Yesterday morning I went out on some of my favourite roads to practice driving in the snow and I just happened to have my camera, and my wits with me. It’s a good thing I was concentrating on the road because you could say there is one lucky dog out there today. I was driving down the back country roads admiring the way the snow was piling up on the trees, and I passed by a couple of people walking down the middle of the road. I wasn’t going fast, but I slowed down even more as I edged past them, because they didn’t bother to move over… it’s a country road, you’re out walking, why move over for a approaching vehicle? Sigh.
Just past them were two border collies from a nearby farm that crossed the road ahead of me, I slowed down even more. I admired the way their black and white fur looked so stark against the snow, matching the dark, and bare tree branches. One of the dogs started to run along besides the truck, I am always worried when farm dogs do that, some have very little sense of the danger that vehicles can cause them.
Suddenly the dog cut right across in front of my truck, I slammed the brakes on. There was a crunching sound… [My husband told me later that it was the ABS brake system locking up.] I slid slightly, and came to a stop. My heart was pounding, and I looked in the rear view mirror, there was the couple still standing in the middle of the road now staring back at me and the dogs, they looked horrified.
But there on the driver’s side of the truck, safe and sound, was the untrained farm dog that just barely made it past my wheels because I had slowed down due to the cautious little voice in my head that said watch out.
It’s good to move over when a vehicle approaches you, it’s good to train your dogs to not run alongside of vehicles, and it’s good to slow down when you see someone else on road. One lucky dog.