Flying Poodles

Elly: part-time poodle, part-time wild beast

After my lesson with Debbie today (which went surprisingly well) (including some (I can hear you yawning!) teeter training), I headed over the the park with the girls. I let them off leash about 50 yards into the park, and Dancer trotted nicely along with me. I noticed Elly investigating a trail down into the blackberries but I figured she’d be along momentarily. Another 100 yards or so, and Dancer was stopping regularly to look behind us, anxiously. No sign of Elly. I decided that Dancer’s worry was enough reason to walk back along the trail and see what the heck Elly was up to. No sign of her, but I could hear crunching down in the blackberries. I called to the crunching and Elly’s head popped up and she walked around a bit but didn’t come toward me at all. There was no path in sight and I could see blackberry vines arching over her head.

Dancer was very worried at this point. I could see her problem: it looked to me like Elly had gotten herself well and stuck. I walked up and down the path looking for a way down the hill and through the tangle to where she was. I was thinking of calling Jay and getting him to come with a couple of boards. (You can walk through blackberries if you have two 2×12 boards; you lay them down, walk along them, put the next one down, pick up the last one, etc.) I thought about that, and decided it was not yet necessary; she might still get herself unstuck.

Then I heard Elly yelping and crying in pain. Dancer was visibly startled and wanted to go to her. I ran Dancer to the car and put her in her crate, and got a 2′x3′ crate base out of the car, and a crate pad. I thought I could step from one to the next and get to Elly that way. I started running down the path–and Elly appeared on the path ahead of me. I have no idea how she got herself untangled. There was blood on her face and a lot of scratches. I called her…

AND THE DAMN DOG RAN BACK DOWN THE TRAIL AND BACK INTO THE BLACKBERRIES.

I went back to the car, put away the equipment, got Dancer out of her crate and put her on leash. I grabbed a very large handful of treats. I walked to a spot on the trail where I could see Elly and started talking to Dancer in a very high voice about what a great dog she was and didn’t she just love the bits of hot dog she was getting. That got Elly’s attention. She edged closer. I started walking Dancer back toward the car and Elly started heeling on the other side, very nicely. I popped a few hot dog pieces in her mouth, then stopped and put her leash on.

Then I went straight to the car, put the dogs in, and brought them home. Elly got a full bath and removal of the blackberry thorns. She had a lot of them tangled in her fur. She has scrapes and little thorn cuts all over. I think the soap from the bath must have hurt a bit; I feel a little bad about that, but she was so filthy I was more worried about infection.

She’s sound asleep now; she looks very sweet and charming.Yep. Sweet, charming, and with the soul of a wild beast.