With Sophie down for awhile I've been trying to exercise Syrus a bit more with walks around our loop. It's about a mile of semi-paved road surrounded by woods and fields.
An advantage this time of year is that the road is bare, but snow berms are still high. It kind of makes a nice gauntlet.
Syrus' nose is to the ground and I can see over the berms for any deer close by. I can make a motion with my arms and they are gone before we get close enough for Syrus to get excited.
Today we came around a curve and there is a deer standing right in the middle of the road 20 feet in front of us. Does it do like most intelligent deer and hop the berm and bound gracefully into the woods and brush? No, the dumb thing starts running down the road, white tail flagging in his face saying, "Come get me! Come get me!"
Syrus takes off after it. I'm thinking, here we go. How fast can I run in these snow boots? I yell, "Syrus - NO! STAY - COME!
The boy actually stopped!! He didn't come to me, but he stayed where he was. He was whimpering, "Oh mom, please, please. Ooohh please let me chase it. It wants me to. See, it's waving at me." But he stayed put until I caught up and attached his leash. (which, thank goodness he dropped when he saw the deer. He carries his own leash which doesn't do me a lot of good when its in his mouth.
)
I'm just thrilled he waited.
Would he have reacted the same if Sophie was with us? I'm thinking that's a resounding no.
