Thursday, September 17

Saved by Leashes - Twice!

I packed up Roofus, Popper, Blossom, and Merlin, and headed over to my parents' house for a few hours of fetch and frisbee. When I was a few houses away from theirs, there was a "Road Closed" sign. Not to be deterred, I turned around and went the back way.

The back way was blocked as well, and there were all sorts of people milling about. I rolled my window down to ask a man, who happened to have a large dog, why the road was closed. "Gas leak," he said. I thanked him, and in that instant, Popper bolted from the passenger side seat, through the driver's side window. I managed to snag his leash as it trailed out the window. The next second, Merlin got it into his head to go tumbling after him, but I was prepared now, and I got him before he had two paws on my seat, and stuck him on the passenger side floor. I got Popper back into the car, and away we went.

That has never happened to me before. I am very upset at Popper for having so little self control that he felt the need to fly out my window to go visit a dog. Merlin is reactive so I am not surprised at him, although he has never tried to jump out the window before.

When we got home, I put my dogs in stays, and opened my door. I grabbed Popper's leash, when Blossom decided it was her turn to bolt out of the car, and goes running down the sidewalk. Blossom is deaf, so the only way to get Blossom back is to capture her, praying the entire time she doesn't see you, otherwise she'll RUN. I shut the door, took off with Popper after her, and stepped on her leash. Thankfully she always wears a harness, so the jolt of a sudden stop wasn't too bad.

At this point I was pretty happy to get back into my house and stuff all the dogs inside it.

Twice in one day! I don't ever have a problem with dogs in my car. I think it may be time to reintroduce Popper to the doggie seat belt, and I believe I need to get Blossom one as well, since she is deaf now and a PITA to catch if she can slip out the door. This was quite an eye opener - just because your dogs don't normally do something, or have been trained not to do something, does not mean they will not do it at some point! I always fear the off-leash dogs that are "perfectly trained," because it only takes a second for something bad to happen. We all were lucky this time.

Roofus, I will note, was an exceptionally good boy the entire time and the only one I am not annoyed with at the moment.

And my dogs are still full of energy and have not gotten their exercise yet!! :( We're going to try back later.

1 comment:

Becky Fyfe said...

Yikes! It's a good thing they had their leashes on!

We sometime let our dog off of his leash at the park, but only when there are no other dogs around (even though he's friendly and completely non-aggressive, it's best not to take chances). He ALWAYS comes back to me with the "come" command, but there is always a chance that someday he'll be disobedient.