Unusually, I didn't have any lessons booked in on Sunday so we had the rare opportunity to take the dogs out for a lovely walk with our friend and his dog, Sookie, another crazy Springer Spaniel.
We decided to drive to a local area ideal for walking dogs, with sandy tracks and heathland. There are some good places to swim and lots of sniffing to be had. There are some very boggy areas but we usually manage to avoid them and much fun is had by all.
All started very well and we followed a route through a heavily wooded area. The dogs disappeared and I was aware of a large boggy area off to our left so thought it best to get them back into view. I gave my recall cue, 3 pips on my Acme 210.5 which resulted in Bella tearing out of the trees towards me, closely followed by Sookie. Unusually there was no sign of Stanley but I just thought he may have got a bit further away with his crazy long legs and would be heading back. We waited a few seconds but still nothing. I decided to cue again which I wouldn't normally do, but gave him the benefit of the doubt and thought he may not have heard. 3 pips and 30 seconds later, no sign of Stanley. Now I am getting concerned. He and Bella have excellent recall and it hasn't failed me yet. Out with the big guns, his deer caller. This I have paired with his squeaky ball and in the hierarchy of rewards, NOTHING tops this. I sounded the deer caller and to ready to throw the ball.....
Suddenly there was this awful, heart rending yelping from away in the trees. I had hardly had time to process this when hubby was tearing off through the trees towards the noise. I tried to follow but got stuck in the mud!
After what was about a minute but seemed a lifetime, out of the brush emerges a very wet, black, stinky Stanley, covered in mud and leaf mould. Bounding straight over to ask for his ball so he could show off to Bella and Sookie, he hardly stopped. A couple of minutes later, hubby emerges, soaked through to his thighs in black mud. It transpires Stanley had got very stuck in a bog and was unable to haul himself out up a steep bank. Hubby tried to pull him out by his harness but when he wouldn't budge, had no choice but to go in after him and shove him out by the bottom! Now you would have thought Stanley would be a bit traumatised but no, he was straight off to play with a very dirty waggy tail and no thanks at all or even a backward glance to dad who had rescued him.
We decided to continue on our walk, despite hubby's discomfort and eventually came to a river with a nice pool under a bridge for the dogs to swim in. This was great for Stanley who managed to wash of most of the mud. There was another heart stopping moment when he got his leg wedged between tree roots on his way out. It was my time to go to the rescue but thankfully he managed to get it out without any damage. Another disaster averted as I feared a broken leg.
By now, I am thinking it is best to head home before anything else happened and we continued down a trail with a high sandy ridge to the left and stagnant water to the right. I was just calling the dogs to make sure they weren't heading to the water, when guess who appeared on a ledge over the top of my head. Before I had the chance to yell "Nooooooo Stanley!!!!!" He had launched himself into the air above me and belly flopped into a muddy patch on the ground below. He got up, shook himself, gave me a big goofy grin and legged it off ahead. My heart is racing and I really need a stiff drink at this point.
Fortuntely we got back to the car without further mishap and it was a very smelly ride home in the car, for hubby to have his second shower of the day and Stanley to have a bath.
Moral of this story? If you are crazy enough to own springers, always take a change of clothes and a hip flask with you when you go walking!
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