World’s Best Hunting Dog

Eric and I often sit outside in the evening and read, or drink a beer together and catch up on the events of our day. Our pup Sandy loves it when we’re outdoors, and she roots around the briars and hedgerows, snorts into the dirt and rolls around on the sun-warmed clay dirt.

Frisbee is one of her favorite games, but we have to be careful because she’ll chew up the sharp plastic. Sticks are much the same. Fetch is fun, but not as fun as eating an entire oak stick and being sick for days, according to Sandy. Cool as all those options are, they are nothing compared to her favorite game: Eric’s BB Gun

Eric has targets set up around our front yard. We’re down in a hollow, so if he misses, the pellets or BBs just go safely into the dirt.

All he has to do is step outside and pump the gun, and Sandy’ll come running from whatever she’s been rolling in and stand perfectly still at his side. Her eyes will be on the gun the entire time, and she’s so intensely focused that there are double strings of drool puddling on the porch. Eric has trained her to not move until he shoots, and the POP of the gun is her cue to GO!

Unfortunately, Sandy has no actual idea of what is going on. Any direction is the right direction! She’ll race off and loop around the yard, barking and yipping and searching for….something? When Eric hits a plastic bottle or a target, she’ll sometimes get the clue and run towards the noise of impact, but for the most part, it’s just a wild careen around the yard. She leaps hedgerow like a deer, barking gleefully.

I can’t imagine what would happen if Eric actually took down some prey. Probably a really messy game of tug of war. *shudder* We’re content with bottles for now!