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Wow! Despite my rant in the Park about other owners, I also had a fantastic win this morning! I was walking my two dogs in our off-leash coulee this morning. They both started off with umbilical, then my younger one got to go off leash because she will keep up with me. My older dog lags WAAAAAAY behind me, so I kept her on umbilical until we were on our way home (she usually picks up the pace then). Well, first thing she does is stop to sniff and get way behind again. I keep going, as always, because if we get out of sight she will usually catch up. By the time she actually DID catch up to us, I was ready to put her back on umbilical as a consequence, and I notice she\'s carrying a beef bone in her mouth! CRAP! Of course I\'m worrying about what may be on the bone, but more importantly, how am I going to get it away from her? Real meat products are the only thing we have ever had issues with with her. She gets very possessive, and has come close to biting us when she gets bones etc. Needless to say, we don\'t give her those things. Something about the real smell sets her off. Well, this morning I had no choice but to find a way to WIN. So I blocked her path and stood tall and firm, and slowly moved closer and closer to her so that I was standing with my legs touching her. And yes, she was growling at me the whole time. Lips curled and everything. I didn\'t care. I figured if she bit me, she bit me. I had to win this time. So I just stood my ground until she finally dropped the bone at her feet. Of course, it was still between her paws, so she was still growling at me pretty good. So I stood there for a while longer, then I kept edging forwards until the bone was between MY feet. Then I stood there a while longer. (straight and tall, thinking over and over. I\'m the boss, this is MY bone). She never stopped growling, but I took a chance and used my feet to pull the bone back along the ground and away from her, then I blocked it with my body, and put it in my poop bag. As soon as it was out of sight, she relaxed and we enjoyed the rest of our walk! ( until we saw the protective owner I already ranted about). YAY for me! Hopefully I did it right, and sent her a message. The whole episode probably took about 5 minutes, though it felt like 30! Thanks for \"listening\"!
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