Sometimes I have ESP.
Don’t get excited, it’s not the kind of ESP that predicts the outcome of sporting events or winning lottery numbers or anything. Truthfully, I’m not very good at recognizing it even as ESP and I definitely don’t know how to hone it in.
How it works is like this, I’m driving down the highway and all of a sudden I think, “Gee I haven’t seen a cop in a long time,” and then a mile down the road, there’s a cop shooting radar or writing a ticket to some poor soul that doesn’t have ESP.
OR
Sometimes it works like this, I write a blog post about a command I’m using called, “Stop!”
In the post I say, “There’s also another command we’ve been working on. It’s called Stop. I typically use this command when the dogs are both off-leash in the woods. Suddenly I will say, “Stop!” and reward them when they do. My thought process is this – to have a command so solid, the dogs will do it without even thinking. So now when that wayward deer shows up and my dog takes off, (and I panic forgetting my recall word) I yell, “Stop!” and my dog will cease what he/she’s doing and actually stop. Once I’ve gotten their attention, (and gathered my wits again) I can easily recall them back to me.”
My posts are scheduled to publish at midnight. So today’s post was actually written yesterday. I wrote my Stop Means Stop! post last Wednesday night and published it Thursday. Thursday afternoon I took the dogs for their afternoon walk in the woods. It was a fairly good walk, Delilah had been well behaved so I decided to let her off-leash for the last bit of trail walking.
I love you Mama.
She is jauntily walking along beside me looking adoringly up at me, when suddenly she stiffens up and Sampson does too. Then they quicken their pace down the hill.
I’m looking ahead, but I can’t see anything, so I say, “I don’t see anything”
Suddenly a Mama deer and her baby pop out of a side trail onto the main trail. Delilah’s already on it.
I keep my head about me and yell “Stop”. Delilah is in hot pursuit, ears flying tail wagging and running as if her life depends on it. She either can’t hear me OR she’s choosing to ignore me.
Going, going, gone.
My brain engages, stop isn’t working so I yell, “Sampson, Delilah, NO!”
By now Sampson has realized that he in fact, cannot run down a deer, but Delilah, Delilah has not figured this out yet. She’s ready to give it the old Labrador try.
The deer however have figured out that a crazy, barking dog is chasing them, so they hightail it down the path. The deer hit the end of the main trail and head towards the main road, with Delilah right behind them. My brain then says, “Shit, if she leaves the park, it’s anybody’s guess where she’ll end up.”
Delilah hits the end of the path and something clicks. She has either decided that she cannot in fact, run down a deer or she finally hears, “Stop.” As quickly as she started running, she has stopped, and turned around, running happily back up to me.
I breathe a deep sigh of relief. I’ll take it as a win.
I just wish my ESP spelled things out. Like, put your dog’s leash on, there’s deer about to pop out at you.
I usually “just know” when another driver is going to do something stupid, like pull out right in front of me. So, much as I’d like to be going faster than the speed limit, I slow down and keep my left foot right next to the brake pedal just in case I’m right.
Glad D-Dog changed her mind about the deer and turned and ran back to you!
Oh gosh! I can only imagine how this must have been! Glad it worked out though.
It’s possible you may need a bit more practice with the STOP command. Just sayin’. I’m no expert (I’m barely off-leash in the house), but I’m pretty sure it ain’t STOPping if she keeps going.
Love and licks,
Cupcake
My mom has a lot of that ESP stuff happen to her. She thinks, oh, I wonder why Sally hasn’t called recently and bam, the phone rings and it is Sally, she thinks like you do about cops and suddenly she sees them everywhere. Weird stuff that kind of creeps her out.
I think when Delilah has her eye on a “prize”, that’s ALL she is thinking about! I don’t think that will ever change! We all have ESP. You can take classes to learn how to hone in on it. I’ll take a class with you! I LOVE that stuff! Jus’ sayin’!
It would be nice if you could put your ESP on speed dial, wouldn’t it? Luckily they both stopped – one sooner than the other. I’m not sure what Zora would do. We have deer, turkeys, bunnies, squirrels and other critters in the backyard. I’m not sure I could get her to stop if she got on to one, so I always keep her on a leash.
So glad Delilah gave up the chase! Agree with Sheena, we all have ESP, but not all of us are tuned into it all the time. Deer sightings happen daily here and my dogs are now trained not to bark, chase or threaten them in any way. My word is “hey” spoken with a lot of authority. When mama says “hey” all dog activity stops and they focus on me. I guess you could say it means freeze and it is easy to remember for the human 😉
If you ever find the key to ESP let me know!
That reminds me of the time Mity took off after a rabbit. I tried all the usual commands then finally yelled “no” as he was about to disappear down a rabbit hole. I think he must have understood the fear in my voice as he froze – he never did it again (the freezing thing)
I’d definitely take it as a win! But it would be nice if your ESP was a little more specific and gave you the appropriate advice.
That’s scary! We only let Abby and Holly off leash during hikes. Because Abby will not leave my side, ever, and Holly has a good recall. The young ones, are not reliable yet, so no off leash for them. That is something I intend to work on this Fall/Winter.
It sounds like Delilah is trustworthy, she just gets excited and momentarily forgets.
Sorry, this was my comment above…
My dogs have fairly good recall, but I’m sure if they were chasing a deer all bets would be off. Your dogs are quite well trained.
Happy endings like this are victories nonetheless. Savor it and then superglue the leash to her. Whew. 😉
Next time, since you have ESP, you should try talking to your dogs telepathically! See if that works. Then you wouldn’t have to yell so much. LOL!
I’ve experienced that ESP thing too, and yes, wouldn’t it be nice if it could give you a bit more detail? That must have been so scary with Delilah on the run, I’m so glad she finally heard you or it clicked or whatever! Luke has gotten pretty good with recall, unless it’s something really, really special. Then his ears shut off, or yes, he just chooses to ignore me. But I’m glad to know there’s hope for him!
This always happens at the store I work at: Someone will say, “we haven’t seen so and so for a while – I wonder where they’ve been?” and then boom – they walk in the door. It really is freaky, and you have to wonder if the universe doesn’t just mess with us at times.
Maybe you could get a booster for that ESP to help you harness it better.
I have ESP too sometimes and it’s kind of strange when those things happen. It doesn’t happen as much as it used to, probably because I’m pretty busy these days and I think we pick up on things more when the mind is quiet. I’m really glad Delilah stopped when she did though!
That is the hardest moment to get a dog to actually stop – in mid chase. ESP can be funny like that; either my brain isn’t smart enough or it’s just too damn vague to ever do me any good.
So glad that she stopped!