differentiate between a situation on the street and one at training where I would have thought there would be more cause for concern?

Are you different somehow, and he is picking up a different vibe?

Was this a new situation and therefore he had no memory to use as a guide to his reaction? So he thought about his response and based this on the newer skills he has now?

I'm not sure I'm different - I try to be consistent no matter what we are doing. His behaviour is the same not just in this environment, but in all 4 training environments he goes to. He's quite reactive on the street, but never at training. This one on the weekend is the one I was concerned about as the dogs are in a really high state of arousal and can lunge/bark etc.

It is a newish situation. Although he has trained consistently on these grounds for the last 10 months he hasn't done these activities or with mature dogs before.