Observation

Location
Each weekend, and in the evenings in summer, Tabasco and I can usually be found at Cookham, near Maidenhead, walking through common land next to the river Thames.  This is a huge area which includes several fields, cattle pastures, hills and riverside tracks with short sandy beaches.  It is a very popular place for walkers, joggers, mountain bikers and also people with dogs.


View of riverside path at Cookham, Berkshire

Owners and their dogs usually walk the ‘circuit’ - following the path along the river and through various fields.  The full course is probably about 2 miles long.

It is an ideal place for dogs to socialise and let off steam.

Observations
Tabasco and I come across many other people with dogs during our walks in Cookham.  The following is a selection of the people and dogs that we have met recently.

Lady with two Golden Retrievers (dogs, aged 8-10 years)
Both dogs seemed to have quite different personalities, which the owner catered for individually.  One wandered off investigating the undergrowth, while the other stayed relatively close to the owner.  

The dog that wandered off was happy to play with Tabasco and they had a couple of fun games of chase.  The owner was not concerned about this and made no attempt to stop the play session.  When it was time to move on, she called for the dog, who came back to her almost immediately.

The other dog was content to walk alongside the owner, and to retrieve balls which the owner was throwing with a ‘slingshot’.  He was not interested in playing with Tabasco.

Lady with four Jack Russell Terriers (mixed sexes, all littermates, 2 years), a German Shepherd (dog, 20 weeks) and a Staffordshire Bull Terrier (bitch, 12 weeks)
Wow what a mad, rowdy bunch this was! The four Jack Russells (hereinafter referred to as the ‘JR Gang’), created a dust storm of their own, chasing and playing with each other, whilst always keeping up with the owner as she continued to walk along, and moving in her general direction.  

The JR Gang at one stage decided to break away, and ran under a fence into an adjoining field, in order to chase something.  They were all called back, and eventually returned to the owner one by one.  Each gang member was verbally chastised in turn.  As they were told off, they all crouched down in a submissive manner.

The walk resumed, and the JR Gang dutifully ran alongside the owner, eventually being given a ball to play with (after incessantly jumping up at the owner demanding it).

The German Shepard was very well behaved, and stayed close to the owner during the walk.  He joined in to play with the JR Gang from time to time.  The owner also spent time with him, individually practising recall exercises, which he excelled at.

The Staffie puppy was kept on a lead throughout most of the walk, and was picked up from time to time to avoid her trudging through some deep, sticky mud.  In the larger open spaces, the owner also practiced recall with her.

Couple with Staffordshire Bull Terrier (bitch, 18 months)
The owners kept a close eye on their dog.  She was very sociable, and for that reason the owners were conscious of her wandering off too far with other dogs in order to play.  The owners were happy for her to play Tabasco, despite his larger size.

The Staffie was very energetic and covered a lot of ground very quickly.  She did not return to recall commands very well and to help her with this, the owners had her wear a remote controlled spray training collar.  It did have the effect of stopping her in her tracks.  I did wonder if they left it too long before firing the remote control as the Staffie was out of remote control range quite quickly.  When she did return, she was rewarded with a treat.

When she was off the lead, the owners were always aware of the Staffie’s whereabouts.  After a while, she was put back on the lead in order to (in the words of the owner) “calm down for a while”.

Man with Collie/Labrador mix (bitch, 1 year)
The owner dealt with this dog’s ceaseless energy by walking along whilst throwing balls for her with a slingshot, which she endlessly retrieved.  Tabasco did venture over to her to say hello.  She was friendly, but more interested in chasing balls than being chatted up by my lad.

When I stopped to talk to the owner, I noticed that the dog did jump up at him quite a lot, requesting the next ball throw.

As the owner continued to walk (and throw), the dog stayed with him continuously.

Lady with Husky (dog, 2 years)
The Husky was a very friendly chap with lots of energy.  He invited Tabasco to play wrestle and a game of tag.  The Husky did wander off a few times (over to the other side of the field on one occasion) to say hello to other dogs and/or people.  The owner commented that he found ‘everything else more interesting than me’.

When the Husky did return to the owner after being called, I noticed that he wasn’t given a treat for coming back.  He was praised, but not over-enthusiastically.

The owner mentioned to me that he was a very friendly dog who ‘bounced over to everyone, big or small, to go and play’.  This in itself wasn’t a problem, but I did feel that when he did run off to greet other dogs, he was quite a distance from the owner, who would not have been able to control him at all, if something did go wrong.

Findings and  Conclusion
Preparing for this report has been a very interesting exercise.  The opportunity  to observe other people and the way they interact (or not) with their dogs when taking them for a walk, has proved to be very enlightening, and having to think about what I have observed in order to write this report has really opened my eyes.

The five dog-owner combinations I chose to report on all interacted with myself and Tabasco during our walk in Cookham - I chatted to the owners and petted the dogs, while Tabasco greeted the owners and sniffed, greeted or played with the dogs.

Three out of the five owners I observed interacted with their dogs by throwing balls for them. Two of the owners practised recall with their dogs, but only when the dogs wandered off too far.

The interaction/non-interaction ratio for this study is 60%/40%.  I would suggest that in a real situation, where I would observe a much higher quantity of dogs and owners, the ratio would be more like 20%/80%.  From my experience, most dog owners (to quote the text from our course handbook) are ‘occupied with their own thoughts’, while still others are talking on mobile phones.

I think one of the reasons why I selected the five dog-owner combinations detailed above was because it gave me something to write about!  If my selection would have been more random, this report would have been a lot different - and a lot shorter.