Shout out to all the good dogs! You Rock! Periodically on Living with a Golden we feel the need to share reminders about proper dog etiquette when visiting beaches or trails. But after what we witnessed during our adventures these past couple of weeks, we want to congratulate all the dogs we saw working hard to train their humans to obey the rules! We were very impressed by all the great behavior and positive vibes!

To be honest, in recent years we were getting disheartened by all of the out of control dogs we saw breaking the rules at our favorite places. In fact, some places we once enjoyed have since banned dogs outright, or have seriously reduced our abilities to play there. This left our tails drooping.

However, our tails are wagging again after all the good dogs we saw enjoying dog friendly places in September. So shout out to all the dogs obeying the leash rules! Thanks for keeping your humans tethered to you when required, and not running with reckless abandon but instead listening to your recall commands when not on-leash. And a bigger shout out to the dogs we saw working on teaching their humans polite leash walking. It isn’t an easy skill to master, trust us we know. So to see you patiently working on it with so many distractions really lifted our spirits.

Speaking of distractions, a huge round of applause for the Lab working on his human’s down/stay and recalls at the beach. You didn’t even flinch when that seagull landed near you, or that jogger ran past. Instead you remained focused on your human as he wandered farther and farther away from you, until he gave the magic recall command. Bravo! Also to the German Shepherd who used us to help practice his sit/stay with his Mom while we walked past on that narrow trail, great job! You handled your human perfectly, and definitely earned that treat!

Also thank you to everyone for picking up the poop! Everywhere we went was virtually spotless! Most of the places we visited didn’t have trash receptacles, and require folks to carry it out with them when they leave. We didn’t see any nasty bags of poop abandoned at an entrance to a beach or along trails. Ok, so there was that one trail, but we quickly cleaned it up and carried it away for whoever left that deposit behind. Not cleaning up after pets is one of the biggest reasons dogs get banned, and I have to admit we stopped going to a few of our favorite places because it was getting too gross. So thank you to everyone making the effort to keep it clean!

The little humans also deserve a round of applause for politely asking to pet us first, rather than charging in for the hug. We really appreciate the respect you showed us. Especially the little girl who understood when we had to tell her “no,” because Asa was just too excited to remember his manners to keep his four paws on the ground. We encountered quite a few adults who could learn from your polite behavior to ask first.

Oh sure there were dogs who weren’t always following the rules. Yes, we saw you Bobby, the tiny terrier, terrorizing all your fellow visitors by charging up off-leashing, barking and snarling at everyone, including us. A word of advice to your owner, Bobby really isn’t as “friendly” as you kept shouting at people while you ran after him! But pups like Bobby were very few and far between, at most of the places we recently explored in Maine and New Hampshire. Overall it was a pleasure to see dogs doing their best to control their humans and obey the rules, while out enjoying these great dog friendly places.

Perhaps we just happened to time it right? Or maybe, just maybe, pups are starting to turn a corner with dog etiquette and the message that it is better to behave is getting out! Because if what we witnessed continues, paws crossed maybe more places will become dog friendly!