Checked your ID lately?

Last week I had the fright of my life.

I mean completely shaken up, barely clinging on, adrenalin pumping, cold sweats - the lot.

Me and the collie girls were out walking in some local fields. All had been going fairly well, Freya had stayed fairly close even in the "squirrel-heaven" of Quaker & Acomb Wood.

Part of her reward was getting to thoroughly investigate the very large rabbit holes beside the path on our way home.

Bronte and I carried on walking and lost sight of her for a second (it's pretty overgrown land).

Suddenly there were several very close by gun shots.

Freya has been a bit more worried by sudden noises since our crash in December so I was really surprised when she didn't immediately pop up beside me for the usual cheese and happy voice routine.

A minute later, still no Freya.

Trying not to panic, I called and whistled.

Nothing. Nada. Not even at any of her favourite bunny haunts.

Another dogwalker told me they'd seen a small collie running very fast AWAY from where I was, on one of our usual paths.....

I'll spare you the messy inside of my head as I searched for Freya systematically, and then walked our usual route home as fast as possible.

5 years ago Freya was spooked by gunfire really badly, in a wood she didn't know well. I found her an hour later back at the carpark waiting by the landrover.

So, I was half hoping to find her at home, but that meant she would have crossed several fairly busy roads when she's already worried about traffic.

*gulp*

Thankfully, I got back home to a totally chilled little collie sitting waiting for me in my own back garden (a kind neighbour had let her in) wondering why I was making such funny snuffling noises.

I guess Freya lost sight of me too, the noises spooked her so when she couldn't immediately find me she headed for the nearest safe place.

Alls well that end's well, but I'm writing about this because 5 minutes after losing my wee girlie I realised that the phone number on her tag wasn't the mobile I had on me *arrrrgh*

Having made a big effort to separate work and personal life, I have two mobiles now.  But all my dog tags still have what is now only my work number on them, and of course I left that at home when we went out for a "relaxing" walk.

So CHECK your dog tags, just in case you end up in a panic like me!

I'm ordering new tags for everyone from Indigo Collar Tags as usual. They're amazingly tough, never wear out or come off, and I only need to replace them when I change my address or phone number.

Don't forget your dog MUST legally wear an ID tag as well as being microchipped, and the collar ID will get them home a lot faster in most cases.

After all that excitement I'm hoping for a quieter weekend scouting out training routes for our Canicross workshops!

Have a calm weekend everyone

Morag and the collie girls

PS The new Spring Term classes are out and available to register (activity classes start on Monday 5th February).
The new kid on the block is our Canine Activity Foundations where you'll learn basic Scentwork, Parkour, Rally and Agility skills. The perfect introduction to having more fun with your dog!

Simple things that make our lives easier...

The dogs and I went on a fairly stiff walk on Sunday (Pen-y-Ghent in the Yorkshire Dales) as part of our training for tackling the Three Yorkshire Peaks at the end of May. My dogs always wear limited slip collars which prevent them backing out, and with no buckles that could accidentally pop/release or break. Very strong collars that carry all the necessary ID (I love these ones http://www.lupinepet.com/).

I walk with a rucksack plus waistbelt and a carabiner, the dogs wear their walking/running harnesses (http://www.ruffwear.com/Web-Master-Harness) and the leash clips to my waist keeping my hands free. The other beauty of this system is that even if they did escape the harnesses (very unlikely!) they still have collars on.

While resting on a handy patch of grass near the car park a gorgeous young dog came by (a Northern Inuit I think) on a harness much like mine, flexi leash and with two runners. The dog was interested in my two but everyone was very polite and they headed on to their car.
Next moment - the young husky-type comes bounding over and rather exuberantly says hello. Clearly the harness was removed to get dog into car and the smart dog took the opportunity to escape.... Cue a good ten minutes of chaos as the husky-type got more and more into the game of avoiding his handler, made much easier by the fact that the dog wasn't wearing a collar. The whole situation eventually ended when one of the runners rugby-tackled the dog. Not a great way to maintain your relationship and could have been so easily prevented....

You might have noticed that many dogs are actually not that keen on having their collars grabbed, especially if we don't give them much warning. We work round this in training class by teaching all the dogs that the cue word "collar" means we're touching the collar + a tasty treat is delivered. We work up to practicing grabbing the collar as you might need to in real life and making it all part of a really fun game. So if your pup or dog doesn't like being touched on the neck/collar and is telling you - why not reframe the whole experience for both of you and see it as a training opportunity!