Exercise with drama!

On our morning walk today, I caught sight of a couple of dogs cavorting, far ahead of me next to the Rodent Condos, aka piles of old posts. These piles create lots of nooks and crannies where mice, bunnies, and probably some rats too, find shelter from the weather and nice cozy spaces for making nests. In our business, there is always a pile of posts somewhere, waiting to be returned to a replanted field. Prime rodent habitat. This particular pile belongs to the neighbors, though we do have our own up by the buildings.

But, I digress…which, come to think of it, I haven’t done for a while. Hmm, must be getting better at that…

Except that now I have, and twice too…

Anyway, I was far enough away that I couldn’t tell if Daisie was one of the two dogs running around the pile, barking and yipping at its occupants, and then  she popped out of the row beside me. We both stopped and assessed this new situation. Who were these dogs? Friends or foes? She cautiously made her way closer, stopping every 20 feet or so to reassess.

I could finally discern that they were two fine specimens of the Springer Spaniel breed, chocolate andwhite. They seemed pretty happy, and were not even aware that we approached.

Daisie decided that these happy pups must be friends, so she jogged on up to meet them.

When the first spaniel caught sight of Daisie’s approach, it began to yelp and yowl as if it were being mauled. Daisie was not even close enough to touch it, and it was yelping as if in pain, and went on a tear to alert its co-hort.

Daisie jumped back and forth with a look that said, “Wait, wait…you misunderstand me!” But when the second spaniel got the message from Yelper, they both started to run. Daisie was a bit confused at the outset of this behavior. When she tries to chase Olive, Little O turns around and bites her in the face. Here, she only had to look at these two spaniels, and they ran and yelped in fear.

It became a heady feeling for our put-upon boxer, and she decided she might as well oblige and join the chase. She ran after the spaniels, the one yelping and yowling all the way out of our field, through the neighbors, and on into the next. No matter that Daisie never was near enough to catch them, it just kept up the racket until all three dogs disappeared out of my sight.

Of course, my next concern was that Daisie would be so consumed with her newfound power that she might end up at a faraway neighbor’s field before she came to her senses. But I worried needlessly -- after just a few hollers from me, she appeared in the distance, making her way home, breathless from the run and the thrill. Good dog!

Before we could go on, she had to do some scouting around the Rodent Condos to get as much info as she could on the intruders, and, of course, she left some “no-trespassing notices” there as well. I must say that we both concluded that these were displaced city dogs who didn’t have the experience to know that you don’t go barking up to a Rodent Condo. Every country dog knows you must use your best powers of stealth. Good grief, amateurs!

And then we continued on our walk, Daisie trotting ahead of me, still heady with the exercise of power, and so proud of her accomplishment.

You don’t get this kind of drama walking on a treadmill.