Failed Harness

Dh and the boys

Wally managed to escape once again. The buckle on Wally's harness broke yesterday on our noon time walk. Bean and Wally we're scenting and chasing after an interesting scent. When the buckle loosened Wally didn't seem to notice, he just kept running.

I called my son to come meet me with the dog whistle and treats. I asked him to take Bean back home and man the phones if someone should call. We had taken a new trail so I was a little nervous about Wally getting lost. I decided to try the lake area since Wally loves swimming. I walked about 100 feet when Wally came running past me. He than played his game of running ahead, than stopping to make sure that I was following him. I learned from past experience that he considers this a big game so didn’t bother to run. I walked after him at a regular walking pace.

I decided to sit under a tree and see if Wally would stop. He promptly ran into the lake and swam around for a while. He than ran up to me but just out of arms reach. He decided to go into the woods. He would sniff for a few seconds, run back to the lake than back to the woods. He did this a number of times. I figured that I would let him wear himself out.

Wally played the swim woods game for a good half hour. The last time he ran into the woods I heard a yelp; than he didn’t come back. This was major panic time. I looked into the woods and no Wally. I than ran into the adjacent neighborhood to look panicking that he may have been hit. When I couldn’t find any sign of him I started to become paranoid thinking that someone may have dog napped him. Luckily dh showed up at this time to help. At this point I had been out for a few hours so walked back home to look while dh searched. Once home I switched with my son, he went out to look while I manned the phone. Dh finally ran into a woman who said that she saw a dog matching Wally’s description swimming in the lake up ahead. Dh quickly headed in the indicated direction and saw Wally swimming. Wally saw dh, and ran past him into the woods. Dh followed him. Wally had gotten himself entangled in a briar patch in a deep thicket. There was no way that Wally could turn around. Dh extricated him and brought him home.

I am so disgusted with Wally’s old harness. Dh had made many modifications to strengthen the weak points. All of dh’s modifications worked wonderfully. The clasp had worn out. This is the second time that Wally escaped due to failed hardware. He also escaped another time when my son opened the door and Wally went bounding out.

Dh and I went to pet smart to get Wally a temporary harness. I’m going to order a super tough harness that is used in service work. I figure that rescue, police and military can’t take the chance of hardware breaking.

The good thing is that Wally doesn’t try to run away out of our sight. He really enjoys teasing us.