Whoops lost the tracker not the dog!

A new adventure starting in Houghton-on-the-hill, absolutely ideal as lots of water for Gatsby's favourite pursuits of swimming and retrieving sticks, the bigger the better! As we had delightful paths with great visibility we practiced recall when there was nothing there. The cheeky monkey does have a habit of looking ahead when called but was a good boy, he kept coming back and was rewarded. I find that when recall loses sharpness it's always good to have an irrisistable treat so I've bought some liver and chicken sausages which can be chopped up into little pieces from #Indipetsupplies - https://www.indi.pet/. It's a lovely little shop with a great selection of doggy treats.

When you have a sensitive dog it's always lovely when people who have their dogs off lead either have them under close control or put them on the lead, it removes any potential stress of 'the friendly dog' bounding up to yours. Today the owners were exemplary and when we passed the daschund I'm always mindful that Gatsby is a giant being a 32 kilo labrador and may frighten smaller dogs so always move in an arch and give the dogs plenty of room. If you observe dogs they never approach in straight lines and the best analogy is to think of a hotel corridor and all the bedroom doors and how stressful this is from the dog's perspective.

We then entered a field of long grass where Gatsby resembled a pogo stick leaping about and in his element. It is here that the tracker was lost not that we realised this until we got home. The sound and light function are hopeless so even if we returned to the same field it would be like trying to find a needle in a haystack. To be honest we bought the tracker because Gatsby is intact and we were concerned he may run off. However, touch wood this has never happened. He has humped only 3 dogs in his near 4 years and to be honest like us dogs have different libidos.

As we approached Kings Norton a gentleman with a female black labrador warned us there were cows in the next field. After the bullocks at Quenby estate the alarm bells rang. However, we gave them plenty of room and being female dairy cows they were lovely and showed no interest. Onwards to more field paths with great visibility so lots of offlead time for Gatsby. With less than a mile to go what do we spot? More cows and is it me or is there always one lurking by the gate you need to go through? Again these were lovely cows who had no interest in Gatsby so a great end to a lovely walk.