Flying Poodles

My Dog is an Addict

I’m quite serious. Elly ran off this morning–following a track of something–at Marymoor, and she came back fifteen minutes later with a small amount of blood near one eye. I’m not sure if she ran into a branch or got caught in a bramble or ran into a patch of stinging nettle. I’m leaning toward the stinging nettle because it clearly itches like mad. I cleaned it off with LOTS of cold water, but she’s rubbing her face on everything and there are a lot of little red spots around her right eye.

I am feeling frustrated and sad and angry. I feel like a complete failure. I have spent FOUR YEARS trying to train this dog. We’ve been through a zillion training classes. I cook her favorite treats. She has agility titles. And she still pulls on leash, can’t be walked without my having seriously sore shoulders the next day, and she still runs off to chase a deer or rabbit track, completely ignoring me, tracking so zealously that she HURTS HERSELF. She’s gotten caught in dangerous places. She’s run into traffic. She behaves like an addict–one sniff and she’s gone. She comes back dripping foam from her mouth, clearly excited, even ecstatic. I am at a loss.  Nothing seems to work.

I have spent the last two weeks working on attention and rewarding attention. For fifteen minutes this morning, she moved closely with me, checking in regularly. The sixteenth minute, she took off at a dead run along a track, through a tiny hole in the fence and out of sight and I didn’t see her again until she came back bloody. (Dancer followed the same track–but came back quite quickly and was never more than fifty feet away from me.)

It would appear that she is going to spend the rest of her life on leash at any time she’s not in a completely tested fenced area.