I like to take Mugen to dog class. We have fiinished several and I was thinking of taking a break until yesterday. I have a newly fenced in back yard that Mr Mugen loves to run in. It also has a nice gate in the back into the common area behind our house in our neighborhood. My son was out in the common area collecting bugs (like all boys do on spring days), and as he was entering in the gate Mugen decided that he wanted to romp out in the common area. I was in the kitchen with the windows open making dinner and I heard my son screaming " MUGEN MUGEN!". I immediately grabbed the cheese on my refridgerator door and opened the back door and said in my happiest voice "TREATY TREAT". I looked out and realized that Mugen was over 2 doors down in the common area and I watched him hit the brakes as soon as he heard me. I walked to the gate and said again "Treat come hurry hurry hurry!" He saw the cheese in my hand and immediately ran back into the yard and sat to receive his cheese. I closed the gate and saw my son falling onto the ground very upset crying. Of course I had no shoes on and I told him that everyone was fine. Cameron came back and got a giant hug from me. He was really scared he was going to lose Mugen. I told him that was why we took dog classes and that I would teach him how to recall Mugen so he could do it as well.
In case anyone who doesn't know why this is so important to us, it is because we have had 2 dogs get hit by cars before. Both were due to the fact that we had never learned how to recall our dogs properly and that they just never listened. One of my dog's was killed instantly and the other ended up in a dog cart from a severed spine. I am just very grateful to my classes at Pup Scouts in Nashville that helped us learn this and has made it a normal part of training in our house. I think that we will get in more classes soon.