Trust Them To Be Dogs...

                                                                     

 

I was driving home from vet school late one Saturday night and, after three hours in the car and only ten miles from home, as I drove through a sharp curve, something was suddenly in front of me. It was fawn in color so I thought coyote immediately, but I realized it was a dog. I stopped short and the dog ran off. I pulled over in the nearest driveway and got out hurrying to the nearest farm house to see if they were missing a dog. They weren’t and had no clue whose dog it might be that had dashed in front of my car.

I wandered down the side of the road in the dark with a cell phone that was almost dead in a dress suit with no jacket, looking for the dog in the freezing cold. It took some searching, but I finally found the dog, which turned out to be a young Mastiff standing over another dog that was clearly injured. The other dog growled at me as I approached threatening to bite, so I backed off and called 911 to send a sheriff. I managed to get a leash off one of my two dogs, who were both in my car, and a collar to put on the dog that wasn’t injured to prevent her from running back into the road. It turns out the dogs hadn’t strayed far from their home and the sheriff came quickly, but not before their owner arrived.

Their owner was heartbroken of course to see her dog had been hit by a car and kept saying her dogs didn’t leave the yard normally. The sheriff arrived and we got the dog into her car and off to the veterinarian.

The owner’s words — they normally don’t leave the yard — kept running through my head. Unfortunately, that night they did and crossed a dark highway at the wrong moment and someone hit one of them. The situation reminded me of an article I read once about dog training and doing it safely. It discussed how even the best trained dogs can go tearing across a parking lot after a squirrel if off-leash at the park or in the right situation could behave in a manner that could threaten their lives. That is the truth. Dogs can get distracted and momentarily forget training. At the wrong moment, that can cost a dog its life. 

I love my two dogs and we do train regularly in obedience as well as other disciplines several of which involve working off a leash. Most of the times my girls are great, responding to my cues to come when asked. When I visited family not long ago my girls came along and whenever they needed to go out I would put them on leashes and go out into the yard. My family was amazed that my dogs that I show and compete with needed leashes. I told them it wasn't that they aren't trained, it is that I trust them to be a dog. I trust them to leap at the sight of the squirrel and maybe momentarily forget there is a road between them and said squirrel. I trust them to see someone running down the road that they want to visit. I trust them to be what they are, dogs, and as their owner I need to do what I can to keep them safe.

By Dr. Jill Dentel