Accepting Frustration
The feeling of frustration happens when I can’t control situations in the direction I wish for them to go. I am not a dog trainer and rarely succeed in influencing our dog, Asher, to behave in a way that will be convenient for me and safe for him. I found myself in that miserable place yesterday because of a flock of wild turkeys and a growing weariness from two weeks of being the sole person feeding horses and walking the dog.
We currently have a lot of activity around us tempting the poor dog to stray beyond our property lines. Corn fields on two sides of our property are being harvested and Asher finds the big machines and guys frequently walking between tractors and trucks very fascinating. Soon there will be deer hunters out in numbers.
For that reason, I can’t let him roam loose on walks around the property. Unfortunately, being leashed doesn’t always stop him from getting away from me. The urgency with which he bolts into tight squeezes between trees at the sight of a squirrel jars me off my feet and forces me to let go of the leash to save myself.
Not letting go of the leash is how Cyndie ended up breaking her ankle with Delilah a year ago.
After a very long time of allowing Asher to follow his nose and explore the far reaches of our property at will yesterday (sniffari), we stopped in the barn to tend to the horses. While they were gobbling feed, I decided to walk Asher up to the house. Without warning, he pulled me off balance around the corner of the garage. He flew over the large rocks by the front door and disappeared around the outside of the sunroom. I let go as my feet hit the biggest rock, sailing over it and landing in the yard on my stomach like a humiliated Superman fallen from flight.
That’s when I noticed a lot of big birds taking flight for treetops in the neighboring woods. I could hear the leaves crunching under Ashers’ bounding leaps but I couldn’t see him. By the time I made it back on my feet, it was all quiet and Asher and the turkeys were nowhere in sight.
I wanted to just wait for him to return but he was dragging a leash and the odds were high that he was going to get hung up in a tangled mess. I heard one distant bark that sounded like it could be his, so I set off on a search and rescue mission.
With occasional calls and whistles, I climbed toward a high ridge seeking the widest view and ultimately a farm road around the next field over. Soon after making my way out of the woods, I spotted Asher just as I feared, with the leash caught on a branch, passing through a rusty barbed wire fence, and wrapped twice around a small tree trunk.
Struggling to get him to walk straight home with me, I was in no mood to fight off my simmering frustration.
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Relative Something 
It seems to me that there are dogs and there are dogs… for years, I was able to train dogs that were constant and trustworthy – then we got Steinbeck… he is very much like Asher – very headstrong and playfully destructive. As long as nobody is around he will be 80% okay, but if something distracts him he will also take off and sometimes not return for 24 hours. The best we could do is to take out insurance to cover any possible damage he may do in such situations.. In short, he is predictably unpredictable:-) (Normally, he is well behaved on the leash, though). (For our own peace of mind, we needed to construct a special kennel to contain him when we are not walking him.) Unfortunately, I don’t have a simple answer, but can only commiserate with you… I know it is not easy and even quite dangerous – from your various description of events, you have been lucky not to have been injured… sigh….
Ian Rowcliffe
November 14, 2023 at 7:23 am
I agree, I HAVE been lucky so far. Thank you for your commiseration. I’m hoping he will mellow as he matures. There is the opportunity for me to learn how to be a better dog handler and grow skills in training him. The problem I’m wrestling with is that I’d simply rather not. The result tends to lead to more of the same in the meantime. I’m nervous about putting Cyndie at risk by my desire to have her return to splitting the duties of walking him, but she does a better job of controlling his attention with treats. Ultimately, I am optimistic he will mature into his role as a trustworthy companion within the general confines of our property. Repetition, repetition, repetition. He’ll get it eventually.
johnwhays
November 14, 2023 at 12:43 pm
How does he behave with the horses?
Ian Rowcliffe
November 14, 2023 at 1:12 pm
He does well. He actually behaves a little shy around them. He respects the electric fence and doesn’t enter their spaces except on rare occasions. He wants to eat the nutrition feed pellets the horses spill in the sand under the overhang but we work to deny him access.
johnwhays
November 14, 2023 at 3:41 pm