Good Dog. Good Dog?

Finley Kopitske - June 22, 2009

Today's been really nice. We went and had Lunch with Grandma, and toured the renovation madness in the kitchen. Afterwords, Elliot and I hit Tower Grove and walked for a while. When I got home it was time to get to work, so we cleared the sticks and poop from the back yard and mowed it. I've been building an unintentional compost pile in the back of the yard for almost a year, and I finally cleared that, too.

Fin and El were happy to help out. I'm slowly trusting them both more - Elliot was allowed to come down the alley with me to dump the yard waste, and we left the gate open, giving Fin a "stay" command and seeing how it held.

It worked great for a while, till somebody came by the alley entrance and passed close to us. Then, barking and charging, Our Hero rushed out to save us. As the nice old lady nearly pooped herself, I called Fin back, and he spun on a dime and returned to my side. "Back in the Yard!" I said, and back in the yard he went.

It's so strange because every other dog I've owned has been a runner. Given an open gate and no leash, I may or may not ever have seen them again.

Fin is different. He wants to be my dog, and be wherever I am. It's actually really cool, except sometimes when it isn't.

I left him in the back yard while I mowed the front. I could hear him barking, but shouted a reassurance now and then and figured he was fine. We've done this every time I've mowed, so what could happen?

Well, jumping the fence, it seems. In his determination not to be separated from me, he managed to get out of the yard. I'd just shut off the mower and was giving Elliot a piggy-back ride back to the house when Fin came prancing up, tongue lolling, as close to a big, goofy, proud smile on his face as a dog can get. So all three of us and the mower headed around the side and back into the yard.

Tomorrow I'll be heading to Lowes to check out trellis that I might be able to nail to the fence to extend it a few feet. In the meantime, don't walk down my sidewalk looking threatening while Fin's out back, ok?

Fin - Today @ 4:00