A Chance Encounter

Tonight I took the evil and menacing Little Dog out for a walk. I am always nervous taking her out. Big Dog was awful with other dogs and caused me to get bitten. Little Dog once took a chunk out of one of paren'ts dogs side, a big chunk. She likes to be the boss and I think some of my Dad's dogs didn't like her running for the role of pack leader and gave her some stick...

So tonight, I am walking along the path and I see some people with a loose pack coming towards me. I wasn't feeling courageous so I turned back and circled the car park, intending to come back up the other side. Only I met the group coming. As I turned to escape I found a man coming over the bank with another large loose pack.

He informed me his would be fine and I said I wasn't sure about mine. Moments later I found myself surrounded by dogs as the chap and the ladies obviously knew each other and decided to chat. I didn't really dare move. Little Dog was mostly good although she did intimidate the puppy.

The first pack moved off leaving me with the man and his collection of Jack Russells and a Spaniel. We got talking and it turned out he was a gamekeeper and dog trainer. He persuaded me to trust Little Dog and let her off. He was right. She had a whale of a time.

She did get growled at when she pushed it and she listened and backed off. I was surprised how good she was with such little dogs. She would run from one to the other and back again.

Now belonging to a gamekeeper these dogs were experienced hunters of rabbits. Little Dog hasn't really learnt the joys of hunting. The combined pack was rootling around in a area of gorse but not having much luck. One saw a rabbit in a patch and it and Little Dog went after it. Little Dog had an instinct for working with Terriers which impressed the man and surprised me. Not that they got anywhere near it mind.

It was lovely to see her being so well behaved. We needed to meet someone who had experience with dogs and was confident enough to allow us to experiment with Little Dog. He was very complementary of her and said we should join a Lurcher Club and show her and race her too (informal stuff for fun).

I came home with a warm glow and the believe that i can have more fun out and about with Little Dog (although we need to work on her coming when she is called a little....). Little Dog seems happy, but it is a little difficult to tell... There isn't much movement!