After a very serious and word-heavy week last week (and just being quite drained right now) I’m starting this week off with a crazy brief but relevant blurb.
This past weekend I was outside doing lawn work and tending my garden.  I was working in the back yard where it is not fenced.  My neighbor was out raking up grass clipping and his dog Callie was out with him.  While they are planning on fencing their yard, it is not yet fenced so Callie was on a tie-out.  This is one of those screw into the ground anchor systems.  Well, Callie is an 85-90lb lab/gsd who is really quite strong and doesn’t have a lot of impulse control yet.
A group of three neighborhood boys (7-10 years old) were going passed her yard (one on a skate board).  Callie couldn’t control herself and broke free of her tether and went bounding towards the boys.  The boy who she focused on was clearly very startled as Callie jumped on him.  I was shocked at what I saw (maybe he secretly read my blog last week)… he folded his arms across his chest, looked to the ground, and stood absolutely still.  Sure enough Callie stopped being crazy and greeted him nicely after just a few moments.  Standing still and being a tree works and it’s something kids are capable of doing even when overwhelmed/startled!
This boy is really confident around dogs and is pretty savvy so I’m not that surprised, but it was nice to see him react with such a cool head in a scary situation for him (being rushed by a dog that weighs more than him).  His reaction likely kept Callie from going any further over the top and possibly hurting him by accident!
Disaster was certainly avoided thanks to the boy being very appropriate!