The training we did with Ron in St Quentin Port paid dividends on Friday.
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| Ichnield Way at Wilbury Hills |
MWNN was out to lunch with a former colleague, so I took Ron up on one of my favourite walks along the
Icknield way, skirting the top of the lavender farm (where there's now a wind monitoring station - images of a wind farm dominating the landscape ugh!).
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| Ron in 'search mode' |
It was quite hot, so I was going to limit the ball-chasing game to 10 minutes. Just before the 10 minutes were up, we met three women walking their two border collies. Ron was engrosed in the chase, but at one point, he lost the ball in the wheat field. When that happens, he goes into 'search and rescue' mode (pictured at St Quentin, right) where he quarters the ground using his nose to find the ball and wagging his tail furiously to indicate where he is. He was in full search mode and hadn't spotted that the ball had landed near the footpath. The larger of the collies ( a tri-colour called Aitch) picked it up and brought it back to me. Ron came at first whistle and was rewarded with another chase.
The women and I talked for a while about the benefits of owning a 'rescue' dog, during which time all three dogs were perfectly behaved. Two more female walkers arrived on the scene with two beautiful labradors; one black, one chocolate. The chocolate lab was an un-neutered male. He wanted to play with Ron's ball but Ron told him 'no' with a polite little snap that didn't connnect. The lab was unperturbed. So were his two handlers. They walked on with their black lab, ignoring the chocolate coloured one who was still keen to play.
I decided that the best way forward was to continue my walk with Ron (in the opposite direction) and left the three collie lasses to sort the problem as they were going in the same direction as the lab owners.
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| Icknield Way towards Wilbury Hills |
Ron was soon exhausted and started searching for water. I put him on the lead and turned to go back to the car park. On the final bend, we met a lone rider on a very skitty, big, horse. Ron tends to bark at large animals and I didn't want him causing any trouble. I put him in the down-stay position and held his ball for him to focus his attention. The horse passed within a foot of us (the rider murmuring his thanks). Ron's eyes never left the ball. He really deserved another chase as a reward. I kept him on the expanding lead and threw it about 10 feet but, although he was keen, he didn't have the energy to chase.
