I've not had the best of afternoons it has to be said. All started nicely on our a walk in the nature reserve in our nearest town - the sun shone, Nips met a totally loopy but lovely Springer and, in between all the socialising, I wandered along thinking Good Thoughts while plucking and eating the occasional blackberry.

After an hour I decided it was time we cut along to Waitrose to do some boring old shopping and left the nature reserve by the main gate and turned left to walk back to the town centre through the wooded bit - intending to come out where we'd come in which is one of two smaller entrances. Both of which emerge onto a cul de sac in a small housing development (this geographical detail is necessary, trust me!)

My decision was not greeted with delight by Nips who decided that he had an urgent appointment with an invisible rabbit back through the main gates and set off with the sort of purposeful set to his bottom that is A Bad Sign. Especially when, like today, it was followed by an attack of selective deafness. Feeling charitable and knowing that he'll never be longer than a couple of minutes or get out of earshot (he panics and sets up a dreadful earsplitting yip if he thinks he's lost me) I sat down and waited for him.

Unfortunately, he seems to have had the inspired idea of circling the nature reserve so he'd end up back where we came in. A place that he clearly expected me to carry on walking towards. Except that I hadn't. So when, after five minutes, I went back in to get him, he'd covered too much distance to hear me.

The next hour was horrible. It was as if he'd literally disappeared off the face of the earth. I couldn't understand how he could simply lose himself somewhere so familiar to him or if he was lost, why he hadn't started yipping like a gurlie. Everyone in the nature reserve started looking for him, including Izzy his current JRT lady friend who is besotted with him but even her charms didn't turn him up.

When I was honestly wondering whether I'd see the lad again my mobile phone rang and it was the dog warden who'd been called by someone living in one of the houses in the cul de sac and who'd taken him in some 35 minutes earlier. Apparently he'd emerged from one of the two exits from the nature reserve and walked along to the other one on this same road (clearly expecting to find me) and then turned back and started walking back the way he'd come. At this point she came out and invited him in where, according to the dog warden, he'd been very well mannered and made himself completely at home. He had, however, spent most of the time he was there perched on her sofa gazing out of the window expectantly. Expecting me I assume!!! She phoned my home number which is on his ID tag and left a message on the answering machine but then thought she'd better ring the dog warden to get him scanned in case he was chipped because my mobile number might be on the chip. Which it was.

As it happens, it was the same dog warden who I'd met when I picked up the little lost dog here the other month and she'd said Nips looked very familiar! When she scanned him all became clear but she couldn't work out how he'd got from home to town to lose himself. She also said how confident and cheerful he'd been in his temporary "home" but for sure, it wasn't a very confident little terrier that was sitting in a cage in her van and he's been very, very keen not to let me out of his sight since we were reunited.

Thank heavens for microchips and caring people!

ahh Roz what an afternoon for you! i hope Nips is none the worse for his little adventure..... Just when you think your dog has calmed down and doing everything you say they have a little trick up their Sleeve!!  I know that blade does this at times (but not to the point of loosing me ) but his selective deafness is sometimes a problem :rolleyes:  pleased to see that there are some caring people around still that would take the dog in and do all the correct things, it makes a change....
Hope you have a better day tomorrow and that your arm is much better now ? 

Poor you - and Nips :(   Remember Roz that all's well that ends well - hopefully he will have learned a valuable lesson and not try to pre-empt you again.

Thank goodness you've both been safely reunited!  Where would we be without tales of the tiny termite (oops, darling :D )

Give him a biccy from me ;) 

He says when he wakes up he'll have that biscuit thank you please! :D

I have to say that this incident has left me determined to actually get on with whistle training him instead of just saying that I will! It also may well be that he would, if left to his own devices, have gone back in and retraced his steps to the main gate but I'm just glad all ended well and am very grateful to the person who acted so thoughtfully!

As for the arm, Emz, it nearly looks like an arm now as well as very nearly working like one! And a week in Spain at the end of the month should see off the interesting two-tone effect! ;)

You're response time on the whistle is bound to beat mine Roz - I've been putting it off now for about 18 years :rolleyes: :D   I'll await your reports and perhaps take guidance from there ;)

passes choc digestive to Nips :P

My dog tears off ahead and one day I realised that she was going too far all the time.  So, when I got to a crossroads in the path and as she tore off ahead I switched directions, didn't call or whistle just walked off and it was a while before she realised I wasn't following and came and found me, tore past me disappearing ahead again.  So, I changed direction again and again and again.  She must have ran a mile while all I did was a few feet one way or another.  She got the message and when passing me she slowed down and ran half looking behind to check I was still walking the same way.  She is much more mindful of where I am now and as soon as I whistle does a handbrake turn in anticpation of me changing direction.  This is not to say she doesn't get sidetracked or that she doesn't throw a deaf'un now and then but generally she is much better.

When Nips was a few months younger he got very blasé about assuming I'd always be following behind him or waiting for him to emerge from rabbitty places so I did much the same as you, Cheryl and one day I simply changed directions while we were out in the fields.  A few minutes later I was treated to a full on yip and the occasional glimpse of his panicky little head as he bounced, like Tigger, in and out of sight from the wrong side of a thick hedge.

Since then he's always been very much more mindfull of where I am but I think what went wrong today was the result of his decision to go onwards to where he assumed I'd end up rather than back to where he'd last seen me. If I'd been telepathic things might have been different!

How terrifying to lose Nips, minutes would seem like hours! I'm glad he was well looked after and safely returned. I trained Milo to a whistle in August and it works a treat. The main reason I did it was so other people, like the OH, would have the same level of recall I have. He struggles with happy, cheerful and confident recalls. They either come out mousy or angry. :-D But it has been a bonus for me too as Mister Happy Pants the Coastal Explorer would be quite content to disappear over the horizon if a game of chasey chasey through the surf was on. While I can get a pretty loud yelp out I can't quite match the whistle for distance. It took less than a week in the house to get some darn good recalls outside. I think it was well worth it.