I love to watch Delilah just being a dog. Honestly, she is such an incredible athlete. When she runs, jumps or is just playing, she makes everything look so effortless.
Running -She’s so sleek when she runs, and fast. This dog is so fast and can turn on a dime.
- A few years back on one of our wood walks, she was lagging behind. Hubby, Sampson and I had just taken a left on to one of the trails and we gave a shout for Delilah. We all turned to wait for her and here she comes a running with a deer hot on her heels. We all stood there, staring and she took the turn onto our path like it was nothing and the deer continued on the other path. (Hubby insists it only LOOKED like the deer was chasing her, that the deer was actually on a parallel path, but this is my blog, it’s my story and I’m sticking with the deer was chasing her.)
- Once she ran up a rock that was almost vertical, she was just running around in the field, when suddenly she looked up at the top of the rock and just ran up it. Hubby and I stood there with out mouths open, a shocked expression on our faces.
Jumping – Delilah has mad jumping skills, she could easily jump over a five foot barrier. Thankfully she doesn’t know this, and please, do me a favor and don’t tell her.
- There have been times when we’ve been walking in the woods and she’s jumped over a four foot wide, three foot high pile of brush like she was jumping over a puddle.
- She once cleared the three foot high gate from the kitchen to the living room at our old house. No biggie, right? Wrong! The gate had two bar stools with backs that were 4 1/2 feet high, the seats of the stools were facing the gate and that added a width of 18 inches or so, AND they had laundry baskets on the seats. She sailed right over it. Like the cow jumping over the moon.
Besides the pure joy of just watching her running and being a dog, it’s so good for her physically. Running keeps her heart and her muscles in prime working order.
But sadly, after all the times she’s taken off on me, I can’t trust her off-leash like I can Sampson, so I’ve been working her with a command I call, “Go Check.”
It means exactly that. When she or Sampson spots something incredibly enticing and Sampson takes off to explore it, I will reach down and unclip her and say, “Go Check.” She now has permission to run and investigate and somehow, she knows that means it’s a quick sniff/look and then right back to me.
It’s little bursts of running, but it is something. I feel it’s a win-win, because she is doing something that she loves (and that I love to watch) and yet she is coming right back to me.
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