07/14/2026
Piper’s shower of shame is here to remind you that as no human is perfect, neither is any dog.
Your dog trainer’s dog took off after deer an hour before it was time to leave for the airport.
While I truthfully have never met a dog with stronger recall, and despite the fact that I have successfully verbally recalled her off of packs of deer numerous times before, her prey drive kicked into overdrive and I couldn’t break her from it today.
She was up ahead of me, so I heard her take off before I knew why. If I had her closer to me or realized before her prey drive passed the threshold of obedience, I likely would’ve been able to recall her.
She was gone for about 45 minutes, having the time of her life. I followed her barks for a bit, but ultimately headed back to where she had taken off from.
✨TIP! If your dog goes missing in the woods, stay where you lost them or where you parked the car. They’ll often return.
It’s easy to expect perfection from your dogs when they “should know better,” but it’s not realistic. Your dog is a DOG, not a robot. I was still pi**ed and anxious, but I knew she would ultimately come back from following her natural instincts.
Needless to say, Piper slept the ENTIRE flight home.
