I had to walk dogs alone because someone here managed to get sick (grr). This is also an answer to this someone who keeps asking me why this stuff only happens to me. Wrong, it happens to him too, I can remember quite a few times with him coming home from walks totally drained and fuming like I don’t know what… It’s only when we walk the dogs together it is calmer, so much easer to control them (oops wrong, not them, HER!) having 4 eyes to watch and 4 hands to grab.
It was Alisa of course. She was playing like a demon (when snow and minus temperature it’s like she’s on some drug(s)!) and was annoying Stanley who kept refusing to play with her. As a result she was barking at him and everything else almost non-stop. After a while I turned for home before my head would explode.
This is when, while walking back trough the forest, the red haired mischief suddenly without any warning (usually are some signs) took off and in a very bad direction (busy road at that end of the forest). It’s always a gamble to walk with her off leash in the forest in the evenings, though 9 out of 10 times she will turn back when you call her. Yesterday was this one time when she didn’t. There are steep slops, thorny bushes and a lot of trees, so there is no way you can see something or chase after her, your only chance is that she will come back by her own free will.
Stanley as usual understood what had happened and was actively helping to find her. He’s been doing it over and over again through the years! He is absolutely amazing, we never even trained him for it. He just knows what he should do! It was also he who spotted her at the end (I never heard or saw her) by suddenly shooting off inside the forest. So when I called again he came to me together with absolutely drained red-haired hooligan.
When we came out of the forest onto the sidewalk along the road, surprise, surprise, turning the corner from our street further up the road our neighbor came with his two dogs (huge male Beaucerons). I don’t know if there are any issues with them, they’ve never shown any signs of aggression but he always keeps them on extremely short leash and never allows them to get close to other dogs. As a result Alisa has never managed to say proper hello to these dogs so she is barking at them every time she see them.
The man was kind enough and stepped aside a couple of meters inside the bushes to give us more space to pass and holding his fellas tight, who were becoming a bit agitated, why? Because Alisa just wouldn’t shut-up! As I was passing him I turned my head and gave an apologetic smile and then turned to Alisa to say another hopeless “quiet” and that is when all hell broke loose.
It all happened in a few crazy seconds. I suddenly had a flash of something big and black landing just behind Alisa’s back. It was so sudden that I made a little shriek, my dogs got startled, all this made the black dog (it was a dog!) freak out too and did a side leap into the air and ended up on the road. Luckily he wasn’t hit by a passing car and no car accident occurred either after that car swirled to avoid him. On top of this there was also a Jack Russell terrier dancing around between all of us. These sudden newcomers came from a house next to the road, for the last 3 years I’ve never seen them come outside the property, ever!
I did a quick glance over my shoulder while rushing away from all this and saw the Jack Russell standing very close to the by now very excited Beaucerons and our neighbor pressing his dogs down on the ground with his body, he was literally almost laying on top of them! This is actually why, even if I’m a big fan of some big size breeds, I never had one and never will. I don’t have enough body weight to hold them if needed.
Today Alisa was on the leash in the forest all the time and she was so calm, quiet and so well behaved, just an innocent angel. Makes me wonder if everything that happened yesterday was just a figment of my imagination.
