Cairn on the run!

[MikeC]

Yesterday I aged 10 years and that's not good for a 55 year old. My 8 month old Duffy got away from my partner while he was putting Duffy's harness on him and booked out of the garage. Normally we keep the garage door closed until he is completely under control but Jim forgot and Duffy got away from him. We live in a condo complex and while it is a gated community, there are numerous areas where Duffy could have escaped through the gates and onto a couple of very busy streets. We searched for him for over three hours, even going outside the complex. Finally at about 6:00 p.m. after pretty much giving up hope that we would ever see him again, we decided to do one more drive through the complex. At the rear, there is a small cul-de-sac (which is actually only a few yards from our place) so we stopped the car, rolled down the windows and started calling for him. Sure enough, thank God, this little brindle head popped up out of the foliage and it was him. I was afraid he would book out again but he came right to us. In all my years as a dog owner, this is the first time one has run away. I know Cairns can be vagabonds, but is an 8 month old capable of finding his way home? Our complex is quite large and like I mentioned, he was only a few hundred yards away, but hiding in schrubbery. When we got him home he was shaking a bit and very subdued so I think his little adventure may have been a little scarry for him. Have any of you had a similar experience with your Cairn? I'm so happy it worked out the way it did. I think all my past doggie angels were watching over him.

MikeC

[Guest abbycairn]

Hi Mike,

You must have been worried sick, so glad you found him again. An 8 month old could find their way home, but it's what could happen in between running away and home that's the concern.

Do you have him microchipped? If not, it's a very good idea in case he ever gets out and gets lost.

Have you taught him to come back to you on command? If not, it's time to start. I can let my Cairn off her lead in our local park (no cars). And I meet three other Cairns (and Jack Russells, and Westies) all of whom are happy to walk and play off lead with their owners nearby. It helps because she is used to being off lead and does not try to run away just because she isn't tethered to me. She does not think being off lead is a big deal. You may never want to do that, but even if not you should always teach the recall.

If you can teach your Cairn to come back on command, next time he gets loose you have a much better chance of getting him back quickly.

Stacey

[CallisMom]

Mike - you and Jim must have been a wreck!! I am soooo glad you found Duffy and she is well!!!

My parent's dog has "escaped" a couple of times and the last time was right after his heart surgery! We thought he was literally going to have a heartattack right then and there! It is soooo scary!

Calli is a rescue pup and exhibits stronger rescue traits than Cain traits when it comes to wandering. I can let her out and she will Only stay within the perimeter of the house, yard, woods or under the deck. What we DID do in case of an emergency is start training her with a bicycle horn. We went to Walmart - and found a really LOUD bicycle horn. We started with once a week ONLY, then we did 1 every other week, then once every three weeks - we are down to once a month - we honk the bicycle horn twice really loudly and then give her a gourmet treat - chicken and carrots, turkey and tomatoes - cheese and a hot dog on a real emergency would probably work - anyway - she can be running full throttle up the hill or chasing the kids, etc. but when she hears that horn she is in the house waiting for her yummy treat. I do it just enough so that she doesn't "forget" - but I want to reserve it for true emergencies so I am trying to do it as little as possible.

We had taught her a command to come and it worked really well for about 2 whole weeks before her stubborn Cairn side decided that she would only come if she felt like it. Hence the bicycle horn. I wanted something loud, different and attention getting!

Anyway - I'm glad that Duffy is back and that all three of you are doing well!

[Milopup]

Hi MikeC,

Yesterday must have been a weird day for Cairns, as mine almost took a run downhill into traffic!

I live in a downtown area and he was being fussy and I dropped his leash ( ) He took a couple of running steps and I just shouted his name, in shock and in fear. I must have scared him enough because he just turned and stopped, enough so that I picked up the leash. My heart skipped a couple of beats. I don't know what I would have done if he had run off.

I am so glad you were able to find your little one MikeC.

Best regards.

[Scully'sMom]

MikeC, I'm sorry that you had such a horrific day and I'm so happy you guys found your runaway. We have to be really careful opening the doors because Scully's gotten loose a few times. My instinct - and which I did - was to run after her which made her run faster. Finally I yelled "Scully! Want a treat?" And she came bookin' it as far as her little legs could carry her. I was an utter wreck.

I really hate comparing her to my other Cairn who learned somehow not to ever run away. She would stay in the same area in the yard and out front. This one can't be let loose.

My heart went out to you guys when I read your post.

[Eliz222]

That must have been so scary! Our 2 year old was an escape artist! I swear she would know the exact moment you would turn away, and she would sprint away. She is a lot more mellow now and she never leaves the yard. We keep the puppy on leash at all times so she has not had a chance to escape.

I know exactly how you felt. It's hard to describe the rising panic that occurs when they are gone. My DD took Scout for a ride one day and forgot to tell us. We looked for over an hour for her and she was safe in somebody's lap the whole time...arg!

[kayharley]

I'm so glad your story had a happy ending. My older Cairn is wonderful and will walk right along side me when we're going from the house to the car. Madison is on a leash whenever she's not in the fenced in yard.

We're having company next week...my 2 sisters are coming for a week with their children and I'm already getting anxious about the kids forgetting to close the fence gate or the front door.

Milopup, I've done the same thing with the loud, panic-stricken voice and it does work. Just once Madison bolted into the garage when the outside door was open. I screamed something, don't even remember what it was but she stopped dead in her tracks.

The stress....

[toomanypaws]

I felt my heart raising as I read your post. I'm so glad you were able to find Duffy. I too have had that experience. This happened when my 3 yr old cairn, Kiara was 2. One day she bolted out the side door when I opened it and took off running and REFUSED to come when I called her. I took off after her, not even taking the time to put shoes on. I was so embarrassed running around houses screaming her name. She thought it was a game, especially when the neighborhood kids started chasing after her but jumped back from her when she ran up to them. She knew I was mad and she acted like she never saw me before. We're in a subdivision close to a busy road so my heart started pounding out of me as she started to take off down the street. Then is was as if this lady seemed to appear out of know where. She was standing in the middle of the street and Kiara ran up to her. She bent down to Kiara and grabbed her for me.

I've always had dogs that I was able to have off a leash and they'd stay right w/ me, not this one. Kiara comes pretty good in the yard, but this was the first for her to be free and she took advantage of it. I was told not to chase after a cairn that they'll come back. My problem was worrying that she'd get hit by a car before making it back. Since that incident, I've started working more w/ her and taught her to come to a whistle which she now does but I can't say I trust her. My dh came home one night and somehow didn't close the door hard enough and sure enough, Kiara pushed the door open and ran out. When she wouldn't come right away and before I even thought about the whistle, I ran to our yard and opened the gate letting our Aussie out and told him to get her. He ran to her and circled her right into the yard.

Our 8 mth old Abbey does much better than Kiara. I dropped her leash one night and she ran in a circle between our house and the neighbors but then came right back to me. She gets excited outside but will come to the word "treat" which I then give her one.

We have a rule now that no one is to open the kitchen door that leads to the garage and press the garage door opener w/o first making sure Kiara's baby gate, which keeps her away from door, is up. I'd like to think she's older now and would come, but I'm not about to take a chance.

[Mama Kim]

Mike, it is so, so scary when they get away!! I'm so glad you found your little guy!! Piper has only escaped a few times and both times she has gone straight to the neighbor's house across the street. She plays in her backyard with her American Eskimo so that is where Piper heads when/if she gets loose. But we had a few scarier times with Lucy, our former Cairn. One time she got away on the day we moved into our first house. She'd never been to the neighborhood before and we were sure she was lost. She turned up just strolling down the street after her little adventure. But the scariest time was when we were visiting my in-laws on Long Island. They live in a very secluded and wooded neighborhood, no fenced in yard. Lucy was about 7 years at the time, and we had had her out by the pool with us. My kids were little, the twins about 2 years old at the time, so I guess we were so busy watching them in the pool that we didn't realize for an hour or so that Lucy had wandered off!! We were all set to leave the next day (we lived in OH at the time) and we could not find her anywhere. We searched on foot, by car, etc. for over an hour and a half. I was brokenhearted and all I could think was she either wandered out to the main road and would surely get hit by a car, or she had wandered so far into the woods after some critter that she was lost. The whole time I was kicking myself because she had her tag with our OH address on it but no local address. Well, when we had just about given up hope, through the woods came my in-laws new neighbor. She had had Lucy at her house the whole time!! No one heard us calling for her. They saw the tags on the dog but didn't recognize the last name since they were new to the neighborhood and only knew my in-laws by their first names!! I was never so happy to see a little dog in my life. From then on, whenever we visited my parents in Wisconsin or my in-laws in NY, we always put one of their return address labels on the back of her name tag so if she got lost locally, there would at least be a local name and address. What a nightmare!! It does take years off your life when they go missing, doesn't it?

[JRM]

Mike - I know the feeling mate!

Molly takes herself for "a wee walk" whenever she can, leaving me to run around like a looney panicking!

[MikeC]

My thanks to all of you for your kind responses and suggestions. It's comforting to know I am not the only one who has endured the wanderlust of their Cairns. As of this afternoon, Duffy has an appointment next week with the Vet to be microchipped (thank you Abbycairn for mentioning that). I have also called a couple of obedience schools in the area and will enroll him in class. Even though he is perfect (LOL), it can't hurt!

MikeC

[Guest abbycairn]

Hi Mike,

One thing I neglected to mention .. if he runs off again and ignores you, get his attention (shout his name) and then quickly run in the direction you want him to go and act all excited. Chances are that even if it is back in the house he will follow to see what's going on that you are so excited about.

Stacey

[bubba]

One thing I neglected to mention .. if he runs off again and ignores you, get his attention (shout his name) and then quickly run in the direction you want him to go and act all excited.  Chances are that even if it is back in the house he will follow to see what's going on that you are so excited about.

This is exactly what I did w/Cooper the cairn the night he got out. He didn't respond to his recall, and after acting like an idiot for all my neighbors to see, I got so mad that I yelled at him he could go ahead and get hit by a car, I didn't really care! I turned and started stomping home, when I saw a blur streak past me, up the hill, through the gate, across the yard, up the steps and he was sitting in the house before I'd even made it to the gate. That was the only time at home he has escaped.

A couple weeks ago at the lake, he got away. That, to him, was a free for all. What a time he had! After he traipsed through the bushes, into the lake a few times, plowed through the mud and then back into the lake, I finally caught him. For the life of him, he could not figure out what he had done wrong!

These dogs......

pat.

[Scully'sMom]

Last night my husband and I took Scully up to a huge area of the middle school area that is all grass. We had her leash attached to a 15 foot lead. With her little short legs in the up to her chest grass made it hard for her to get away and we could easily step on the lead to stop her. What we did was I went about 20 feet ahead of my husband and I would call her to me with this stupid excited voice "Scully! Come!". She came running like the wind towards me and then my husband would do it We made a huge fuss when she would reach each of us Back and forth she ran between us without running away. Also as a precaution we had the electronic collar on her where we could give her the noise and a "STOP!"

She did really well. I remember the trainer we had come to the house tell us that we needed to use that squeeky childlike voice to get her to come to us and to praise her. Watching her last night made me think that if she ran away she would respond more to the "silly" happy-to-see you voice than the mad "Get the @#)(*$# back here you little bugger" voice.

[Guest posting as: mOmOfaBe]

I just wanted to concur with everyone that I am glad no harm came to any of you three through your episode!

I also wanted to say that Abe likes to make a dash through the gates when he can, and the chase can be on (luckily we live on an off road) Anyway, after chasing him silly, which he percieves as a big game. My kids, myself or whoever is in pursuit (usually all of us) will say something like: Fine, we are going home, get a treat, bye-bye or whatever .......so far he has beat us home nearly every time!!!!!??!! go figure.......but these guys are just too smart!

Valerie

[Eliz222]

Scout ran away for the first time in about a year! I coudn't believe it.....I thought we had this settled...no more escaping! She was just one street over, playing in the yard with the owner of the house. When she saw me she put her tail between her legs and slithered into the car. No harsh words were needed, she looked as guilty as sin and was punishing herself. Cairns...what will they do next??

[Scully'sMom]

Shoe,

The loving antics of my Cairn is ANOTHER reason why I die my hair!

[Guest Cristina Perez]

Mike,

I'm so glad you found her!

It's scares me also because it did happened with our Scruffy. We went for a camping trip just last week. We were all inside the tent and all about to sleep when my husband had to go out and checkout something outside. It happened that my husband did not close the tent all the way 'cuz he thought that Scruffy was already asleep at the time and knowing that he would only be out for a moment. But that moment was a big mistake and Scruffy found a hole and managed to unzipped the tent all the way. At one point I thought it was my husband coming inside but I called for him and no answer, I knew right away that it was our Scruffy. I went outside and called out for my husband and Scruffy. It gave us both a fright because behind our tent were woods and behind that woods would be the main road where cars can pass by anytime.

Thank God for the basic class, and as we were calling Scruffy to come--about 5 mins later, he did come and wagging his tail. We were both so glad that he came back and I could not even imagine what would have happened if he got lost.

Cristina

Cristina