Yes a beautiful photo, but if you see Sammi out with Zeus you'll know I needed her assistance to get him in.
Today he has burnt his bridges with me, today he's pushed me too far and damaged our fragile relationship further. After fun in the field, fetching his ball and cuddles as we went round, he decided he was not coming in. If he drops that ball on the way back towards the cottage, then I know I'm fecked! There is no point calling him, throwing the ball or doing anything to convince him to come home, he simply will not comply. Though I often feel like leaving him out there, it simply wouldn't be feasible, our boundary wall leads to sheep and cattle and the "what if" is too great. I came in, called out to Steve, "your dog is being a knob again." He came out, but as ever no joy. I took Beti out on the lead, Zeus came over numerous times to play, but there was no way he was coming through the gate and with Beti as mad as a box of frogs on the end of the lead, my arms, back and neck are now hurting. Not Beti's fault as she was being used as a ploy to get him in, but I'm really worried I'm going to get a sciatica flare up and with Steve's poor mobility, it's not what we need. Anyway, I took Beti to the top gate and Zeus followed, but wouldn't come close enough for me to put a lead on him, I took her to the van .. that was a no-go too. Now, no doubt this dog is ridiculously bright, but he uses it against us and has no willingness to please. With Beti in the van I went to get his mother out, again on the lead initially, he followed us round the field but even "Photo - down" next to Sammi didn't work. I let Sammi off and she played with him for a few minutes before I called her over, "down Sammi" ... "down Zeus" .. he said feck off about 4 times, but eventually he lay down and I managed to lasso him with lead. I took this photo and marched him home. I was hurting, seething and near to tears, Steve was also struggling to get back, but I had to just leave him to it. It must have taken us over 30 mins to catch him, it really is not going to happen again.
