It was 7 seconds and my world almost ended right before my eyes.
There is a feeling of panic and drowning that rapidly sucks the life out of your body as you watch your child run into a raging river of traffic. The world quickens and slows in the same instant. A sense of disbelief and dread flashes through your whole being as you stand helplessly watching as certain doom is on a collision course with your beloved, every cell in your body screams a collective, “NOOOOO!!!”
I had opened my car door and was searching under the seat to find my lost wallet. My best friend and faithful tag along companion, a lab mix named Chelsea, had followed me into the front yard of my college house. It was a great little house and was becoming a home for my new fiance’ (DogGirl), our canine “child” and me. The only drawback was that it was 100 yards from FM 2222, a major crossroad. I heard her nails and feet tearing across the drive and through grass as I quickly knew what was happening. A cat or a squirrel dared to make their presence known to her and she had no choice but to make their presence “past tense”. How long does it take a motivated dog to travel 90 yards? Roughly 7 seconds.
I watched in pure terror as she crossed into the heavy traffic flow and I let go the loudest, most primal scream I had within me, “Chelsea! COME!” I had one chance in one second to, literally, live or die with my dog. The old black Buick with a tiny spare tire on the back was closing on my young black Lab and I briefly thought, “At least she won’t know it or feel it. Please, no…”
We had rescued Chelsea from a friend’s backyard. They had a fence, a low fence and, apparently, any male dog who could get over the fence did so with ease. A little known fact: a female (bitch, I like that I can legitimately say that…bitch, bitch, bitch) dog can have as many different offspring as males that can get over the fence (or under, around, through…), so Chelsea had a sister like her, two golden mixes, two border collie mixes, and one chow mix. I had not begun my career in dogs yet, but within the year she had learned over 30 commands. Luckily, “COME” was the one that I paid attention to because my mentor told me, “this command will save your dog’s life.” A lot can cross your mind in a split second of horror and these words did just that. I had learned why to teach a recall, how to teach it and, most importantly, how NOT to teach it. It was time to either save my dog or watch her be mangled and killed.
“Chelsea COME!” There was a split second, probably because she was far away, running and locked on to a squirrel on the other side of the road, but she lifted her head, dropped her shoulder and turned to start a long, sweeping U-turn to come back to me. As she did, the car in the road began braking, honking….and skidding. Time stopped. My world focused onto a black spot running in the road and a black car sliding, screeching toward the best thing that ever happened to me (don’t tell my fiance’). As the car hit her, it also hit me, right in my soul. She was bounced off the right front corner of the bumper and was spun 540 degrees in a circle…she almost stopped facing away from me…and more cars poured down the road. She again turned to my voice and ran all the way into my arms. Was she hurt? Is there blood? Is she broken? Nothing, the only evidence was she was a little spooked having had a beast scream at her and had her butt spanked with a 3500 lb paddle.
“Good”, I said over and over as she pressed into my side and the fear and panic melted into calm and love because I had trained her well. She worked to please me because training was a game and I had learned to understand why she did what dogs do. I never made her do anything. I never hurt her. I didn’t need a leash or a collar. I didn’t have to show her who was “dominant.” I took the time to learn the right way… and it all paid off in 7 long seconds.
If you want help teaching your dog to come to you, our training team can help. It can be a matter of life and death.
