Friday night, a friend came over to visit, and then we decided to go out for dinner. And it happened to be exactly at the time when Tinky-Winky usually gets her evening walk, so she lined up at the door while we were putting our shoes on. My friend doesn't have a dog, so he wasn't in that mind set, and blithely opened the door without thinking about where the dog was.
Oops...
Naturally, Tinky-Winky was off like a shot. And of course my friend expected me to go chase after her.
Er... No?
My dog can run 40 km/h and she's a foot tall. There's no way I'm gonna catch her.
Seeing that I wasn't chasing the dog, my friend tried to call her back. Also something I wasn't planning on attempting myself. She's on a runaway; I really don't think she's going to turn back just because someone calls her.
Everyone expects me to chase after my dog when we're separated, and I never do. I'm never gonna catch her, but I don't need to, either. First of all she knows where her food dish is to, and second, she doesn't really want to go running around by herself. She doesn't like to walk without me, and neither do I like to walk without her. We're a pack. We go together.
So, I knew she'd be back shortly, though she still might not want to get in the house.
After a while she did come back, but then, a poodle came trotting across the parking lot. On a leash. And Tinky-Winky went to investigate.
Oh, crap.
At this point I did run after her, hoping to prevent a fight. This turned out to be unnecessary: she sniffed noses with the poodle, and then walked away. Arguably it could be because I was running toward her and she didn't want to get caught, but I doubt it. When she's going to attack, it doesn't matter to her if I'm trying to catch her.
So that was interesting... her walking up to a poofy little dog and not starting a fight.
Anyway, it was becoming quite necessary that I catch her. She came back to the door again, still with no intention of coming inside, and then I got wily. I grabbed a slice of processed cheese from the fridge. Now Tinky-Winky has selective hearing: she can't hear me calling her, but she can hear cheese from a mile away. She still wasn't about to come into the house, but now I had her attention. So I walked up to her, gave her cheese with one hand, and picked her up with the other. Voila! She never even struggled. I put her back into the house with her slice of cheese, and the rest of us went to dinner.
That's a nice thing about dogs, they're not really strategic.
Oops...
Naturally, Tinky-Winky was off like a shot. And of course my friend expected me to go chase after her.
Er... No?
My dog can run 40 km/h and she's a foot tall. There's no way I'm gonna catch her.
Seeing that I wasn't chasing the dog, my friend tried to call her back. Also something I wasn't planning on attempting myself. She's on a runaway; I really don't think she's going to turn back just because someone calls her.
Everyone expects me to chase after my dog when we're separated, and I never do. I'm never gonna catch her, but I don't need to, either. First of all she knows where her food dish is to, and second, she doesn't really want to go running around by herself. She doesn't like to walk without me, and neither do I like to walk without her. We're a pack. We go together.
So, I knew she'd be back shortly, though she still might not want to get in the house.
After a while she did come back, but then, a poodle came trotting across the parking lot. On a leash. And Tinky-Winky went to investigate.
Oh, crap.
At this point I did run after her, hoping to prevent a fight. This turned out to be unnecessary: she sniffed noses with the poodle, and then walked away. Arguably it could be because I was running toward her and she didn't want to get caught, but I doubt it. When she's going to attack, it doesn't matter to her if I'm trying to catch her.
So that was interesting... her walking up to a poofy little dog and not starting a fight.
Anyway, it was becoming quite necessary that I catch her. She came back to the door again, still with no intention of coming inside, and then I got wily. I grabbed a slice of processed cheese from the fridge. Now Tinky-Winky has selective hearing: she can't hear me calling her, but she can hear cheese from a mile away. She still wasn't about to come into the house, but now I had her attention. So I walked up to her, gave her cheese with one hand, and picked her up with the other. Voila! She never even struggled. I put her back into the house with her slice of cheese, and the rest of us went to dinner.
That's a nice thing about dogs, they're not really strategic.
2 comments:
That's the first thing we trained our dog not to do when we got her. She would bolt for the door everytime it opened. It took quite a while but she's finally stopped it. We had to stop her doing this because we live right on a highway and the last thing I want to see happen is my dog getting flattened by a car zooming by. Cheese also worked for her also. Slice cheese is a big treat for her now!
Tinky-Winky never does that normally, it was just a combination of her time to walk and the guy being careless. Normally when she sees that I'm leaving she just runs upstairs and goes to bed.
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