[Sabina88]

Normally when I take the dogs for walks its very rare to run into anyone (with or without dogs). I think in the entire time ive had Sawyer we've only seen 3-4 people while one a walk, and only 2 of them were actually walking. Well since it was so nice out today I decided to take them for a walk down my favorite street (its mostly residential so very few cars, and its not to hilly). Normally when I walk the dogs its during the week and given my school schedual most people are at work, I don't think i've ever been down this road on a weekend. Anyways on our walk (I walk both dogs at the same time since I don't want to walk 2 miles then take the other one and do it again), and we ran into 3 people. The first one was not long after we started walking, it was a older man walking his 2 dogs. Once Sawyer saw them he started barking, I cant really say if it was because there was a stranger (he has a bit of a harder time with men) or the dogs or both. I know he's not dog or people aggressive and I don't think its leash barrier frustration either. I think its more just the whole there's a stranger thing. His hackles were up but there wasn't any fixation and after we walked past and started going on our way he stopped and was fine. The guy was nice enough to turn up a driveway and go up a way, though it might have been his house. Then the second time was when we were heading back. After I walk down the road a bit I turn off onto another side road as its more level, and we were heading back down the road after turning around. This road is even more residential then the road we start off at, so its not suprising that there were people out walking. This time it was two woman who were clearly out for a after noon exercise walk (if that makes sense). Well even though Sawyer started barking and kind of growling (not aggressive just kind a hey I don't know about you one), they decided not move over to the other side of the road. That they were pretty much using up most of the road to walk (side by side), so I was a little annoyed and moved over to the other side of the road, and again the lady closest to us still decided not to move over and give us space :eyeroll:. In both cases he wasn't barking aggressively at all, and stopped after we got passed and didn't fixate. He even sat when I asked, I didn't bring any treats with me since I had both dogs and it would have been to hard to try and manage treats with both hands holding a leash, so I pushed lightly on his but just to get his attention and he sat and didn't get up, though he still barked. But that was when I was going to just wait for the ladies to pass before I realized I needed to move over.
Anyways since we rarely see any one on our walks I never really thought I would need to work with him not to react. So im not quite sure how to go about it, any advise? We are also working on the "on by" command anyway as I want to eventually get into scootering with him. I also will probably be using these couple of road as they are relatively level, and have very low traffic. Thankfully I don't think I have to worry about Maye, I think the only reason she barked too was because he barked, especially because she's not a big barker to begin with.