Last Monday as I was preparing to go to my new chiropractor's office, Goofy decided he didn't really want to come inside. Instead he meandered his way to the front yard, where he startled a deer and the chase was on. A 115lb lab chasing a 200+lb deer. Guess who won that race? Instead of going to my doctor's office, I jumped in my car and spent almost 30 minutes riding around our neighborhood and the next calling for Goofy. I tried calling home, but Bill did not answer the phone. I decided to head back to the house to see if he had returned to our yard. Goofy beat me there, because he was already in the house. Bill said he came home just a few minutes later. When I asked why he didn't call me, he said he thought I was at the doctor's office. Like I wouldn't have appreciated a message!
Episode 2 - Nature vs Nurture
Thursday afternoon, as soon as I got home from work (around 4pm), Y asked if we could take all of the dogs over to the lake to swim. We know Michael doesn't really like the water, but Y thought if he saw Goofy enjoying it, maybe he'd come in for a swim. So we walked the half mile or so to the lake, and let everyone off leash. Goofy, being a lab, immediately went into the water. Y picked Michael up and took him a few feet out into the water, but all Michael did was swim to the shore and stay there. Seems he doesn't like swimming too much. Unfortunately after a few minutes, Goofy caught sight of the six or so ducks that swim on our lake.
Game on.
Usually he just gives a half-hearted attempt to chase them, but not this time. Absolutely nothing was going to stop him from getting a duck. Goofy happily chugged his way out into the water and spent most of half an hour swimming after the ducks. He almost caught one once, but he's just not that lucky. As Y put it, "Mama, you see Goofy bite duck, and duck bite Goofy!"
Now, this is almost a 30 acre lake, and it's about 20-30 feet deep in the center. The entire time I had visions running through my head of either the dog drowning or Y drowning trying to save the dog. After about 15 minutes of trying to get Goofy's attention away from the ducks, Y decided to strip to his skivvies and go in after him. He swam out about 20 feet from the shore, but the ducks got spooked and turned around to swim the other way. Goofy just did a 180 and followed them. Darn it! So, Y returned to shore and stayed on the peninsula with the other three dogs, while I huffed and puffed to the other side of the lake, about a quarter of a mile away. I called from one side and Y called from the other, but only exhaustion, and a snip from a duck beak allowed Goofy to focus on us and not the birds.
Y then jumped back into the lake a second time and swam out to touch Goofy's collar. Goofy began to follow him back to the shore, but Y was getting tired so he high-tailed it to high ground. Goofy being tired, swam quite slowly, and I could see that he had lost sight of Y when the dog began swimming in circles in the middle of the lake. I kept yelling to Y to stop swimming and talk to Goofy, but Y could not hear me. Fortunately, Goofy could. He then began swimming in my direction, so I continued yelling for him at the top of my lungs. I said, in a rather pleasant voice, "Get over here you little brat, so I can kick your butt!"
It was more than twice as far for Goofy to swim to me than it was for him to swim to Y, so I kicked off my shoes and put my eyeglasses on the grass and waded out into the lake about 20 feet (my feet could still touch bottom there). Mama was not going to strip to her skivvies. That would've been a horrifying sight and the dog would've run away in disgust. I did bring his leash and chain with me, so when he got close enough I slipped it around his head and waded next to him to the shoreline. All of my yelling caught the attention of someone else, because when I got back to the shore Michael was standing there wagging his whole body waiting for us. Apparently he was unleashed (since Y jumped into the lake), and just decided to run back down the trail/shoreline to see what all the commotion was about.
Michael may not be completely potty trained yet, and his "stay" is quite optional, but he sits on command, gives "five," and has an awesome "come!" Goofy, after more than a year, still has an optional "come." Y redressed, and as we walked back home soaking wet, Goofy still had enough energy to try and run into the water, again, to chase the ducks. Luckily his leash was firmly in my hand at that time. Then it was home to bathe everyone, and now we have four lovely clean smelling puppies.
Now, if I could just get every being with testosterone in my house to behave, I'd be quite happy!
Natalie
TX
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