The first few minutes of our walk together was spent with an 
overly hyper Sampson: a big, furry, black and tan blur jumping all over the place, chewing at the leash and trying to play tug of war with it. After a few stern "No!"s and a period of time just standing there waiting for him to calm down, he finally did and off we went. He was a puller at first, no doubt because of all that energy he has in his breed, but after a few corrections he started walking with a slack leash. I found him to be a bit aloof initially; unlike some other dogs, he didn't really invite any affection his way. But towards the end of our time together, he warmed up a little, and I even got some tail wags after I gave him some hugs! Perhaps he just needs to trust you first. With the other dogs, he totally wanted to be friends with all of them; whenever he would meet another dog face to face, after some friendly introductory sniffing he would give them all a nice little lick on the nose and continue on his way. I think he's harbouring a crush on my favorite dog Myra: whenever they passed each other they would slow down and stare, not in an aggressive or defensive way, but in a way that said "Swooooon!" Probably the fact that Myra is in heat and Sampson is not neutered makes things extra, extra lusty for these two!
overly hyper Sampson: a big, furry, black and tan blur jumping all over the place, chewing at the leash and trying to play tug of war with it. After a few stern "No!"s and a period of time just standing there waiting for him to calm down, he finally did and off we went. He was a puller at first, no doubt because of all that energy he has in his breed, but after a few corrections he started walking with a slack leash. I found him to be a bit aloof initially; unlike some other dogs, he didn't really invite any affection his way. But towards the end of our time together, he warmed up a little, and I even got some tail wags after I gave him some hugs! Perhaps he just needs to trust you first. With the other dogs, he totally wanted to be friends with all of them; whenever he would meet another dog face to face, after some friendly introductory sniffing he would give them all a nice little lick on the nose and continue on his way. I think he's harbouring a crush on my favorite dog Myra: whenever they passed each other they would slow down and stare, not in an aggressive or defensive way, but in a way that said "Swooooon!" Probably the fact that Myra is in heat and Sampson is not neutered makes things extra, extra lusty for these two!The only moment I had a teensy, tiny little problem with Sampson is when we were passing the livestock pens. The Surrey SPCA has a little barn area, and they sometimes have chickens, turkeys, pigs, llamas, horses, goats, etc., held there. Today there was an adorably cute little baby goat with a yellow tag on its head. It seemed very intersted in the dogs, and would stand at the edge of the fence just watching all of them walk by. While we were passing, Sampson got very excited, and literally dragged me to the fence, where the goat was still watching. They both started sniffing each other curiously, so I thought everything was all friendly...until Sampson opened his mouth and tried to chomp down on the little goat! Understandably, the goat freaked out and cried in his little baby bleat while running away from us as quick as he could, while I tried to pull back Sampson, a feat very tiring because he was using all his strength to get at the fence. I felt so bad for the little goat afterwards, I'm pretty sure it was just expressing a natural curiousity about Sampson, while Sampson obviously thought the goat would make a pretty good meal for him! Such things are the way of nature, I guess...but we're not out in the wild right now so that was a no-no for Sampson!
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