Suspected burglar dies after dog chases him out window

You should’ve been here the night my ex left for work at 11pm and _left the gate open_ while three Ibizan Hounds were out to potty.

My Minny stayed put and came right back in the house.

Red and Rennie took off at 35mph to parts unknown.

This was February of 1993 and one of the coldest winters we’ve ever had.

In my jammies, slippers and coat, I jumped into the car to go find them.

I saw eyes glowing in the KOA campground and got out, slowly approaching the glowing eyes until I could grab an ear.

That was one shocked Whitetail doe.
[the dogs look a *lot* like deer]

A _hour_ later, I finally found them; Rennie was running right down the center line of Rt 40 and Red was pacing her running through neighbor’s yards on the left.

When I pulled into my lane, they were cheerfully waiting at the gate, having thoroughly enjoyed their adventure.

I will publicly admit I was sobbing like a damn idiot, by that time.

They went in like nothing at all unusual had happened.

To this day, it annoys me that I could my hands on a freaking wild deer but my own dogs?

Nope.

Such is life with Sight Hounds.

[since then, I’ve “super-maxed” the fence system and acquired a new, brighter husband]

Katy is a gorgeous little girl and very smart. Her dad is a huge dog at 95 pounds, also very smart but just one of those big loose-limbed dogs that looks like a double-jointed puppet when he's running. Her mamma is also a smart dog but the most delicate little, petite Dresden doll of a Lab you ever saw - she's no bigger than Shelley and much lighter in weight. They did the breeding by AI because they were afraid Pearl might get hurt, she's that small.

Katy seems to have gotten her mother's neatness and coordination, but her daddy's strength and power. She's average size for a working field Lab bitch - 55 pounds. She was at a pro trainer's for several months getting daily heavy work, and that muscled her out in a hurry. She gets her three miles a day here too, so she certainly hasn't put on any fat. She and Ruby play "Ben Hurt chariot race" all around the polo field, which keeps them both in splendid shape.

She's a bit submissive with humans, you have to be careful how strong a correction you use with her, but she loves to retrieve. We work all the time on building up her confidence -- but when she's running a Junior test she knows just what to do.

The check cord's just a length of that slick 3mm nylon para cord with a bowline knot in one end.

Katy's wearing an ordinary flat leather collar with a D-ring on it. I just loop the cord around my belt, thread it through the bowline, slip the check cord through the D-ring in her collar, and hold the loose end.

In AKC "Junior Hunter" and HRC "Started" stakes, you're allowed to put a flat collar on your dog and hold your dog at the line so he can't "break" (leave the line before he is sent). I never liked leaning over to hold the collar with my hand because I can't see where the duck is landing and my head gets in the dog's space so the dog isn't watching the duck either. You can also just loop your leash around the dog's neck, but it's not a very secure hold and I'm always afraid the loop or the snap is going to pop my dog in the head when they leave the line. So I had this idea of a check cord. You just let go of the loose end when you send your dog and it slides right through the D ring. Then you thread it back through when you pick up your dog to leave the line or move to another line for the second retrieve.

I'm pleased to say that one of the pros in our club adopted my idea and uses it all the time now for his Junior and Started dogs.

Oh, I absolutely agree with you, really. But we see a lot more size and build difference between the dogs and bitches with the Labs on the field side. The boys tend to be 85-95 or even 100 pounds, big rangy long-legged racehorses, while the girls are around 55-65 pounds and usually lighter built and shorter in stature.

Don't know much about Dobes, other than that the ones I met in agility training were super-skinny and super-nervous, but I do know what the AKC 'beauty contests' have done to the Labs.

We had the National Lab Specialty here a few years ago, and a lot of the show people thought they could just come out to the field without any preparation and put a Working Certificate on their pampered, perfumed "Pigadors". The WC is an absolute bare minimum retrieving exercise, but only about 50 percent of the show types were able to manage it. Some were so obese that it was painful to watch them waddle out, wheezing, to the duck. Some just barked at it or wanted to play with it or roll on it. Some just weren't interested at all despite begging and pleading.

Some of that is the idiocy of their owners thinking "it's a Lab, it'll retrieve" just because they've thrown a tennis ball or bumper for their dog a few times. But unfortunately some of the dogs had obviously lost ANY drive to retrieve and it was sad to see.

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