Am I proud?

You bet I am. I had the poodles at the park the other day; we were lucky as we hit it at an off time. This means that we have the park to ourselves and they can do our walk off leash. I love this because then they get at least double the exercise that I can give them on leash. As usual we pull up and park the car (actually the way cool xterra). Luke is pacing and whining in anticipation; I hop out and open the back hatch. Luke immediately goes into scout mode; "who's here?" I lift Tilley out and then let the wildman out.

I position myself just right so that I can see the park in it's entirety. Cool, no one else is here so I go up a few short steps and release the hounds. The normal protocol is leashes off; they wait until they get the word, the word that let's them know that they can tear off. "Okay," is barely out of my mouth and they are off. Luke is way out ahead but Tilley is close behind. Being all boy the first thing Luke needs to do it mark, trees, garbage cans and anything else a boy can lift a leg on.

It's not long until Luke has got his ya ya's out; Tilley has fallen into her position behind me and I give her a "let's go" to get her out in front and moving. And then I see it; a tiny baby rabbit just off the path. Immediately I look to see if Luke sees it; of course he does and he is already in stalk mode. I yell to him "leave it" and his whole body changes, so then I yell GOOOOOOOOOOOD BOOOOOOOOOOOOY, WHAT A GOOOOOOOD BOY. You can see him beaming, he loves to hear these words. Now it's Tilley's turn; the rabbit has not moved and is still innocently eating.

Tilley's stalk is not the same as Luke's; Tilley means business. Not that she wants to kill the rabbit, her chase or prey drive is off the charts and not something she can easily control. I bellow out "LEAVE IT," she's not that far from me but loosing her hearing somewhat. I fully expect to have to shout it again when to my surprise she turns her head away from the rabbit. I was the one beaming now; both of my dogs had ignored their instinct and listened to me without so much as the tiniest of complaint, nice. I told Tilley how amazing she was and her reaction was more like "ya I know," than Luke's pure joy of being a good boy.

We rounded the otherside of the park and came to yet another young rabbit stupidly eating and not hopping away and we repeated our first leave it success. This is what I call amazing, when you can control this type of drive off leash you have truly connected with your dogs. Am I proud?