by D. L. Keur
Darby sent one of the big males at Jessica, and, armed with a gun shooting blanks, she aimed and fired, the dog skittering sideways just before she pulled the trigger, then launching himself airborne and nailing her between the wrist and elbow as he hit her full force, knocking her to the ground, the gun loosed from her grip.
Darby called the dog off, then sent a different one at John, who swung at the animal with a club made of a foam covered piece of plastic plumbing pipe. The animal timed it and took him down, the dog’s momentum at impact again knocking the weapon loose.
Next came Oli, armed with a rubber knife. A bit trickier, Darby sent a female who feinted, left, then right, caught the right angle and launched herself into Oli, center mass, and, twisting, snapped her jaws around his wrist and wrenched. “Ow!” he bellowed going down, but he hung on to the knife, despite the dog’s leverage. He was making it hard for her.
The dog continued to work Oli until, finally, Oli lost the fight and the knife dropped from his hand. Even then, the dog didn’t stop until she was sure he’d given up, and Oli still wasn’t letting her off easy. Finally, though, Oli raised his arms over his head, turned on his stomach, and covered his head. That was the cue, and Darby hollered the ‘out’ command of “Aus!”
Instantly, the big sable bitch let go and downed, watching her target.
Darby recalled her, and, with a single glance back, she started to obey. Then, of a sudden, she went over to the knife, picked it up in her mouth, and took it with her back to Darby.
“Oh, ganz braves Mädchen!” Jessie cried. “Awesome dog! We’re keeping her, for sure. You are not selling that dog!”
Darby grinned. “That’s Anderson Working Dogs,” he crowed, giving the dog’s ruff a vigorous rub, then reached into his pocket for a real meat treat for her. “Guter Hund!” he repeated over and over.
“I think that’s enough for today,” Oli called. “I’m now the walking wounded. She managed to get through the suit. Smart, powerful and determined. I’m with Jessie. We keep her.”
Jessie laughed. “I think you wore me out, too, for sure, Granddad.”
John just was leaned over, breathing hard. He raised a hand and gave a half-hearted wave. Then, he stood up and, taking off his helmet, grinned. “I actually think I’m not getting quite so freaked out. In fact, sometimes, especially with that one big gal, it started to be kind of …maybe fun.”
“That’s the spirit,” Darby said. “So, let’s do this again, say, on the overmorrow? Enough time to recover?”
“I want day after the day after tomorrow,” Jessie said.
“Day after the overmorrow, then,” Darby said, nodding.
John whispered over to her, “What’s an ‘overmorrow’?”
Jessie grinned. “It’s an old time word for the day after tomorrow. As in ‘over’ and ‘tomorrow’.”
“Oh. Okay. Got it.” Then, “That’s a cool word. Going to have to Google® it, maybe start using it.”
“Hey, Jessica Marie,” Darby called. “I think there’s somebody here to see you.”
“Oh?” She pulled off her head protection and ran fingers through her sweaty hair, looked toward the barns, but saw no one.
Her granddad jabbed a finger left, and Jessie spied him. It was Sheriff Reid, and, hat in hand, he was staring their way. He was also white in the face. He looked like he’d seen a ghost. What he’d seen, though, was training that few got to witness. “How long has he been there, Granddad?”
“Almost since we started. Thought I’d give him an eyeful and maybe even an education. It pays to earn the respect of them who doubt, but wear the badge,” he said, turning toward the man. He said it loud enough that he was sure to be heard.
*
That he was invited in surprised him. That he was offered coffee, tea, iced tea, orange juice, lemonade, a soda, or sparkling water doubly surprised him. He accepted coffee and took it black, because he didn’t want to push his luck asking for some cream.
“That’s some training,” Reid said as Jessie brought him in a cup …with cream in it. How’d she know that? Then he remembered he’d had coffee when they eaten lunch at The Hereford, and the words of her old boss came back—attention to details. Around the big living room, the Andersons and some stranger all watched him.
Jessica Anderson dropped to the floor, cross-legged, her dogs parking themselves around her. The act made Reid uncomfortable, but it seemed her preference. Still, his body twitched to get up and stand so that she could sit …except that was stupid, because there were plenty of other chairs around the big room she could use. And he realized that, maybe, she did it on purpose …to make him uncomfortable. She’d done it on his first trip out here. She’d done it a few days ago in his office.
Then he thought again. The dogs! That was it! She did it to be surrounded by her dogs and wasn’t averse to it elsewhere, even without them. Weird. As he thought it, all of the animals’ eyes shifted to him, and a chill crawled up his arms, then down his back.
“Is checking out our training methods what brings you out here, Sheriff?” Darby asked him.
“No,” Landon said. And stuck between what he considered ludicrous and a little bit frightening, he found himself stifling a laugh. The Andersons really had it out for him, it seemed, Darby especially. The man was doing his best to make him squirm, and was somewhat succeeding, to boot, he had to admit.
Landon took a breath and barreled in. “Nelson Remmers has agreed to test Miss Anderson and waived all fees.”
“Oh?”
“He’s supposed to give you a call.”
“Okay. When and where is this all supposed to happen?”
“Should be within the next few days, and I’m going to observe to make sure it not only happens, but that it’s fair.”
Oli Anderson chuckled, and Reid wondered what was so funny.
“Do you think that you’d know if it was?” Darby asked.
Getting real uncomfortable, now, Reid recognized that he was being scoffed at. Taking a breath, his brain presented the save. “That’s why I’m here,” he said. “I want you to accompany Miss Anderson and me and make sure it is.”
The room grew still. Jessica Anderson’s dogs—all seven of them—stood up and stared at him. Getting bolder, he stared back. The big male shepherd—the one Reid really admired—stepped forward, then boldly walked up to him and stood there, real close, watching him. Then, as if having made some judgment—hopefully a good one, he prayed—the big animal turned around and padded back over to his mistress and lay down. The rest of the dogs also lay down.
The entire Anderson clan and the young man Reid didn’t know seemed riveted by the dog’s actions. As soon as the animal had returned to his mistress, all their eyes went to Reid, and those eyes had changed. It was like they had—dare he think it?—a new respect for him, and, to Reid, it felt palpable.
Darby broke the moment. “We can do that,” he said. “Thanks for the warning. And thanks for working on this so fast.”
His tone of voice has changed. Strange people—sticklers, prickly, and homey, all rolled into one.
Landon got up. “Thanks for bringing the problem to my attention. I’ve got to get back, so I’ll see myself out.”
“You passed the test, you know,” Oli said quietly.
Reid shifted his eyes to the man. Braving it, he asked, “The dog?”
“Yeah.”
Bolder, now: “I take it that’s a good thing.”
Oli Anderson nodded shortly, a faint smile coming to his thin lips. “Yeah.”
***
28 – Pack Test
It was a whim—just a whim—but Jessie had seen signs of it during her morning runs, in their group practice, and even in the play yard. Now, she wanted to test the question, and, this morning, the wind was blowing to her favor. To do the test, though, she had to enlist her family and John.
“All day?” her granddad asked.
“Maybe just four hours, but it could take longer. I need to ma
ke it hard and real, and the wind is just right this morning.”
Darby glanced at her dad. “This will set us back on prepping the dogs we’ll be shipping out next week.”
Oli nodded, then shook his head. “Jessie helps us training and prepping them, relegating her own business to her spare time. We can do this.”
Darby nodded. “It’s just the timing.”
“I’m sorry,” Jessie put in, “but, if I’m right, this might help all of us. I think I’ve discovered something about pack learning.”
Darby frowned and pursed his lips. “Now you’ve got my curiosity stirred,” he said.
“Let’s do this,” her dad said, and her grandfather nodded. “John?” Oli hollered. “Come help.”
“You’ll need the ATVs,” Jessie warned, and both her dad and her granddad gave her a curious look. She grinned, then explained.
*
After locking up the dogs in her room with chew treats, she gave Darby and her dad time to get themselves ‘lost’ and well hidden—about twenty minutes, she figured. After they took off, she set up some cameras on tripods, then helped John climb up on top of the barn roof, handing up the video camera. Done, she rechecked the app on her phone to make sure she was receiving signal from her dad and granddad. If she’d had her drones, this would have been a lot easier, but she didn’t. So she’d be lucky to catch even a small part of the trial. Still, it should be enough …she hoped.
A text message from her dad and, ten minutes later, a shrill whistle coming though her phone speakers from her granddad, indicated they were ready. Jessie texted back and ran to get her dogs.
“Ready, John?” she called, coming back.
He gave her a wave.
Sitting down, her pals around her, she put down two bags, each containing a dirty sock, one from Darby, one from her dad. She asked them each to sniff, giving the sign for ‘two’, then ‘find’, reinforcing that with, “Such”—the German—then “Seek” and “Find it.”
The dogs watched her. Then, looking about, Queenie began to cast. The others just stood and sniffed air, their heads moving one direction, then another. After awhile, maybe a couple of minutes, the Shepherds and Milo began to cast, too. As they did, Oso and Mitch both sat, put their snouts up as high as possible, and sniffed the air some more. Then, they looked back at her, their eyes questioning.
“Such. Seek. Find it,” she encouraged.
Both got up to follow the other dogs which were wandering about.
So far, so good. They can’t find a trail. Jessica had done that on purpose. She didn’t want this easy.
Predictably, the dogs came back to her after about twenty minutes of milling. They sat down, staring at her. “Such. Seek. Find it. Find them,” she said, giving them the hand signals as well. “Two,” she repeated, signing one and one with each hand simultaneously, then touched the scent bags.
The dogs looked at one another. Oso gave a big sigh, stood, then touching a nose to Mitch, gave a little yip.
Jessie held her breath.
Mitch approached Milo, touched noses, then Acer, then all the rest in turn. With a last glance at Jessie, he then trotted off to follow Oso.
Oso headed to the edge of the surrounding woods, stopped, stuck his head up, sniffed, then disappeared. Mitch stopped where Oso had and sat for a moment, also sniffing the air, then turned to the left and headed into the woods in that direction.
Within five minutes, Mitch came back and crossed the field going the opposite way. Again, he disappeared into the woods. Five minutes later, he came back, returned to where he and Oso had both originally started and downed. The rest of the pack just stayed put, watching the whole while.
Twenty minutes later, Oso reappeared. He came bounding out of the woods, stopped suddenly and, bouncing on his front legs, he gave out a series of yips. Mitch raised his snout and barked once.
The pack immediately came alive, bounding toward the two of them. Upon reaching Oso and Mitch, they milled about, Oso touching noses, Mitch, too, and then all of them disappeared, fanning out into the woods, trotting out in slightly different vectors from one another.
“Did you catch that, John?”
“Sure did,” he called down. “I can still see them, so I’m still recording.”
“Good.”
Jessie felt her heart pound. She could barely contain her excitement. She felt tears spring to her eyes. Oh, my God. What if it’s really happening? What if it’s true?
“I’ve lost them,” John said. “I’m turning the camera off till you give me some sign I should start recording again.”
“Okay! Thanks.”
The wait was excruciating. On her app, she could see the dots of the dogs. She could also see the dots indicating the positions of her dad and granddad. They were only about a half mile distant from one another, but a good mile-and-a-half from the barn and downwind from the dog’s starting point. If the dogs could find them without a scent trail, it would be utterly amazing.
Purposely, Jessie had both her dad and granddad ride out most of the way on their ATVs, keeping downwind of the dogs. That meant there was very little air or ground scent until the dogs could stumble upon it or the ATVs. From there it would be easy for them. But, until they found scent or the ATVs, it would be nigh on impossible because the wind was against them. Air scent was blowing the other way.
Something was happening, though. She heard it—yips, but no barks. There was a series of them, and the dots on her phone suddenly started to converge. What are they doing?
And then she knew. “Oh, my God.” They’d found the ATVs!
The dots arranged themselves, then split into two groups. One dot—Oso’s—stayed where they had converged.
Jessie watched one group, specifically Acer, Britta, and Queenie, go one way—toward her dad’s position, Queenie leading. The other group—Milo, Mitch, and Sumi, went almost in the opposite direction—toward her granddad’s dot—Sumi leading. In moments, each group converged respectively upon her dad’s and her granddad’s positions. “We’ve been made,” came her dad’s voice through the speakers on her phone. It had taken the dogs just over an hour to do the job. “You can come down, John,” Jessie called. “They’ve done it. They’ll be coming back with Dad and Granddad.”
“Cool! Now, come hold the ladder so I can get down.”
“Coming.”
*
“That was the weirdest thing,” Darby said over lunch. “It was like they were on a mission. Had myself up on one of the big boulders out there, and I was watching through my binoculars as they came in, making a beeline for the ATVs. That Elkhound, he was leading, and he just plopped himself down, looking quite pleased with himself. The rest milled around, then sat themselves down as that red setter dog you call Queenie….”
Darby pointed to her.
“She cast in one direction, toward me, then swapped ends, and cast around and headed toward the way Oli had gone. Then she bounced herself back to the group, and they split up, the red setter dog and two of the GSDs heading toward Oli and the rest making for me.”
Darby shook his head. “I tell you, I have never seen the likes. Those dogs are…. I don’t know what to think. And I don’t know about Oli, but, when they came up to me, it was like they were laughing and had this ‘gotcha’ attitude. I swear.”
“It felt like that, all right,” her dad put in. “If I didn’t know better, I’d say witchery, Jessie, my Jessie. And, coming back, they were bounding around us like we were trophies.”
Jessie laughed. “You were. They ‘owned’ you, at that point, and knew it. …Plus, I think they knew, from the start, that this was a test, not real.”
“What impressed me,” John said, “was seeing them plan what to do when they couldn’t find a scent track. It’s as if they each have their own job and know that job. They knew that the air scent dogs…. Is it Mitch and Oso?” he asked, directing his gaze to Jessie.
She nodded.
“They knew somehow that the best
plan was for the air scent dogs to take over. And, even then, the strongest air scenter was in charge, the second strongest, the Malinois pup, doing reconnaissance to rule out the other directions.
“And how did they know not to head back toward the facilities?” John continued. “How did they know that? You purposely set it up so they were locked up in the house while your dad and Darby left, so they couldn’t have seen which way they went. And they were way outside any scent trail or exit sector.”
“I want to see that video,” Oli said.
“Now?” Jessie asked, startled.
“After we finish lunch.”
*
They used the big screen TV, plugging the camera into the slot on its side. Even Jessie’s grandmother watched. And, Jessie, seeing the dogs work from above, saw things she hadn’t guessed at from her vantage point on the ground. There was planning there. There was pack communication. There was strategy. “Oh, my wonder dogs,” she whispered. “It’s all true. They’re doing it.”
“I want to know more about this,” John said.
“I think we all do,” Oli said. “This is a heck of a breakthrough if we can reproduce it with other dogs. Some aspects of training would get a lot easier.”
“Solid gold, Jessica Marie,” Darby said.
***
29 – The Joke
Landon was working Duster on cutting a cow out from its herd when his phone vibrated in his pocket. “Whoa. Let her go,” he said, and the horse stopped, the cow making a dash back to the group of milling bovines.
Pulling his phone, he saw the name and shook his head. “You’ve got to be kidding!” He hit the green icon, though. “Hello.” Listened. Said, ‘Okay.’ Hung up.