Some People are Nice...

And some people are asshats.

 Yesterday at the park Sarra was getting a little overstimulated by all the dogs, so I leashed her and was walking her out of the park when a boxer came up and started pestering her. He wasn't being too bad, just getting in her face and she (quite politely) warned him away with a little growl and then ignored him. He kept pushing and growled at her and then there was escalation. No bites, but certainly some unfriendly growling and snapping. So I'm holding the collar of a dog I don't know in my left hand and the collar of my dog in my right trying to keep them as far away from each other as possible. The entire time this is going on the dog's owner is standing maybe three feet away and talking on his cell phone. I was miffed. When I finally managed to get his attention he looked at me as if I was being incredibly rude to interrupt his conversation, but did take his dog off my hands.  Growl.

 And for the nice man...It was beautiful today so Sarra and I went up to a little city park a few blocks away from the house. We did some distraction exercises, mostly along the lines of, 'Pleasde don't let the squirrel melt your brain and if you look at me for even one second while the squirrel is visible you'll get lots of treats.' She did better than she ever has before and actually gave me three full seconds of eye contact the last time. As for the nice man bit, a groundskeeper was kind enough to spend his ten minute break throwing my dog treats as I clicked and praised her for going near him. This was someone she'd never met before (Hell, I'd never met him) and at the end she walked up and ate out of his hand. Go Sarra!

And here's Sarra the day I brought her home looking very intimidating.