Chasing Deer. Sort Of.

Yesterday afternoon, I took the pups out for their weekly tromp through the woods. It was a beautiful day for it, and the dogs were clearly feeling peppy. Our walks follow a fairly regular pattern – They run ahead, wait for me, I walk, they run ahead, find something to sniff, I walk, they run to catch up to me, they run ahead, wait for me, I walk…. But yesterday’s walk brought something new and different: a deer! Reyna’s seen one before, but I don’t think Duncan has. And what happened perfectly demonstrates that my dogs are pampered pets who have never in their lives had to actually work for food, much less chase it down.

The deer, who we’d managed to surprise somehow, even though Duncan has no concept of walking quietly, went bounding off to our right into the woods. The dogs froze, stared after the deer, and then looked at me. The quizzical expressions were fairly clear. Duncan: “Wha’ was that??” Reyna: “Are we allowed to go after that?” I said, “Well, go get it!” and they took off. Bouncing through the underbrush and jumping fallen trees…for about a minute. Then silence. I’d just kept walking along the path, but I could still see them. They looked around, looked back towards the path where I’d been, looked where the deer had gone, looked at each other, and apparently realized that, not only was I not with them, I’d not followed them, and they couldn’t see me any more. So they turned around and came running back to the path. Again, their expressions were clear. Reyna: “Mother! Where did you go? You’re supposed to stay with us! We can’t protect you if you don’t stay with us! I know we could have gotten that deer if we’d really wanted to, but we were worried about you, and we’re Good Dogs, so we had to come back and keep you safe!” Duncan: “Mom! Where’d you go? That was so cool! Did you see me jump that log?”

I love my dogs. They really are Good Dogs.