Should I be surprised that life and adjusting to the pup is going relatively smoothly?  Certainly I’ve read so much about puppy training, have armed myself with all the tools in keeping a puppy occupied and out of trouble. The puppy proofing has worked very well in making sure that Scooter is safe and secure–this being especially important since he’s part of a busy office.

Only a few days after getting Scooter a girlfriend asks if I love him yet. I think on this a moment. I love Lilly, she’s been a huge part of my life. If I’m away from her I miss her terribly. I also am also protective of her and her welfare. Scooter hasn’t been in my life long enough for me to say I love him. I adore him sure, but love is something that comes over time.

Scooter on the other hand has been confident and outgoing, excited to be out in the wide world. Every morning after Lilly’s come back from her walk, Scooter and I walk to the local church grounds and its cemetery. Newtown’s St Stephen’s cemetery grounds are filled with trees, old headstones and monuments to some of Sydney’s gentrified founders. It’s also walled and gated, so it makes for a safe place to walk your dog. It’s also a place where some of the more unruly and troublesome dogs are walked, away from the more social and open space of Camperdown Park.

I never normally fully shut the gate behind me as I enter, but for some reason on a recent walk I latched it behind me. I unleash Scooter and we normally do fifteen minutes or more of walking the perimeter of the grounds. We practice coming on the recall and he’s being doing great stopping and playing or sniffing other dogs and then coming to me.

I watch him from a short distance as three small dogs come racing from one end of the grounds. Their either French Bulldogs or Boston Terriers and sorry if I offend any lovers of these breeds but they rush Scooter with lot’s of snorting and yapping. It’s almost comical because Scooter’s initial reaction is to yelp as if hurt. And then in a split second he bolts in the direction of the gate and a busy city road.

I call him trying to sound upbeat but I realise quickly this is not a normal recall situation, He’s scared and to make it even more scary, three grunting black and white dogs have decided this is their game of chase. I run after the pack and do two things, shout to the two owners who’ve been chatting and now watching this to call their dogs. The other is to pray to God or the God of Dogs that the gate is still shut. As I run I also pray that if the gate isn’t and Scooter inevitably bolts out of the safety of the grounds, that he runs to someone, anyone and they hold him safe.

I see him and he’s sitting hard against the gate that’s still shut. Quaking (him and me) I slow down and approach him with a gentle voice. “Calm. Calm”, whispers a little voice in my head. If he sees me panicked or out of balance, it may imprint the fear in him even more. I gently put the lead on his harness and we both sit for a while.

In hindsight it was fruitless for me to yell to the owners of the Bostons/Frenchies as I know these dogs and they rarely come when called. Selectively deaf, I’ve watched one of the owners virtually wrestle her dog to the ground in order to snap the leash back on him. The other, I’ve seen do an Alpha roll and slap his dog when it ‘finally’ came when called.

Scooter’s shaken but not stirred so I make the decision that on leash he should meet these dogs. No hard feelings and everyone is safe. We do another couple of off leash rounds of the grounds and I thank the God of Dog more than a few times for keeping Scooter safe.

This Puppy Panic isn’t going to be the last time this happens and it makes me more aware that I don’t have ‘Super Scooter The Fearless’. He’s just a little puppy and he needs time and effort to deal with all sorts of circumstances that come our way. This experience gives me yet another tool in bringing up puppy. It also makes me realise that yes, I do love Scooter, he has well and truly wormed his way into my heart and without him there would be a hole.