Teddy, Great White Hunter…

This weekend, Teddy was ill again this morning. After throwing up twice, he was relegated down to Science Diet for Sensitive Stomachs.

This made Teddy very hungry.

We have been jumping at any sign that he wants to go out, in case he is going to be sick again. He jumped up out of a dead sleep and ran over to the couch. So I jumped right off the couch to let him out.

He didn’t get sick, but had some other business to tend to. We’ve taken to standing outside with him so we can make sure he’s not still sick, however without warning Teddy bolted for the back corner of the lot. I heard some rustling around and the sound of Teddy hitting the fence. I ran around the corner and there was Teddy, laying down right by the front gate. I called him to come over to me and he did happily, having chased out an offending neighborhood animal or local wildlife.

Then he turned around and took off toward the opposite corner of the lot. At this point, I ran inside to grab the flashlight because none of this seemed right. I went back to where he was laying and found nothing of interest. I called him and he didn’t come up to me, so I went looking for him. He was near the back of the lot, however when he swung around I saw FOUR shiny eyes looking back at me. Teddy turned and ran away from me, I could see his tail bobbing up and down in his trademark “I’m too happy to contain it” circle.

I thought “Oh God, please don’t let it be the neighbor’s cat.”

As I chased him down, he turned to face me and I saw that he had caught a rabbit. I told him to sit down, then lay down and drop it. He was too excited for that, so I got to chase him around the back yard for a bit. I cornered him by the back door and told him to lay down. He did so, and I told him to drop the rabbit.

Nothing doing.

Dad showed me once upon a time with Tucker that you could squeeze the dog back by his jaw to make them release their hold on something, but I must not have executed that correctly because Teddy’s jaw remained set. Since he didn’t have a collar on (his collar is employed in the neckband of his cone, which he was not wearing at the time), he was hard to keep hold of so I decided to bribe it away from him. I told him to stay. He didn’t. So the next thing I knew, Teddy was standing proudly in my kitchen with a dead rabbit still in his mouth.

I grabbed a dog cookie out of the box and told him to drop it and he’d get a treat. His jaw was clamped down hard on this rabbit, and he wasn’t letting go. After a minute or two, I was able to coax him into dropping the critter on the kitchen floor, which I quickly bagged in a grocery sack and discarded. He must’ve caught it cleanly around the middle, there was only a single toothmark in its side and it was barely bleeding.

I’m very surprised Teddy was able to catch it… boy was that dog proud of himself. In the end he got the thrill of the hunt and a cookie, so he’s returned to his normal activities of sleeping near the front door. It was very interesting to see him in full-on “I’m a hunting breed” mode. I think we need to teach him a “drop-it” command somehow though.