This morning, before going to work, as I was walking Alfie back home he came running up from behind me and carried on into the distance and I was thinking how lovely it was to watch him running freely. Little did I know what was to follow. I thought he had run to get a stick (which he often does) but it was a flat piece of bone, about 9" x 3". The vet strongly advised me against giving Alfie any kind of bones, (which was sad as he loved them) but he became unwell through eating bones, so finding this piece of bone was just Alfie’s dream come true. Alfie’s recall is usually pretty good but recall against precious bone-no contest. When it came to putting on his lead he wouldn’t come near me to get his usual piece of kibble and kept bounding away should I put a foot towards him. The problem was we were yards from the footbridge that crosses a busy road down to our house so I kept enticing him in different directions away from the foot bridge but was no nearer to getting hold of him to put his lead on. Eventually my worst fear was realised when he ran across the bridge and straight across the road. Thankfully there were no cars passing at that moment, so I ran down the road in hot pursuit and was so relieved that he turned into our driveway and into the back garden where I could close the gate on him. He was still determined to keep the bone. Usually a shake of his kibble container is enough to bring him racing, but we were playing for high stakes with the bone! I threw a handful of kibble towards him on the grass when he finally relinquished the bone. It was quite an anxious and trying start to the day!
