Mr. Write's Page

Paco has learned a new skill that amazes me.

When he and I go hiking somewhere, I usually let him run off-leash. He never runs too far ahead. If he hasn’t seen me in the last 20 seconds, he’ll come back to check on my whereabouts.

He also taught himself not to jump up on people we meet on the trail. Gradually, his behavior changed from jumping up to lying down; now he goes belly to the ground and waits for the person to approach. This is great, especially when we come upon little kids.

Paco returns to me instantly when I whistle, even if he’s being petted. When I see someone approaching, my usual practice is to whistle him back, put him on the leash, and release him again after the people are gone.

Still, there are times when he encounters people when I am lagging behind, out of sight. This is the one weakness of allowing him to run loose. I worry about dogfights, hysterical kids, me getting punched in the eye, and so on.

Anyway, the new thing he learned is this: toward the end of the hike, he came running back to me after he saw people approaching on the trail. Apparently, he figured out that I want him on-leash when people are around, and he came back to get hooked up.

That happened three times. All three times, as soon as the people were gone, he looked over his shoulder at me, requesting to be set loose again.

Good boy, Paco. Good boy.