Go West young man!

It's been a mixed bag of experiences this week.  This started with a brief encounter with a feisty Westie boy who whilst looking very sweet was intent on giving Sonny enough eye contact to send him into a lather.  Doing my now tried and tested ritual of not allowing Sonny to avoid with an aggressive display, I invited the Westie's owner to get her dog to sit.  She gave me a somewhat quizzical look, maybe she's in a hurry I thought, not keen on spending any more time with my boy whose not exactly welcoming at the moment.  However, as I watched, few seconds soon showed that the idea of sitting on owner's command for thisWestie was not something he seemed to be used to doing, or maybe he was used to getting away with not doing, who knows.  The Westie's  owner suggests she comes over to me, I suggest I come to her.  We have our dogs in reasonable proximity and I do my usual spiel, explaining why I am putting her and her dog through this and how it is going to benefit Sonny.  What I don't realise is that this dog is not going to give up on eyeballing Sonny, his owner tells me he is 'very protective'.  Not good then, I think.  However, Sonny is able to focus a bit and will take treats from me and give me his paw.  However the next minute he is yet again launching himself at the other dog, with this other dog behaving in such an assertive way, he is clearly not going to calm down.  We agree to leave it for now and I keep him sat as she leaves us.  Along come another couple of little pooches which are a regular sight around the place.  Sometimes they are also keen to eyeball Sonny, but today, I keep him sat and he manages to hold it together.

The very next day, I take all my courage and march Sonny down a narrow path which is blind at either end so no way of avoiding another dog if it comes along.  As I am just mentally visualising what I would do in this situation, guess what , we meet the Westie.  It's no good both the other owner and I have a 'here we go' moment and Sonny does his lurch towards Westie who is unfortunately due to the narrow path, closer than we would like.  In order to be helpful I try to arch around him, Sonny more fierce than ever, launches himself across me, putting me wrong-footed, I am about to go sprawling into the road and a car is coming round the corner, potential disaster.  The other owner is really worried about me, however I am concentrating on Sonny so not really in touch with the potential danger to me.  Afterwards I think about what could have happened and have a cold shiver moment.  I feel bad that I put Sonny in this situation because clearly he is not ready to meet this type of doggy energy without responding, yet...