Hobie's dog social skills aren't that good. Sometimes he'll growl a little bit at other dogs, and he's usually not the least excited to meet strangers. He did growl at us for around a year until he finally succumbed.
Something bad probably happened to him before we adopted him, but he's slowly getting over it.
We asked the dog walker how he is with other dogs, and today we get this message:
We had lots of fun @ Fort Funston. He's actually chasing other dogs. I think his social dog 2 dog skills are improving.
It's great that Hobie is doing better. At the park he will usually just circle around us until we take out a ball. If we didn't bring a ball, he'll sometimes sniff another dog a little bit, but he'll usually just sit down in front of us and beg for a ball.
Sniffing dogs is not the only thing he's too excited to do if he knows there is a ball around... We have resorted to trying to fool him into thinking we didn't bring a toy. We'll trick him into running after something, or going somewhere else in the apartment while we quickly stuff a toy in a bag.
His social skills are improving though, and he's much friendlier now to strangers than he used to be. He even let a little kid pet him the other day (normally he'll hide behind me if a kid approaches).
