Crash

Just got back from a walk with Raimi, Leeloo and Archer while Halo stayed home to think about how unjust it is that she is in a warm house with her roll-a-treat balls and a sore leg and not out in the wilderness chasing Raimi through the bracken.

I've come to the point on our walks where I now just let Raimi smash along in the undergrowth and assume at some point he'll pop out. Unless he is on lead I can't stop him from catching a scent and throwing himself into the woods unchecked. I give him a few moments of exploration and then starting calling until eventually he pops out where I least expect.

Yesterday on our walk with Kiki and Po, Raimi kept taking off and we'd lose track of him so like any normal people we'd call and call and call in the direction we'd last seen him and somehow, every time, he'd pop out behind us with this look on his face like "Fooled ya didn't I? Huh? Didn't I?" and then take off again hot on the trail of some other invisible creature.

He did that again today several times and the thing that surprises me the most about his disappearing act is how fast he moves in the woods. I can watch him leap into the bushes in one spot, count to 5, start his recall and I swear he comes out of the bush not only from a completely different direction but also about a half kilometre away from where he went in. It is awe-inspiring and a little scary because if he gets lost imagine how quickly he can end up somewhere I can't find him.

Although, he is one damn good air scenting dog. He almost exclusively air scents whereas Halo has her nose to the ground most of the time. I think he'd be able to find me as long as I stayed in one spot and allowed him to circle to find me. I believe this is part of the reason he returns to me from a different direction a lot of the time - because he is circling to catch my scent when I am calling him in.

Leeloo and Archer tend to follow Raimi's lead but I think it has more to do with immaturity than technique. Archer stuck pretty close to me and Leeloo often lost Raimi in the bushes, I would find her standing on the path looking back to where she'd last seen The Boy and when he crashed his way back to us she was all "There you are! Wheeee!" and off they'd go again. Today Leeloo was *this close* to catching a pheasant out of the air. Raimi scented the birds and because they are not trained bird dogs they immediately rushed into the bushes and the birds flew up into the trees. Two female pheasants were the first to go up and while the dogs were trying to locate them they stumbled upon the male pheasant ... actually I think they literally almost stepped on him. He flew right out from under Leeloo and in a moment that is burned into my brain, she leapt straight into the air and was about 4 inches away from actually catching the bird. It was like she levitated as the bird rose on panicked wings. Then she spent several minutes scanning the skies for 'the one that got away' - she never did spot him sitting in a tree about 15 feet up looking most ruffled.

And that was today. Adventures never cease when you have 4 Ridgebacks to wrangle ... just re-reading this makes me think having dogs is exhausting ... but worth it.