Now that spring has sprung and the days are longer and warmer I am finding myself out wandering around much more often with the pups rather than keeping the walks to just being dutiful. I really enjoy the peace earlier in the morning before the neighbourhood really comes to life. Listening to the birds and the silence which is still a novelty to me after moving to the Beaches neighbourhood of Toronto after several years in bustling, loud downtown.
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On Route
We have a couple of our favorite routes through the neighbourhood, which inevitably end up with some sort of play in the park at the bottom of the ravine a couple blocks over. While I do love our daily trips to the beach, I also really enjoy exploring the area with Grace and Benson.
Benson is always super energetic on our walks. I have just recently managed to train him out of jumping and wrestling Grace at every opportunity while on leash. People walking by tended to laugh and think it was downright hilarious to see two dogs, each bigger than me, down on the ground wrestling and jumping all over each other.
Making Progress
What I really did not find funny were the numerous occasions where they did it right in the middle of busy Queen street holding up traffic or the local bus…
Grace’s recent hernia repair surgery took her out of commission for a while on the longer walks. This left me with ample opportunity to work directly with the big guy! He has made tremendous progress I am happy to say! Leave it and drop it have never really been an issue for Grace and Benson either. They will pretty much walk right past a fast food wrapper without a second glance.
A couple days ago, I was walking home from the park. It had been a picture perfect walk. The dogs were impeccably behaved and everyone was happy to be out in the fresh air and sunshine that we have been so lucky to have at this time of year.
That was when they spotted it.
Benson’s Grisly Find
While they are well behaved dogs for the most part, this was just such a special occasion of a freshly dead squirrel in the road that they absolutely could not hold themselves back. Suddenly being dragged relentlessly towards it, thinking in my head oh no no no no no. Fighting but no match for my dogs’ strength this was a losing battle. Read more on prey drive here.
The fight was on to see which one could grab a hold of it. Standing in the street, leashes flying and tangled, screaming at them to stop. I am usually quite calm, but panic had me in its grip.
Benson was the winner in this gruesome race. Having that squirrel right around the middle, his jaw was set down tight on it. No amount of cajoling was loosening his grip on it causing him to give up his prize catch (he has a high prey drive and is always chasing them out of the yard but has never managed to catch one so completely yet). There was the time he came close when one fell out of a tree high up in our back yard, landing on it’s shoulder on our deck and injuring itself but somehow it managed to still get away.
The Drama Ensues
I could tell it had not been dead for long because it wasn’t stiff, and it’s little hand-like paws were flapping away at either side on Benson’s mouth. Suppressing my gag reflex while watching it bounce around with every little head movement.
I tried bribing him with treats, which works for everything else as he is highly food motivated. All to no avail. Grace lost interest in it at least at that point, or I’m scared to think what the tug of war result would have been like…
I was bracing for the inevitable, thinking I was going to have to pry it out of his mouth. Could you blame me for not wanting to touch it??? The fact that it was in my dog’s mouth was bad enough. Puppy kisses were NOT happening for a long while!
I desperately stood there and thought. I had nothing. Deciding to try to open his mouth from the back so I didn’t have to touch the dead squirrel. I had to pull a dead bird out of Grace’s mouth once which was bad enough.
Victory For Mom!
I actually managed to get him to loosen his jaw without having to touch it! And once I had that he dropped it! Hurray!!!!!!
By the time all this happened a mere few minutes had passed. I was feeling really gross even though I didn’t have to touch anything. Actually it was a little surprising that he gave it up that easily and was content to leave it in the road again after that.
I avoided that little street for the next few walks hoping that it would be gone by the next time we walked by. My stomach couldn’t handle it.
Today was the day that I decided to walk that street again. As we went up the steps that led to it my stomach was already feeling queasy.
A Blissfully Uneventful Walk
I looked down the road at the top of the steps. No squirrel!! Extremely grateful I wouldn’t have to deal with that again on this day, onward we ventured. When Benson got to the spot he found it, he gave the ground a good long sniff and looked around to see if his prize was still close by. Not seeing it, he carried right along.
Every time we go down that road I know he’s going to be looking. But for today, we were able to pass along that stretch of road and end the walk with no consequences. There will be puppy kisses today.
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