The puppy.
“Okay, let’s talk about puppy runaways.” Kenzie knelt down in the grass. “I’m going to love her up a bit, and then I’m going to run a short distance away—probably to that little pine tree over there—and hide. Then you let her go and say, ‘Go find!’ Hopefully, she’ll follow me.”
“What if she doesn’t?”
“I’ll take her favorite toy with me and give it a few squeaks to give her some incentive. Follow her, and when she finds me, we both praise her and give her a treat.”
“Okay.” That didn’t sound too complicated.
Kenzie tousled Gabby’s floppy ears and kissed her. “Who’s my sweet puppy? Are you my sweet puppy? You are too cute.”
Then Kenzie looked up at Conrad. “Don’t let go of her until I’m hidden.”
She hopped up and ran to hide behind a pine tree, her ass doing amazing things for her jeans as she moved.
Head out of the gutter, man.
The moment she was hidden, Conrad released the puppy. “Gabby, go find!”
Gabby stood still for a second and cocked her head as if wondering what Kenzie was doing. Then she heard her toy squeak and ran toward the sound. It was only a distance of about twenty feet, so it didn’t take long before Gabby rounded the pine tree and gave an excited bark.
“Good girl! Good girl!” Kenzie gave Gabby a treat and let her have the little squeak toy. “That went well. Let’s do it again. This time, you run and hide.”
Conrad played with Gabby, then he took some treats and the toy and bolted for the next pine tree, crouching down behind it.
“Go find!” Kenzie commanded.
Conrad peeked through the branches to see the little ball of fluff bounding his way. Halfway there, Gabby sat on the grass. Remembering what Kenzie had done, he gave the squeak toy a squeeze. Gabby jumped to her feet again and ran toward him, rounding the tree and hopping into his arms.
“Good girl! What a smart doggy!” He gave her a treat then squeaked the toy again before letting her have it.
Kenzie stood over them, watching, arms crossed. “You’re a pro.”
“How often should we do this?” He chuckled at the sight of Gabby tumbling through the grass with the squeak toy in her jaws.
“Every couple of days is good enough, but it shouldn’t always be the two of us. We don’t want to train her to track only us. We need her to get used to following scent trails, so that means using different people.”
That made sense. “How do I do that?”
“Give someone a call, meet them somewhere, and tell them what to do. She needs to get used to different distractions and surfaces, so it would be great if you could use a variety of locations—here, your yard, a trail in the mountains, your driveway. Different surfaces interact differently to scent and feel different to her paws.”
This was a little more responsibility than Conrad had expected. Then again, what the hell else was he doing? Nothing.
Kenzie seemed to study him. “Am I overwhelming you?”
Hedidfeel a little overwhelmed, but he couldn’t admit that. “I’ve got this.”
“Let’s do a couple more.”
Kenzie ran and hid behind a nearby bench, which forced Gabby to run through the sandbox. The puppy stopped to sniff, apparently intrigued by the texture of the sand, but a few squeaks from her favorite toy got her back on task.
Then it was Conrad’s turn to hide. He crouched down behind a garbage can some distance down the sidewalk, his heart melting at the sight of Gabby bounding toward him, tongue out, ears flopping. “Good girl!”
He gave her a treat, let her have the toy.
She played a bit, shaking the toy furiously, then walked off into the grass and plopped down, dropping the toy near her front paws.
“I think she’s all tired out.” Kenzie knelt down beside Gabby. “She still little enough that she can only work for a short time before she needs a nap.”
