Trail Dogs
We rode out at a new place yesterday. A private ranch that has just recently opened their trails to the public. Since it is a fairly new endeavor for them and they do not have all of the trails blazed yet, one of the owners offered to ride out with us to help get our bearings.
Her dogs came with us sprinting through the woods and playing off the side of the trails and hunting up small mammals as we went. It quickly became abundantly clear that Tucker needs a trail dog. He loved having the stimulation of having a couple of extra playmates running around as we went. He always had his eye out for them. He frequently asked if we could wander off the trail into the woods after them and if they were in close proximity if he could put his nose on them.
Unfortunately none of our three dogs are well suited for the job. One is a Hound that has hunter in his breeding and is more concerned with the critters in the woods than where the human is. If allowed off leash one fast moving squirrel and he would be into the next county before I could give the recall command which would be ignored anyway. Then we have the geriatric Beagle who can barely get out of the bed to go outside to potty. Finally the Shih-Tzu cannot imagine why we would be wandering in the woods when there is a perfectly good house with a roof on it.
Too bad for Tucker because he was more interested in his canine trail mates than he was in the equine ones. Too much fun!