Me and Jagger dog were doing our usual trail ride last night. Background, over the last 3 years, me and Jagger have been trail riding mid week during cool weather. We've never had an incident doing this. The worst thing thats happened thus far was once, when his front pads peeled off during the early part of his trail conditioning. Ever since that ride, I always keep my descending speed capped at a moderate gallop for him. The slate rock up in the Santa Monica hills arent kind to dog pads at full sprint. Another situation was when he tried to hump another dog on the trail. It wasnt his fault. The bitch was asking for it.
But seriously, last night was the first time that had my heart jump. We were slowly climbing on a fire road when another rider passes to our left at high speed. No problem, Jagger's used to it. He knows what to do. Or so I thought.
I am close to the peak and I notice Jagger's not beside me. I look around, he's no where. I look further down the mountain and I see Jagger giving chase to the descending cyclist at full bore. The guy's hauling ass and my dogs keeping up right behind him. That's not normal? He never chases other people. Not even other dogs? WTF?
I start shouting his name, JAGGER! JAGGER! He's not even looking. 1/16th mile, I'm thinking, he's gonna stop. 1/8th mile, he's not stopping. I turn around and dive down the mountain. I can intermittently see him running like crazy. I'm gonna lose him. He's gonna get lost. Oh, lord!
It takes about 10 minutes before I find Jagger again. I totally lost sight of him through 2 hill climbs and 2 descents. A horrifyingly long time not knowing if he'd headed into the brush. I'm asking myself, what went wrong?
Rounding a corner was when I first caught sight of him again. The other rider is long gone. He's laying down trail side like he's dead. Oh, god! When he hears my tires pub-pub sound as it crushes gravel underneath, he lifts his head and looks, he's alive! I dump my bike and kneel down beside him. He's hyperventilating, exhausted and his inner ears are warmer than I 'm comfortable with. I put my finger in his mouth and check if his gums are dry. Its wet, he's not overheating. I let him rest, letting him drink water off my cupped hand as I squeeze it out of my Camelbak. He's drinking normally.
After a while, he starts standing again, walking around and sniffing the vegetation. I coax him to get off the mountain, but he's down to a slow walk. Our 30 minute descent turns into more than an hour. We get out of the trail and I load him into the car. We get home and I do a full inspection. A thumb nail patch on his left paw is raw. He's dead tired and lethargic. My daugher hand feeds him dinner and puts him to sleep. The next morning, he's still only 75% of usual, but is getting better fast. Im putting Neosporin on his paw to prevent infection and I have him on some baby aspirin for pain relief. It looks like he's going to be fine.
End game analysis - what happened? Here's what I think. Me and Jagger are climbing to the peak, the other rider passes close by and Jagger confuses him for me in the low light. He chases the rider down the mountain thinking it's still me and pushes himself to exhaustion. Labrador Retrievers are known to retrieve as much as you require, with some accidental deaths reported. Freak incident? I don't know. He's not going out for a month until that paw heals and is strong enough for more trail riding. Next time, I'm also going to check on him each time we pass another rider going the opposite direction.
THE END
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