Treat trees

What a lovely serene walk Oscar and I had at lunch today (well until the last minute but I'll come back to that later!!). We went for our usual potter down along the beach (well river bank) by our house.

Then we wandered along the grass area to go back to the house and I remembered something I hadn't done in a long while - a treat tree. While Oscar was busy smelling all the wonderful smells (and trying to decide whether to chase after the seagulls) I went to work...

I smeared some cheese into the bark and hid some of his dry food in the nooks and crannies and then called him over for him to start the fun...




"Oooooooh this smells goooooood!"




"I'm definitely on the trail of something....it better be good!"





"You have to dig deep for the really smeared in cheese"




"Anything up here...no...right ...moving on swiftly...more goodies to find!"



"Enough of this sniffing lark...digging...that's the only real way to do it!"




And so ended the serene part of our walk as we slowly strolled up the short path to my house with Oscar off lead and me feeling rather proud of my pup walking so beautifully and calmly. I tested it with a couple of recalls and he came back each time. If only it had stayed that way all the way back to the house...



What happened...well of course as we got to the road (my house is only two doors down from the path and it's a very quiet road...thank god!) Oscar spotted a cat...sadly before I did! He did his usual pose when he spots something of interest...bolt upright with tail right up in the air.

Then I made my next stupid mistake...instead of clipping on his lead I decided to try to get him back with a recall. As you'd expect, with his focus on the cat, he ignored me. He then bounded over to the cat. The cat (being quite sensible) ran when it saw a bear bounding towards it and Oscar of course chased after it.



Thankfully the cat continued it's sensible thinking and ran under a nearby car and I managed to get Oscar's lead on and distract him away.



I was so cross with myself for being so silly ... you live and learn however and today's lessons were:


1) to be more observant about what is up ahead so I spot it before Oscar;


2) to keep Oscar on lead near roads no matter how good his recall is; and


3) we have some work to do with cats and Oscar not chasing them!!!