At puppy class last week our challenge was to "meet livestock with pup safely on lead at all times". Well, Freddie must have been listening really carefully because today I let him off lead down a disused railway line near our house - what I thought was a safe place as loads of dog walkers let their dogs off down there. He disappeared behind a hedge and I thought he had got into a garden that backs onto the railway line path. I struggled through some brambles to discover he had got into a field where horses are kept! They are only penned in with stakes and thin nylon ropes, not proper wooden fences, so would have been easily accessible to Freddie had he chosen to run up to them. Fortunately, he had a healthy respect for them and was just sitting looking at them. He had got into the field through a hole in the corner of the fence which people have obviously been trying to block off with bits of wood and branches but they haven't done a very good job of it! Anyway, I had to crawl through this small hole over the wood and branches to try and coax Freddie back to me. I had taken some freshly made tuna bread with me for the first time but he totally ignored my requests to "come here". I know we have been told in puppy classes not to repeat our commands because that just teaches the puppy to ignore us but I was getting worried that he was going to go into the pen with one of the horses.
I finally managed to get his attention without resorting to running (which did go through my mind!), got hold of his collar, gave him a treat and put him back on his lead. I then had to get back through the hole and brambles with an excited puppy on a lead which was easier said than done and my hands bear the scratches to remind me of my close encounter with the brambles!
Needless to say - note to self - do not let him off lead down there again until his recall is a little better!!!!
