Kevin (aka Zena) has arrived! Lol!

Well, there I was boasting about my fantastic recall with Zena, works everytime, no matter how far away, who she's playing with, she stops dead when she hears her name, turns around and comes racing back - always!!!

Well, that WAS the case..... until this morning!!!! I was just heading back from my walk to the carpark with a lady with a little jr that we meet quite regularly on this walk. Another lady was heading towards us with her ancient Goldie and her newly acquired 10 month old collie puppy, who was offlead, and started barking at the jr next to Zena. Then it started barking at Zena, so Zena went to go over to it to say hello, and it just took off at lightning speed, swiftly followed by Zena, heading towards the car park and the ROAD! I had no worries in calling Zena, I knew she'd just stop dead...... wrong! She carried on chasing this puppy all the way down the track! I then had to resort to my "horse calling" yell, Z-E-N-A, C-O-M-E, I yelled, blooming 'eck they could have heard that in the next village!

Thankfully, she heard that, stopped and came racing back, and quite honestly, when she turned around, I don't think she realised just how far she had gone from mummy, judging on the breakneck speed she came flying back to me, and for the very first time ever, she actually stopped dead in front of me and sat looking up at me, as if to say, she knew she had done wrong, so I didn't chastise her at all, I just said quietly, "good girl", clipped on her lead and made her walk to heel all the way back to the car-park.

I apologised to the woman, told her it was OUR fault, but then again, nothing has ever run off that Zena went to say hello to, and it was ONLY about 3 feet away from us at the time but barking at us like mad (probably in fright?). If I had any incline that it was actually scared of us, I would have put Zena on a lead or made her wait instead of letting her go up to it I suppose, but hindsight is a wonderful thing aint it!

Tomorrow will be interesting. If Zena does realise she was in the wrong, then this won't happen again, but I'm now wondering whether Kevin has landed at the ripe old age of 2 weeks short of one year old! Maybe, maybe not, she's always focused on me so instantly when I've mentioned her name, this was very strange. The woman did say to me not to worry, because she's only had this puppy 2 days (10 months old, had it 2 days and it's NOT on a lead????) anyway, that's her problem! She told me that this little monkey always manages to bring out the very worst in any dog that she has met up with so far, so I will get her to elaborate more on that tomorrow. All very strange, I will make sure I put Zena ONlead if I see her again tomorrow just in case, or maybe I'll just go on a different walk, I'm getting bored with that morning walk anyways!

Aww Bless ya! Hopefully it was just a blip, and Zena will now continue to be a good girl

Defiantly a blip!!

My 2 managed to reach the ripe old age of 17 months before selective deafness set in. Cariad can still suffer from it at times, Lona is a little sweetheart nowadays, however we have had our highs and lows inbetweentimes
I think it comes on when they feel confident of being able to make their own decisions and are not as dependent on you as they were when they were babies.

That naughty Zena must be taking after my naughty Yogi Hopefully it will just be a slip in her otherwise angel-like status and she won't do anything like that again

i'm amazed because having seen for myself how responsive zena is, it's hard to work out why she took off like that. i'm sure it was just a blip.

to have a dog that focuses on you when she has her ball and other dogs around clamoring for her attention and yet it's you helen, that she looks too.

sure she is interested in other dogs and playful, but she would come back as soon as she was called.

i reckon she will be back to herself tomorrow. don't go changing her name to kevin just yet!!

really i think she will be back to normal next time you walk her.

Hope it's just a blip - though Tilly reached Kevin stage a few weeks ago at home when she started stealing everything & chewing again, but I was always pleased at her behaviour when out & her brilliant recall - until uh uh she too ran after a dog last week, into the car park from the field & then out of the car park!! Unlike Zena she didn't come back & I've never run so fast! Luckily it's a quite road but I was gobsmacked she totally ignored me!! & I did tell her off. Now she's well on her lead ages before the car park & has developed selected hearing on her recall. I've actually started training again using treats & the ball, she'll be 1 next week, it's like having a puppy again!!

im sure it was just a blip, lets hope it was lol. im worried about jake reaching the kevin stage...

Thanks Lou,she's back on form this morning thank goodness!

Lol! You're right, so far!!!

Noooooo JUne, she will always be my baby, just like Cassie was, she will always look to me for guidance...... won't she???!!!!



Well, this morning, she shot through the lower gap in the barbed wire instead of taking the usual path from the car park!!!! Luckily for me, it was new(ish) and tight, but she just jumped through the bottom half I couldn't beleive it, she was so excited to get going! She's a little monkey atm!!!

Thanks Claire, and you know more than anybody how much this surprised me having seen her for yourself and how very responsive she is to me, she would never let me out of her sight would she,let alone run off like that! I'm pleased to report though, I had a little incident this morning which only proved it was in fact, just a blip in her excellent street cred! Lol!

OMG, that would have frightened the life out of me! Thank goodness you're a good runner then!!! That's the fear I had, hence I resorted to my very loud booming horse calling voice which she heard thankfully! I could see the weay she was running that she had tunnel vision, she wasn't going to listen tome in my normal recall voice, and come to think of it, I think the actual shock of seeing her do it in the first place, made me forget to actually recall her at the right time, so it's all MY fault really! Glad Tilly was safe eventually.

Thanks lozzibear, definitely a small blip we had there!

On our first walk this morning, I met up with a lady coming the other way with 2 collies and a little bedlington, so I did my "with me" to Zena, she didn't go up to them, she kept looking at me, and although the little bedlington laid down, I kept Zena on the "with me" thing until we got up to them, I let her say hello, I walked on, called her and she came instantly, and when I told the lady the reason I wanted to keep her "with me" was about yesterday's little episode, she turned round and said "you don't seem to have a problem with recall today, that's an excellent recall away from other dogs" So there!!!! I knew it was a blip!!!

The thing about yesterday was, I had no choice of avoiding these people with the little puppy, coz they were walking towards me, not in front and not behind, so I had to confront them, and just thought, as per usual, the dogs would just say hello as they passed each other and we walked on, I just didn't expect that to happen.

When you think about it though, if you DON'T have little episodes like this when things have been going extraordinarily well (they have for me!), then you can't deal with it can you if you know what I mean? I think it might have been a good thing that this happened, just so that SHE frightened herself (I know she did, the way she stopped and turned and realised just how far away she was from me, she panicked and galloped flat out back to me!), plus she frightened ME, so that in future, I will not be so lapsidaisical in just assuming, I don't need to give her any commands, coz she'll just do what I want anyway when we pass or meet up with any dogs! I won't be doing that now, I will always be giving her the "with me" or "ok" command so she's under total control when we meet other dogs, and if I think the other dog might be a bit nervy, then she'll be told to "wait" have her lead put on just like I do when I meet a strange dog that I think might be a bit iffy! Yes, I'm actually glad it happened now, it taught me a lot!

Our 2nd walk was fine, she played with other dogs, she followed me when I called her on, all was well, then we did some training at the end of the walk when I put Georgie back in the car, then we finished up with a game of ball.

The trouble I have with Zena is, I never actually have to USE her recall, coz she just does it anyway, I throw the ball, she always comes back and stays with us, walks with us, and if she stops to say "hello" and we move on, she just comes, so I don't really know what to do to keep this recall in place, unless I call her now and again after throwing the ball, just to reinstate it perhaps?

Moral of this story - Never assume!!!!

glad to hear it was just a blip, knew it would have been

zena is such a good clever girl, and amazingly well trained