A Comedy of Errors

LM Collar 1

When Little Monkey and I get home after our walk, we have a little routine we always do. These routines keep her calmer and reinforce her training and positive behaviour.

So, I get her to sit by the garage doors before I take her lead off. This time I popped the poop bag in the bin before getting her to sit. Then I looked at my hand and saw I was still holding the poop bag . . . which meant I had dropped the keys in the bin instead!

So I left LM with her lead still on while I dug down in the wheelie bin and rescued the keys. Then, since I was half way there anyway, I went to check the mail box, leaving LM in a sit/stay, still with her lead on.

She’ll will normally stay like this while I do all sorts of things, even disappearing out of sight round the side of the house. When I whistle, then she’ll move.

Unfortunately, as I was getting the mail, a woman jogged past our house,  with two little Jack Russells in tow.

Little Monkey immediately broke her stay and chased madly round the garden after them.

Fair enough; she can’t help herself.

So I yelled’ “Hey!” to LM and chatted to the woman as she jogged past.

Then I called LM back to me at the garage doors, because we’ll still do the routine, starting again at the beginning.

When LM came back and sat down nicely again, I noticed her lead was missing. On closer inspection I saw that she’d broken her red cloth collar!

LM Collar 2

I took the remains of her collar off, finished the stay and release, then looked for the lead in the garden.

I found it by the automatic gate. Unluckily, the handle of the lead had got hooked around the metal end of the gate runner – and stayed there, while LM and her collar carried on chasing the little dogs running past the property.

I was pretty miffed at the time, because this collar was specially handmade and I can no longer get them. (They work like a choker chain, but without any chain, by having part of the collar able to change size between the rings. Normally the collar will hang loosely, but can be given a quick tiny tug as a correction, as in – I have also seen the cat and you are not chasing it!)

Looking at the remains of the collar I could see that it had worn thin. LM is now wearing Mr Spaghetti Legs’ black collar.

LM Collar 3

Afterwards though, I thought it was just as well that LM broke her collar at home in the garden and not trying to chase a cat across a road and getting run over!

And all this happened in the first place because I threw my keys in the bin!