Self-help

Today Dillon dug out of the yard. So what else is new? He has done this so many times that I no longer frantically run out the door with the leash to find him.  I just calmly take a couple looks down both ends of the street and if I don't see him I get in the car and cruise around until I find him.  I even know where to look for him because he predictably ends up in the same places. Often it's the yard at the house across the street, and sometimes it's the backyard of a house 5 or 6 houses down behind the maple tree in the far right corner of the yard.  Their gate is always open so I usually sneak in to their yard and quietly escort my JRT back home.   I've never seen anyone at home, so I have wondered if anyone even live there as they don't keep their yard up.  Today, I heard small children laughing so I thought it best not to go back there.  I thought that might be a little suspicious.  As I started driving back home my eye caught a white streak at the north end of the block.  I drove carefully up the road until I witnessed one of Dillon's most random moments.  There he was walking up the sidewalk perfectly in step with a lady who was walking her two small dogs.  I actually thought she had him on a leash. I figured she found him and hooked him up and was taking him with her until she could get to a phone to call the phone number on his tags.  No, instead it was Dillon helping himself to a dog walk on a crisp but sunny afternoon.  I am still bewildered as to why he seemed so tame walking with strange dogs without attacking them like he does when he's on a leash held by this owner.  Hmm. Maybe Cesar Milan is right. It's not the dog who needs trained, it's the owner.