2023….Here we come!

It’s a New Year! The beginning of a New Year always seems like a chance to regroup and set new goals. Last year I set a lot of goals. In the last couple weeks I looked back on those goals and realized that I accomplished very few of them. I am hoping to make this year different. One of the main goals I’m focusing on this year is training Wally. He will be 4 years old this spring and I feel that I have failed him in the training department. Even though I love training dogs I have had trouble motivating myself to train Wally. Despite me he is maturing into a pretty good dog, but we struggle in the recall department.

So…for 2023 my biggest goal with Wally is a solid recall. Right now his recall is at about 75 percent, but we all know that recall should be 100 percent. My definition of a solid, 100 percent recall is that the dog will recall anywhere, anytime, regardless of what is going on around them. Recall that is dependable not only helps keep your dog safe, but it also allows them to have more freedom.

When Wally was about 2 years old we had an incident that should have motivated me to dedicate the time needed to train a solid recall, but sometimes I’m a slow learner so here we are almost two years later with little progress to show. We were out on a walk in late winter and it was still very cold. In the winter it’s almost dark when I get home from work, so our evening walk includes a light harness for Wally and a headlamp for me. This particular evening we were walking with my friend and her dog who happens to be Wally’s BFF. Both dogs were wearing their light harnesses and we both had on our headlamps. It was not quite dark yet and we could still see pretty well. (Generally, we would let the dogs run loose until dark and then leash them for safety once it got too dark to see well.) The dogs were just a little ahead of us when we noticed they were quite interested in something. We tried to recall them, but they ignored us…..the “prize” they had found was too great. It wasn’t but a few seconds until we realized what they had found…..A SKUNK!

That poor skunk understandably sprayed both dogs. He was most certainly scared to death being surrounded by two big dogs! Wally’s BFF, having been sprayed in the face, headed for her mom. My Wally (also sprayed in the face) started to retreat, but then his herding instincts kicked in and he ran ahead of the quickly retreating skunk in order to try to turn him around and herd him back to me (HORROR!). After Wally tried this a couple times the skunk sprayed him AGAIN! Wally backed off a little, but when the skunk tried to make a run for it he again tried to herd him back to me, all while he was choking and gagging on skunk musk. I had been yelling anything and everything at Wally to try to get him to abandon the skunk, but he was determined to herd that stinker back to me! Finally, I got a hold of Wally and the skunk went home. I’m sure the exhausted skunk couldn’t wait to tell his friends about the crazy Border Collie he had just ran into, and then take a recuperative nap.

The night ended with multiple baths, and several items including gloves, leashes, and some clothes being thrown away. Both dogs reeked, but by using baking soda, dawn dish soap, and a little vinegar we managed to get most of the smell out. I also managed to salvage Wally’s collar which I had bought from Farm Diggity, and his light harness from Noxgear. (I just washed them with the Dawn dish soap and baking soda and they were as good as new)

This whole ordeal should have been all I needed to wake me up to investing the time to train a solid recall, but I continued to float along with no plan of action randomly training Wally to recall. My lack of planning and follow thru has resulted in a less than stellar recall. This year is going to be different though. I am going to make a plan and follow it. Hopefully The plan is that by June we will have the solid, 100% recall that I want. (Hope is not a good way to train….it often ends up being disappointing…..instead make a plan and follow it.)

We were lucky this time. Sometimes recall can mean the difference between life and death, but thankfully that time just ended in a really stinky dog.