• Welcome to H4O! For a reduced ad experience, please login or register with the forum.

Crazy dog guy...

SlcHummer

Well-Known Member
Messages
368
Location
Salt Lake City, UT
Hopefully this is the right category for this post. It's not quite a hobby, more of a passion/love for the best friends a guy could ask for!

Meet Max (chihuahua mix, exact mix unknown), Marley (border collie/lab or rottweiler...humane society had him listed as a rottweiler but I see more lab), and Chester (beagle/shih-tzu)! All are rescues, Chester being the latest addition this past month.

IMG_1241.jpg
IMG_1231.jpg

Funny story about this guy Chester on our first walk...quick background for some context. Max and Marley I've owned for 2+ years now and I walk them every morning before work, and if time/schedules permit they get a second walk after work...I know, these spoiled little punks...not to mention the 24/7 dog door access they've got. Anyway, I got Chester home and using the dog door in under 15 minutes and he'd respond very well to my commands.

So after having Chester for 4 hours we decide to go on our first walk...without a leash...yes you know where this is going lol. I did have leashes on me if needed, but again I've been walking Max and Marley for years without a leash and without issues to the park in my neighborhood which is not technically an off leash park but plenty regulars take their dogs there without leashes. I also put a tag on Chester before we went on our walk with my number on it...is it morbid that I used the dog tags from my previous dog who passed in 2015? We all walked the entire outside border of the park and headed back into the neighborhood, about a 30-35 min walk. As we start back into the neighborhood Chester stops and looks at me, so I tell him to keep coming and BAM...he takes off back into the park!

I leash up Max and Marley and we take off after Chester. Occasionally he waits and lets us get within 25 ft or so of him and then he'd take off. After chasing him for 3-5 minutes we reach the end of the park but Max and Marley get tangled behind me. So I stop, untangle them and look up but can no longer see Chester as it's now approaching 10pm. I had two paths to try and find Chester, left which goes to the back corner of the park, or a slight curve to the right which goes into a different neighborhood. I chose to stay in the park but was unable to find him.

I get back home and take off in the hummer looking for Chester but again cannot find him. My neighbors go on midnight bicycle rides and had met him earlier that day so I asked them to watch out for him and gave them his leash just in case. Unfortunately they too did not find him :(. I finally went to bed around 1am feeling really crappy because I had lost a dog I owned for only 4 hours. Well to my surprise at 4:10 AM my Ring security camera's start going off because of motion in my front and side yards which wakes me and I find that Chester found his way back home! This dog had been here for only 4 hours, was lost for 6 hours, yet found his way back to my place...homeward bound sh!+ I tell you!

Chester hasn't ran away since and I can tell that episode scared him a bit as I think he thought I would've continued to chase him...and he would've been right if I could've seen him lol. He now sits right on my side/behind me as we go on our walks, still off leash...I know I'm risking it but it's now been a few weeks and he's going great at staying with me. I've also acknowledged that Chester loves to chase things, and when he does take off running I let him do his thing and he comes back. If I chase after him he thinks it's a game and keeps going. If instead I sit down and promise him love, he comes right back! ;)
 

woodwardsh3

Well-Known Member
Messages
501
Location
Oakland Co. Mi.
When our golden retriever runs out of the yard. I will say max you want to go for a walk and start walking away from him. And he will come running back to go for his walk. Works every time. and then I do take him for a walk.
 
Top