Out & About: Road Trip Part 2 - Viva explores Riverside Park

Tuesday, April 12, 2016

Road Trip Part 2 - Viva explores Riverside Park

Here's part one in this series in case you missed it: Road Trip - Part 1 Visiting Borst Park

My mom and I had a yummy lunch and then it was time to hit another park. Riverside Park was our stop and it was time for Viva to get out and about. Given Viva's behavior when meeting dogs she and Lacey didn't meet. Lacey is a nice girl who doesn't appreciate rude greetings. If a dog is rude, Lacey appropriately will let the dog know that behavior is not ok with her. Viva's greeting to a dog are rude and if a dog doesn't just let Viva behave this way, Viva will get into it with the dog. This behavior doesn't make Viva a "bad" dog it just requires management on my end and ongoing work to reduce the behavior. Remember Viva's greeting of dogs is a behavior and it's what a dog does, not who they are. Here's a wonderful link by 4Paws University talking clearly about B is for Behavior

I love 4Paws University - well worth following them on facebook!

We get Viva out of the car and she is so excited she can hardly stand it. She saw a squirrel within 2 minutes and off she went.

She was so fixated on the squirrel that she had no interest in my mom. Once the squirrel was long gone Viva says "Oh who are you?"

"Is that tasty treat for me?"

"Yummy!"

"Do you have more treats for me?"

No more treats so off we go to see what this park is all about.

The Skookumchuck River runs along the park

Viva is having a blast!

She does a fantastic job of ignoring the walkers and the ladies pushing a stroller. We've done a lot of work using positive reinforcement when seeing strangers and strange objects and it's really paid off!