The Berkeley Dog Theory

Today, I'm going to share my dog theory with you about the dogs of Berkeley. But, you can probably fill in the blank with whatever town you want that is not in a city. And, this is probably a generalization because I'm sure people who live in the suburbs do this type of training that I will get into with their dogs. 

I realized a BIG difference between city dogs and suburb dogs. Evie essentially grew up in SF since I got her from the shelter at age 1 1/2 in CT. We moved a few months later to CA with her. She learned how to meet and greet dogs,  how to walk on a leash on the sidewalk around other dogs/people/strollers/bikes, how to sit at a stoplight before crossing, etc. 

The big thing she learned that suburb dogs don't really know how to do is 1)walk past other dogs and 2)greet other dogs nicely. I think this is because they just don't NEED to learn how to do it. There are a ton of streets and less people so you don't need to learn how to socialize your dog like this. 

When we moved here, I noticed people would walk OFF of the sidewalk , around us, and get back on the sidewalk. I figured this is because of how Evie is clearly part Pit Bull. I think that is the case 50% of the time and people are just scared of her. The other 50% of the time is that they don't trust THEIR dog to walk past her. People have picked up their dogs, turned the corner, only to for us to see that dog LOSING ITS MIND barking and snarling when we walk by. 

I refuse to cross the street or turn the corner just because another dog is coming. We can say hello and keep walking past the dog without an issue (usually). In conclusion, I am grateful for us living in SF because it forced us to train Evie to do certain things. Although we don't think she is socialized around everyone/thing, I realized she is farther a long than we think.