Last night, I had Danke out in the backyard for her final potty.

She was sniffing around the west side of the porch, which I thought very little of (she's always following her nose) until I heard a loud thump on the east side of the porch, directly below where I was standing.

It obviously wasn't Danke, as I was watching her on the west end of the porch.

A second thump, and Danke comes flying around the side of the porch, just in time for me to see a cat streaking out from underneath the porch, headed for the fence.

Danke was hot on the cat's tail, and I wasn't sure the cat was going to outrun her. Without really thinking about it, I hollered out, "Leave it! Hier!"

To my utter amazement, she turned on a dime, and was at my feet in a flash. I almost forgot to praise her, I was so astonished. She's never chased a kitty before, since we don't have cats, and most have enough sense to stay out of our yard. It doesn't surprise me that she gave pursuit, but I was surprised that she was willing to obey in such high drive, in a situation she's never been introduced or proofed for.

Combine that with her apparent snake sense (growled and circled a rattler at a 6 foot radius, but would go no closer and immediately backed away when told in Montana over the holiday), and I've got more dog than I deserve. Only so much of that is training. The rest is strong pack drive, strong handler bond, and just a damned clever dog.

I LOVE silly brag stories. I aspire to the same with my doggie.

Congrats on such a great team.

Wow, congrats Alyssa. This is worth a big brag - not a small one.

Can I fly you out to help with Falcon's obsession with continuing to chase our cats??? I'm a decent cook, we are close to Va. Beach and Williamsburg, it isn't TOO hot, (lemme think what else I can bribe you with??) Wine? Booze?? LOL!

That is no silly little brag.

Nothing means more to me than the dog screeching to a halt and flying back to me on the recall. Nothing!

There's gotta be some pretty good training in there when they respond like that in a situation thats a complete surprise. And a good dog too.

Nice! I love those.

Thanks fer sharin'.

That is soooo awesome. Good job, you two!

The complete opposite of my recent thread (blew off recall under practically no distraction).

I'm gonna work my butt off till I can post a thread like yours, lol.

I need to dig up some of the threads I've posted re: training the recall.

Puppy stage:
http://leerburg.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=203226

Kind-of-sort-of proofing advice:
http://leerburg.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Board=15&Number=204649&Searchpage=2&Main=20260&Words=recall&topic=0&Search=true