Had a huge win, then immediately lost it.

We were practicing Look at That with a dog who happened to be perfectly outside my dog’s threshold. I walked outside this morning and saw a dog about half a block down — across a four-lane busy road, so plenty of distance but very visible. The dog’s owners were just chatting, lingering mid-walk, so I knew we had time and pounced on the opportunity. We timed it just right and got a solid 5-7 minutes of calm “look at that”s and training. It was the first time ever my dog didn’t react to another dog while in our yard. I was so proud.

We were wrapping it up as I spot two women walking toward us with their bulldogs. No problem — I stayed ahead of it and immediately walked Booster to the backyard before he even saw them. I was trying to be subtle and smooth: I made eye contact, gave a little nod as I turned away, and gently ushered him back inside the mesh gate. Like, you saw me manage this. I was barely even visible once inside — literally hiding behind the mesh door (the only place he could really see them) until they passed.

But… instead of moving on, they walk right up to our fence line — standing in the ONLY place visible from the backyard — and start talking to me from maybe 20 feet away. Booster loses his mind. Full-volume meltdown. Now he’s not just over threshold — he’s in the red zone, drowning out the entire conversation.

I shouted (nicely) that it was hard to hear them because my dog is reactive and struggling with their dogs being there. They just said, “Oh, that’s okay!” and… talked LOUDER.

I tried to wrap it up quickly but I should have told them to leave. I just didn’t want to come off like the mean lady with the “aggressive dog,” especially since they were new to the neighborhood and asking for advice.

It’s not on them — they weren’t trying to be rude — but also, if a dog is barking like crazy… maybe take that as a sign? lol.

Anyway. We have reactivity class later, and I’m just hoping the trigger stacking doesn’t wreck his ability to focus. Just venting because we were doing SO GOOD and people still found a way to derail it.