My 9 year old greyhound-terrier mix has not really ever had long term dog friends that didn't live in the house. We had two dogs for several years, but the other dog wasn't so active, so they didn't really play very much.
When she sees other dogs in the window, she wines to go meet them, but she doesn't know how to become friends right away. When we introduce her to other people's dogs as we are walking or we start chatting with them when they pass our house, it doesn't always go so smoothly. I can understand why the latter would trigger territorial instincts. Sometimes at first it goes ok, but then sometimes turns South. Not always, but sometimes. It has always been brief one-time meetings.
She is really lonely and getting more and more depressed, and I think this will help her, but I don't think she has the social skills yet to go to an unleashed dog park. I really want to get her friends to play with so she is not so depressed, and I want to know how to teach her dog social skills so that she can make new friends at a dog park and not get into fights or show any aggression. Any advice? I am the one in my family taking this initiative, however I am in college and am only going to be home for the month of April and July, so I'd need to do it then.
P.S: for the record, she is not a rescue dog.
