We went up the canyon to take some pictures in the snow. When I had them sitting and staying for the photos I switched their regular collars to the jingle collars (the ones I used for the Christmas photos posted recently)...I wouldn't do that for like a walk or something, but I was right there sitting down with them just to take the photos. I took photos with the same collars last year. Well when I stood up the jingle collar slipped off of Keva's neck. I noticed before she did, I tried to call her to me before she realized it.....but I was too late, she took off. We were right in front of a semi-frozen lake. She headed onto the lake...I could see it happening...her getting out in the middle, falling through...me not being able to save her.......oh lord....luckily, she did fall through, but right at the edge, she jumped back out and that was enough to stop her from continuing across the lake.
Unfortunately it was not enough to stop her from running off. She was wearing no collar, harness, or anything, as the collar had just slipped off. This pretty much ranks as one of the worst experiences of my life. At least when she got loose hiking she was wearing a collar and a harness and the only real place for her to go was down the trail. Today she had the entire canyon to explore, and she did! I of course ran after her screaming like an idiot, with Nebo and Skya and my camera in my hand. I was hoping the jingle collars wouldn't pull off of them too but theirs were tighter and I didn't have time to go switch back. I tried the stopping and offering her things approach (I didn't have anything to offer...tried a stick, snowball, and told her I had treats...she isn't dumb enough to fall for that).
She's such a little brat, she'd bolt as fast as she could run...stop and sniff around a bit to wait for me to catch up, then bolt again. She was having so much fun!I lost sight of her for a while, I was about ready to fall down in the snow and start bawling at that point. I don't know how long I chased her, all I knew is that I was going to keep chasing her until I found her, I would have stayed up there all night if I had to. Finally we came fairly close to her, and Nebo play bowed to her (GOOD BOY!!) and she came over to play with him and I was able to grab her. She didn't try to get away, I think she realized her adventures were over. Now I feel awful, it was freezing up there, the combination of running and yelling in the cold has made my lungs hurt...I had avoided being sick so far when everyone around me has been sick, but I think that luck has changed, I've been coughing ever since. Oh well, I'm just so glad I was able to catch her! That took a few years off my life.
For the record, she knows the command "come." When Skya was in puppy class I practiced it with all three of them almost every day. But she's a husky, she was in the snow, in the mountains, and no amount of training was going to convince her to change her mind, she's a very independent thinking dog. She will never again be outside the house without her regular collar on as tight as it can go.
P.S. Is 2008 over yet?
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