The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

Ever have one of those days? One of those days when you get the boss to let you knock off a little early. You rush home, grab the pooch, throw her in the truck and make a beeline for your favorite training spot. So what if you hit a little traffic. You’re out of work, it’s a beautiful afternoon, and you have a pup in the back of the Jeep.

Speaking of the pup, she seems ready to roll and been doing just fine on her retrieves. In fact, you think, what took me so long to get another dog? Hell, your mind wanders to the dove shoots you’ll both be hunting in the fall.

On the first toss your pup runs full speed to the dummy, picks it up, starts running back for you, then drops it in favor of a clump of marsh grass that she attacks as if it were a peanut butter and bologna burger. No problem, you get her attention again and toss another dummy. This time it’s worse. She makes it half way there and turns her attention back to that marsh grass clump. Okay, you know what to do. A short toss. A real short toss away from the distraction. She heads for it with the speed of a turtle with diaper rash, loafs back, and then trots off in search of better action before you correct her with the check cord.

Today you’re beaten. And you know it. No need to spend any more time creating bad habits. You pile back in the truck, which is still cool from air conditioning that had been blowing when you got out just a few minutes earlier. And before you know it, you’re back in traffic.

You ever have one of those days? I just did.