Escape!

Tonight we went back to Manners class. Colin did better about not barking. He barked some but he didn't go crazy and he could focus on what we were wanting him to do most of the time. We worked on attention exercises. We rehearsed Sit. We got him to start doing Down. We did a little Come on leash. We started doing some simple Touch.

After class we picked up dinner at Chick-fil-A and went to Staples to do a return. We decided to just sit in the car & eat then take the dogs for a walk. We parked on the far side of the lot and rolled the windows down to catch as much breeze as possible. We were in the Mazda and the dogs were loose in the back seat because we had to drop the van off for repair (normally we have the dogs in crates in the van). We were eating and talking and the dogs were resting in the back seat. Suddenly we noticed a dark Cairn trotting across the lot about 75 feet from the car. I was about to say, "Wow - there's a Carin" when Karen said, "That looks like Colin! We looked in the back seat and Colin was gone! Karen opened the door, got out and called Colin and he came running right over to her. We couldn't believe the he just jumped out without making a sound. The back windows in that car don't roll all the way down - there is just a V at the back where the glass rolls down to the top of the door. We had talked about being careful - not rolling the windows down more than a few inches when driving, etc. but we had not clue that Colin would or could jump out unnoticed while we were just sitting a few feet from him. We have no clue how long he was out. Luckily the lot is fenced on most sides and we were away from most of the other cars and traffic but it was quite a scare!