Lilly and I often hike alone on the trails near our house. Due traffic of hikers with dogs, mountain bikers with a need for speed, and the preponderance of horse riders, I keep Lilly on leash. Even when we don’t see another person or dog, there’s always a chance of coming across a rattle snake, a coyote, a fox, a herd of deer or elk, or the dreaded mountain lion. So, I personally prefer to keep Lilly close. Plus … frankly, it’s park rules to do so. However, there are spots on private land owned by neighbors where traffic and rules are not a concern. Tom took Lilly on such a hike Saturday, and he let her do it off leash.
I did not go along. Yes, I had errands to run, but … honestly … the anxiety of it would have been too much for me.
As I’ve said before, Tom knows the basic rules I use for handling Lilly. He does not know the intricacies, however. He’s not as tuned into avoiding certain situations, where she’s likely to respond badly. For example, the way they came back to the house meant running a gauntlet of dogs, barking on both sides of the road. A couple even came off their properties and essentially took up the chase. That means she got to practice “reacting” for about the last half mile home. (That’s the reason I NEVER take her that direction.)
He also has a different view of what’s acceptable, like when it comes to how close defines close enough.
Me? The off-leash rule is about 5-10 feet tops. (Remember, she usually is so close that I trip over her.)
Him? Anything around 20-30 feet is just dandy.
So, that’s how it went for more than 2 hours. He says she “stuck right with him” and seemed really, really happy.
Our neighbor Aaron went along, and he had 2 comments:
1. Lilly seems MUCH smaller in person than she does from across the road.
2. The agility training shows as she climbs, jumps and navigates without any thought of “obstacles” in her way.
It was a big step for me to let her go,
but truth be told I watched them (using the binoculars) until they were
out of sight. I’m trying hard to trust that Lilly is smart enough to
differentiate between Daddy Rules and Mommy Rules. But, only our next hike will tell.
I also suspect that it’s good for her to get out … away from my hangups.
Jonny takes Strummer off leash on the open space and honestly most of the time I don’t want to know what happened. He’s almost always got a good report but you just never know how the boys are going to define good.
Still I think, at least in Strummer’s case, that nothing that horrible is likely to happen and that the risk is worth it. They need to go out and run around and live their lives and a bit of time away from us is probably a good thing.