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Gunner was my first Greyhound, adopted in December of 1993. I lost him in September 2000.
He taught me a lot. And I like to sometimes reflect on the things I have learned from my dogs.
Gunner and I did a lot of hiking together. We both loved to hit the hiking trails and enjoy the sights, sounds and smells of nature. He was always game for whatever I asked him to do.
One day we were on a hike in northern Minnesota. This particular hike was a loop and we were at about the halfway point in our loop.
Gunner stopped. He was focused up ahead on the trail. I did not see anything.
He was focused but pretty stoic. That was Gunner. He was very stoic about things. It was sometimes hard to tell how he was feeling about things because he didn't always express much in the way of emotions.
Did he see something? Smell something? Hear something? I am not sure.
I gave him a chance to assess, then asked him to continue on with the hike. Nope. Not happening. He refused to proceed forward.
He was adamant about turning around and going back the way we came. He wasn't showing any signs of fear or panic. He did not appear to be afraid of anything. Honestly, I do not recall ever seeing him afraid of anything in his life.
But he was absolutely certain he wanted to turn around and go back the way we came. He did not want to proceed forward. That was for certain.
I had a choice to make. Do I force it and try to make him continue on? Or do I turn around and go back the way we came?
I really wanted to continue on the hike and complete the loop.
But I decided to trust my dog that day. We turned around and went back the way we had come.
To this day, I have no idea why he did not want to continue. But, I trusted him and trusted that there was a good reason for him to not want to continue the way we had been going. Was there something potentially dangerous up ahead? I do not know. But I decided not to find out that day.
Can you imagine if we had run into danger and I was kicking myself for NOT listening to my dog? Maybe there was nothing up ahead. Maybe there was something. I don't know.
But I believe that I made the right choice that day and averted potential danger by trusting my dog. He had never asked me to do that before, and he was normally very agreeable about going where I wanted to go. So I trusted there was something up ahead that we were best to avoid.
Do you trust your dog enough to accept a decision that you do not fully understand? I would love to hear about it if you have!
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