Appreciating Labradors !

Something happened on my early morning walk that has once more reinforced why I love Labs so much
I often take my two to a local field , a safe environment where other dogs walkers go , Sam loves it and little terrier Flynn is good as gold off lead . For quite some time though , I kept Flynn on a long line at the woods which is our other regular walk , a Natural England nature reserve . Sam is always off lead but I felt that there were loads of distractions for a terrier , squirrels and rabbits galore Working on Flynns recall on the long line , I eventually let him off , heart in mouth but he was really good, tended to stay close to Sam and only straying a little way from me, until this morning . This morning , the wildlife got too much for him and he set off at an alarming rate , deep into the woods and out of site . Sam stayed with me and I`ll be honest , I was in total panic, shouting and whistling to no avail . I decided to stay close to where he had shot off , thinking that he would most likely come back to where he left me and after what seemed like eternity , he appeared , filthy and covered in sticky buds . I didnt tell him off, in fact I told him he was a good boy for coming back,but his lead was put on pretty smartish : I`ve had terriers with Labs all my life but all my previous ones have been from pups and not rescues like Flynn where you have to iron out bad habits before starting to work on good ones and my goodness , what a difference it makes .
I`m afraid that its back to the long line for the little one , it really made me realise how wonderfully easy Labs are at the side of terriers like this one , how responsive they are and want to please us rather than please themselves

 

Re: Appreciating Labradors !

phew! well done on doing enough work with Flynn that he did come back eventually ;D yep Labs are great but I must confess Barney is quite capable of rushing off and doing his own thing particularly if there's a rook to chase or another dog to greet but like your little terrier he's a rescue that had been stray so is still independently minded. That said I've never lost sight of him for more than a few minutes - not like the hours on end that some of my spaniel and terrier owning friends have experienced. I think it's because having got properly lost once he doesn't want it to happen again.

Surprisingly although Rusty is my shadow and rarely leaves my side and is great at "checking in" when out walking off lead it's Barney that wins every time when we play hide and seek!