A senior dog who finally worked up the courage to take a walk at the dog park and talk to other canines has melted hearts on social media after her owner shared a heartwarming video of their outing.
The viral video, shared on TikTok in August, under the username @shanboff, shows the Los Angeles-based pup bravely walking around the dog park as her owner holds her on a leash. As the owner zooms into her legs with her camera, it becomes clear that the pup still has some doubts about it, but this doesn’t change the fact that she got out of her comfort zone and challenged her limits.
“Working up the courage to walk into the dog park and talk to the other dogs,” reads the layover text displayed on the clip.
A caption shared along with the footage says: “The wobbly knees are everything to me.”
A file photo of a senior dog playing in the bushes. One senior dog who finally worked up the courage to take a walk at the dog park has gone viral.
Getty Images
While some pups love going to the doggy park and playing with their friends, others hate it, and that’s most likely because they are fearful of other dogs. But as their owner, there’s something you can do to help them overcome it.
Dog wellness experts at Rover explain that you can desensitize and counter-condition your dog using a similar method to positive reinforcement. You must first figure out what your dog’s threshold is, meaning how close to other dogs he’s willing to get.
Once you figure that out, always keep that distance from other dogs when outside, and start handing them treats whenever they see a dog. After a while they should start associating dogs with something positive about to happen.
As they get more and more used to this, you can slowly and gradually shorten their threshold distance, always making sure they’re comfortable with it.
This type of desensitization may allow your dog to walk outside more confidently and free of fear, but Rover explains it will probably not turn your dog into a “social butterfly,” which is OK, because most dogs don’t really need interaction with other canines to live a satisfying life.
The video quickly went viral on social media, getting viewers from across TikTok. It has so far received over 522,900 views and 106,300 likes on the platform.
One user, Luna_y_Sol333, commented: “Me before walking into any social place.”
1Happy Trio wrote: “She’s trying so hard.”
User2468 added: “Mine picked up his ball, looked me in the eye, and walked back to the car. And then we never went to the dog park again. He didn’t like it.”
Newsweek reached out to shanboff for comment via TikTok comments. We could not verify the details of the case.
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