The Leave It Command Worked! Whew!

[Leslie and Halas]

Our team had to cancel our flyball weekend, so I've been trying to do extra things with Halas this weekend to try to make up for it.  We went to the Peoria Doodle Romp yesterday, and I took him hiking/swimming this morning.  We have a nice area of trails that run along a creek, and that's where we went this morning.  Halas had a blast running through the water, but there weren't any spots deep enough to swim.  So he just ran through the water, ran on the banks, ran in the water, ran on the banks, etc.  I had him on his 20-ft lead, and he was running along the bank when he stopped to sniff a stick.  I caught up with him and realized that the stick had a head.  So, yes, he was sniffing a snake.  He was sniffing the back half of the snake, but the snake had his head raised.  I have no idea what kind of snake it was. Probably just some kind of water snake, but I felt that sniffing it was a bad idea.  I couldn't make a leash correction, because Halas was on the 20-ft lead, and I was only a few feet away at this point.  So I said, "Halas. Leave it!"  And he did!  I was kind of surprised.  Leave it works in the field behind our house when he's sniffing poop or something, but I didn't figure it would work against something as interesting as a snake.  So he hopped over it and walked away.  I looked back, and the snake slowly made it's way into the water.  I decided that we were pretty tired at that point, so we left the creek and focused on the trail.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

First, I must congratulate and praise you for having the presence of mind to stand there and say anything at all to Halas, let alone find the right command, because I would have been incapable of thought or speech the instant I realized it was a snake.

In fact, reading this story at 11:45 p.m. is going to necessitate my relying upon pharmaceuticals to sleep tonight.

( "Just some kind of water snake", she says. Have you ever heard of Cottonmouths? Otherwise known as Water Moccasins? Go watch Lonesome Dove. Just some kind of water snake, right.) 

But GOOD BOY, HALAS!!!! Good, smart doodle-boy! Good good good wonderful boy, Halas!

"Whew" is right!