I met this really nice lady at a hiking park (not to be confused with an an enclosed dog park), some time ago. She had two beautiful Samoyeds with her.

They were both well-groomed, white as snow, and clearly very well cared for.

My Dog is Lassie, Your Dog is Cujo

One of them, the male, was having great fun. He was relaxed, and enjoyed meeting the dogs around him. This park allows off-leash dogs, full access, so there were many of them around.

The female Samoyed however, seemed very stressed.

Every time a dog would go near her, she would get really stiff, and start to growl.

At this point, the very nice lady would get really embarrassed, apologize, and give her dog a shock on her electronic collar. Her beautiful Samoyed would stop growling, but still be extremely stiff.

As soon as another dog moved close again, she would start to growl once more (the dog not the nice lady), which brought about another zap.

I really like the look of Samoyeds, so I was talking to the nice lady about hers. We chatted for a while, and she asked me why my Shiba Inu was on a leash.

Shiba Sephy has terrible recall, and has a very strong prey drive, so I do not trust him off leash at all. He can also be rude to other dogs, and may invade their space, before being invited in.

My Shiba Inu has terrible recall, and has a very strong prey drive, so I do not trust him off leash at all.

I made sure to keep Shiba away from the female Samoyed, because I did not want her to get additional zaps.

At this point, Nice Lady very proudly told me, that her dogs were great off-leash, after she started using shock collars.

True enough, they stayed close to her, especially the female.

After finishing our chat, I walked on with my Cujo, and she did the same with her Lassies.

I think it is good to be proud of our dog when he learns something new, or passes a new challenge. However, there is very little need to feel embarrassed or ashamed of her, especially when she is showing normal canine behavior, for example growling to let a rude dog know not to invade her space.

The shock collar would only cause the dog, to become even more wary of other dogs.

It does not matter what others think of our dog. So what if some stranger thinks we have a Lassie or a Cujo. What matters more is the quality of life we provide for our dog, and the strong and enduring bond that we establish with him.

It does not matter what others think of our dog. What matters more is the quality of life we provide, and the enduring bond that we establish with him.