Out for a walk this morning, around the side of a field next to a wood. Pongo is running about 20 yards ahead of me. Suddenly a pheasant dashes out from the wood about six feet in front of him. Pongo stops and stares at pheasant. Pheasant stares at Pongo. Pongo stares at pheasant. Pheasant stares at Pongo. Pongo looks back over his shoulder to me: "what do I do about this, mum?" Pheasant walks up to Pongo. Pongo stares at pheasant. Pheasant gives up in disgust and trots back into wood. Pongo shrugs his shoulders and trots on. And I thought that that was meant to be his specialist subject?
But to be fair to Pongo, that's an excellent reaction for a Labrador to have to a live, healthy pheasant. There are no circumstances in which you would want him to chase a live, uninjured pheasant.
Plenty of people would pay a lot of money to have their dog react that way! That is a perfect reaction for a gundog. They are not meant to chase. They are meant to wait for your cue. Well done Pongo!
Pongo is positively STRUTTING around the house with pride. His head is swelling to unreasonable proportions.
