Hi folks,

Saskia, at 1 1/2 years old in a few days, is still very young and full of
bounce and joy. She minds us extremely well almost all the time, screeching
to a halt at bike paths when off-lead and demonstrating excellent recall.
She is fabulous with the baby, having learned to hold very still if he
crawls underneath her and starts playing with her feet, and adores him,
following him everywhere and trying to keep her head near him--if he sits
down to play she immediately lies down and puts her head as near him as
possible http://www.xs4all.nl/~cooper17/katri...ookHimNow2.jpg. If
he cries she rushes over to see what's wrong. She has even learned some
self-control over her anxiety problem--the other day she was lying by him
and he was leaning on her, and she was startled by something he did--he
moved something she'd always thought was inanimate--and she jumped halfway
up, realized while still crouched that she'd made Walter fall over (gently
and to his amusement, but she didn't extrapolate that) and she immediately
and very slowly and carefully sank back to a down while licking his hands
frantically.

However. When we see another dog outside she tries to get over there. It's
fine in the park or the running area where everyone's dogs are loose and
most friendly and there's plenty of space and we're not going anywhere in
particular. But out front and on street-walks it's another matter. If we see
the dog before she does, often she will sit for us and hold the sit,
quivering, until the dog is very close--then she'll leap out into a play
bow, general scaring the wits out of dog and human (she does weigh in excess
of 120 pounds now). Often she'll suddenly try to follow the dog down the
block. We feel bad yelling and giving her a bit of a tap on the butt (the
ultimate in punishment as far as she's concerned, along with the dreaded
"Bad Dog!"), and although I can hold her it looks awful, with the lunging
and yelling and so forth as the others go by, and gives the impression she's
mean, and she outweighs my husband and he doesn't have all the horse
experience so he gets dragged.

Doesn't help that most dogs here are offlead, and although well trained, the
streets are narrow and they have to come right by her. Usually just walking
the other way isn't an option because we're standing at the elimination spot
for this block. She's not treat motivated at all at times like these. We
cannot use any sort of training collar or a Halti because she has a neck
problem that although dormant is potentially a Wobbler's type condition, and
on the advice of the orthopedist she's in a body harness and a loose-fitting
buckle collar for backup. She heels well, she walks loose-lead in general
well, she just loves those other dogs. Coupled with all this, some of the
dogs, especially terriers, are less than enthused, and Saskia thinks
everything is play, so she has decided that copying this one dog who
genuinely hates her and passes on a bicycle (well, accompanying one) now and
then by letting out a good solid roar in company with the on-lead play thing
(which is what she clearly thinks is happening) is a good idea. This
downright scares the bejeezus out of the other human, and sets the terriers
off--at which point Saskia realizes they're not playing and hides behind me.

Suggestions? We do have a trainer and she's good, but we're flat broke right
now due to illness elsewhere in the family and the general spiraling out of
control of the Dutch economy. I will be phoning her for suggestions as well,
but you folks have always dealt out generally good advice and I'd appreciate
some ideas.

Thanks,
Katrina