It could have gone bad

Jay had his obedience class tonight and it went well. His whining has become so much better (at least in class & at WP), he barley whined once... Hallelujah!!! He's in a good phase again which is very nice!

Normally, I take Jay for a long walk before the class, but I didn't have the time tonight since we had been invited to a classmate of Mr. L's (a Canadian woman and her Swedish husband). We came home late so I had to rush over to the park in order for us not to be late. Instead, we went for a walk after the class and when I reached a park I let James off the leash. This is a park that we go to a lot where I usually play fetch with him, or I even do search at times (he gets to search for his toy and he LOVES it). :)

Tonight, Jay was running around with his tug-of-war toy in his mouth, all happy & crazy... and just as I'm calling him back to me I hear, from a house next to the park, someone scream "you come back here... hey, come back!"... I was like shit, here comes a dog... and sure enough. Fortunately, James was already back with me so I held on to his collar and was waiting to see what the other dog was going to do. 'Cause if he wanted to fight and no owner would come, I was considering letting Jay go so he would be able to better defend himself. But the dog stopped right in front of us, so I said with a stern voice "you go home right away - go home!" at the same time as I did an arm movement shooing him away. And he turned around and ran back home! :) By the time the dog was back in it's yard, the owner had come out and could hold on to his dog. I put the leash on James and started walking and as we passed the owner and the dog, I told the guy that his dog had run back home when I told him to. The guy said good and thanks, and went on by saying that his dog only wants to play and that maybe we should let the dogs play with each other. I asked if it was a male dog he had, and it was.. so I said I don't want to take the chance. Jay is very good among male dogs, but I have noticed him wanting to be dominant with dogs more of his own age and this dog was quite young. If they would get in to a fight it could very well change James forever and have him hate male dogs in the future. I don't want to take that chance!

FYI: for any Americans who read this - most dogs in Sweden are not spayed or neutered (that includes Jay) thus these kinds of problems. I know in the US we always have our dogs off leash in parks and when going on hikes, and we let them say hi to all the dogs we meet without any interference by us humans. Unfortunately that's not possible here. :(

Anyhow, after the incident Jayness and I continued our walk in peace. Thank God!