Crazy Day!

Most of my days with Mokey follow a routine. Meaning that there are certain things we do every day: we play outside for an hour or two, go for a walk, practice training, eat three meals, enthusiastically greet the relatives, smell the breeze, relax on the fireplace and eat lots of treats. Most days are not like today.

Today Mokey and I went to our 'Special' Class. She started to learn 'Bow', progressed with 'touch' and completely freaked out over a stuffed dog. No kidding. Everyone in class is practicing a 'Who's that?' command - which basically means 'Thank you for looking calmly at that weird creature, now look back to me before you freak out and here, have a yummy treat.' Mokey does quite well at it - we've practiced it ALOT. So today, in preparation for having a real doggie distraction next week, she brought out this overly stuffed basset hound. It's stiff form and beady black eyes were too much for Momo. Those eyes were staring into her soul and she flipped out like a true pro. When charging and barking got her nowhere (why wasn't this thing running away like all the others? was it stupid?) she tried the opposite approach and backed up. That, plus calmer looks, earned her some treats. Unfortunately however, the thing fell over. Oh boy! There goes Mokey! She freaked out so badly that she managed to contort her shoulders and pull her harness off over her head. Luckily I saw it in time to grab her neck collar before she completely got out of the harness and the stuffed animal went bye bye after she'd calmed down some, but I think it was a bit of an adrenaline rush for everyone.Then, later this afternoon, Momo blessed everyone with even more adrenaline. I took the dogs out to play ball when I noticed a strange dog on the other side of our fence - loose, but with a collar and tags on. Since the dog was giving freindly signals I went back through the house, meaning to come out to the front yard, catch the dog and find out where it belonged. Silly me. In the 30 seconds it took for me to get through the house and out the front door. Mokey saw the other dog, freaked out, hit the fence, popped a board off and followed Chase through the opening. I open the front door and see Chase and Mokey's rear ends as they disappear around the back of a house across the street. Every horror scene imaginable went through my head. Here's my reactive, fearful, huge puppy running off at a break neck speed after a much smaller dog. If she does get away, I have little hope of catching her and little hope of anyone else being able to catch her. So I go running out of the house, my mother and sister bursting out after me and as I hit the front yard I scream "Mokey! Come!" To my sheer and utter amazement, she does. She turned right around, saw me and came sprinting back. To say I was amazed would be an understatement. We've practiced 'come' alot, but never under such extreme distractions. Unfortunately when she was about arms reach from me she noticed the amazed and innocent bystander to our right and went loping off to investigate. After she realized she didn't know the stranger, she ran back across the street - we frantically waved off a car and I tried to remind myself that I shouldn't jump out into the street to stop Mokey from doing so. Finally, Mom called my goofy dog, Mo took note of her for the first time and happily responded to the summons. Mom and I wrangled Mokey into the house while my sister ran ahead, called Chasey, caught and picked him up and brought him home. Safe! So, even though I went out to 'catch' someone else dogs, I ended up catching my own. Dad had to go out and screw the board back onto the fence and now Mokeys not allowed to spend any time outside in the yard without a supervisor. Sigh. What a day. But thank goodness for so many things. After it was over we could only laugh about the spectacle we must have made bursting out of the house like mad women, screaming and running through the street in our pj's after two happily clueless dogs.