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Broadly speaking engagement/disengagement skills and the ability to interact with dogs outside of that circle/environment. My local park has a regular group that does exactly what you describe with one another but are reactive with dogs that don't engage in the same way. Other dog walkers i know in the area give them a wide birth and quite often don't feel like they can be in the same space as them. Of course it's normal to let dogs play and blow off steam but the reality is too many people don't mix it up with the walking, playing etc. Sadly i've seen quite a few puppies develop behaviour problems as they go through teens into adult dogs because of this.
There are at least a half dozen dogs i regularly come across that are the sweetest, goofiest most playful characters i've met. However i've barely had a nod from their owners as they rarely stop and simply call there dog away once its said hello. At no point does the dog look like it's being robbed of a good time. Nori gets lots of praise and a treat for a sniff and leave and almost always looks thrilled by the interaction!
jono84-
Interesting, thanks for taking the time to respond! We've only spent a few mornings with this particular circle group, but def don't recognise the suggestion that they're reactive with other dogs - Owen was that other dog very recently and everyone greeted him very nicely and they all play well. As seemingly happens every time a 'new' dog walked past. I can get that if someone has a reactive dog a big circle of playing dogs probably isn't a great place to be but I'm not sure I see (yet) any detriment to the dogs who are enjoying it. I certainly prefer these dogs being encouraged to engage with other dogs vs the ones who are so ball-focused they will refuse any canine interaction and eyes unmovingly fixed on the ball in the hope of another throw.
As the owner of a silly sweet goofy dog I love to see him play with other dogs (he loves it more than anything else) and the idea of calling him away every time he went up to say hello doesn't seem like it would be in his interests but maybe I'm unknowingly sabotaging his future happiness?
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I've been rewarding mine for naturally coming back to me after meeting other dogs, now she runs up to them, stops about 2 meters away and lies down until they notice her, then comes running back for a treat. It wasn't really the plan but it's worked quite well.
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It's funny that this has come up. Crumpet has just got back from a walk with a group she goes out with a couple of times a week. The walker said that she's started to become quite protective of the group as a whole and today got really funny with a dog outside of the group trying to get involved. She's not aggressive or reactive normally but was really telling this dog off for no good reason. Crumpet is usually pretty ambivalent and tolerant towards dogs she's not met before so there's clearly some sort of weird behaviour coming about as part of a "pack" that she's familiar with.
If anyone has any suggestions for how to discourage that sort of behaviour I'm all ears!
owl
Sumo
ltc
Out of interest, what was the behaviorists argument against standing around and letting the dogs play? I'm just back from morning walk and it's joyous to stand with a nice group of folk as our dogs play really well around us. Everyone's keeping a eye to check that play stays on the right tracks but dogs all playing really well, taking (and respecting) breaks when they want to and engaging positively at other times. Hard to see anything wrong with it from where I was standing.