On my way to work, I saw a bright white flash up ahead on a fast-paced country road. As I got closer, I realized it was a dog and then saw something dark on one paw. I pulled my car partially off the road, put on my hazards, grabbed a leash, and off I went. I stand still near my car and try sweet talking him softly. I try walking slowly towards him, happy and calm voice, but he gets nervous and starts running. Thankfully, he ran off the road and down a driveway.
As I followed him down the driveway to the sound of people honking at my car in the road as they sped past, I thought "this is going to be a long morning". But then I heard barking of other dogs and realized aha, this could be good! Sure enough, loose boy ran towards them, and I had hope that this was his home. We encountered a gated driveway where the resident dogs were clearly not pleased at our arrival. A lady from the house came out, verified this is not her dog, but as the wanderer was at the gate trying to check out the resident dogs, I went for him with a lasso fashioned out of the leash. Missed him, so tried to get his collar and man, he was NOT having any of it. Eventually, I got him with the lasso and after spinning around like a whirling dervish for a bit, he calmed down a little. I got him to my car, fed him some snacks I had with me, and eventually got a look at his tag (by feeding him with one hand and cautiously grabbing the tag with another). As I got near his home about 5 minutes away, his family was out frantically looking for him.
Here's the lesson, though... please do your best to get your dogs used to being handled, especially grabbed by the collar. I know that can be tricky, and I realize in today's situation that I was a stranger, the dog was stressed, and that could have been all his problem with me was. But the owner freely admitted he hated having his collar touched by anyone, and was at the vet yesterday (thus the bandaged leg) and they had trouble with him, too. Please know that I understand it's very hard with some dogs to work on this. But try. Please. For their sake.
Recalls are something I always practice with my dogs and, every time they come to me, I grab their collar and have a huge party about it. I do this not just with my puppies, but for their entire lives. Why do you think my Hogan liked playing dress up so much? Whenever I'm putting a collar on or taking one off of a dog, I talk about how awesome the collar is, how handsome/beautiful the dog is, etc. People often think I'm nuts, but the end result is that anyone can grab my dogs by the collar. I've had people tell me during training "I don't want anyone able to grab my dog! They could be taken by a stranger!". I get their point. But what I really don't want is to have my dog hit by a car because no one can catch him, or a dog who tries to nail a vet or vet tech during an emergency, or an animal control officer who can't read my dog's tag or scan for his microchip because the dog won't let anyone near him. There are certainly no guarantees when a dog is loose, and it happens to ALL of us. But let's arm the dogs with as many tools as we can to help in their getting back home.
Here are some articles to check out about hand shy dogs and recalls.
How to Help Hand Shy Dogs
How to Train a Happy Recall
I'm happy all turned out well for this guy today. I'm thankful my bosses are dog people and completely support me coming in late because of this. <3
~K
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