Anna was the first and only Labrador I have ever had that was vertically challenged like her owner. She just didn’t know how to jump. I never could get her to jump very well. Every single dog I have ever owned or worked with one of the first things I have taught them was to “get in” and “get out” of the truck. When the temperatures were good they all have loved to ride in the back of the truck, just like me. I always teach them that when the tailgate is closed that are to stay in the truck, even if I go into the gas station of the grocery store on the way to a camping trip. Well Anna was a little more of a challenge. She would not jump up in the truck. I worked and worked even putting the truck in ditches and offering treats to get her to jump. No matter what I did she would not do it. Then I started to run and jump in the truck and she would follow me and eventually after a very long time she jumped in. Wow it was a task to teach this. I never thought jumping out would become an issue.
One day after I had got Anna to jump in the truck by backing in my ditch I took her up the road with my friend Glen to one of our favorite hiking trails. Glen was always helping me work with Anna. She pretty much thought he was the coolest. So when Glen and I got out of the truck we opened the tailgate and invited Anna to join us. She threw us one of those looks and planted her butt right on the bottom of the bed of the truck. She was protesting getting out. So I told her that I was not going to lift her anymore. I said “fine, you wont get out then we will just leave you here and when you get lonely you will eventually come running. So we walked away. As we got further and further I could see her just sitting there looking at me. I was getting angrier by the minute. This dog was more stubborn than I was. I met my match in this yellow Labrador. She wasn’t about to jump. We made it half way up the mountain before she finally decided to jump out and come follow us. That was the last time I had a problem getting her out of the truck.
Every now and then she would decide to not “get in” the truck though. I was having a hard time with this because I had to keep lifting her. Never in all my years had I had a dog that would not be excited to jump in and go with me. My previous lab Molly, and the one before that, Tippy, would jump in the truck from several hundred yards away. I would just say go get in the truck and they would run and jump in and wait for me to get there. They just wanted to go with me not matter what. Molly was funny. I would just get in the truck to move it and she would panic thinking I was going to leave her. I would get out and open the tailgate and pet her and tell her to settle down and she would jump in. She would get so upset if she thought I was leaving her. So naturally one time when Glen and I were up exploring the black ridge when Anna decided to not get in the truck I would pretend to leave her and she would panic and jump in, right? Nope!! This is not how it went. Yeah I thought for sure as I told her to get in the truck and she just looked at me and turned away is all I had to do was get in and act like I was leaving her and she would panic and come running, after all it worked great for molly. Ha did I get a lesson in humble pie this day. I told her “fine, I will just leave you here.” I got in the truck, Glen got it, we turned the key and to my shock and dismay Anna turned her nose at me and began to walk in the opposite direction with a proud high walk. She didn't even look back or act slightly nervous that I was going to leave her. I honked my horn and by now I was steaming mad. I put it in drive and yelled “your going to regret this, I really am going to leave you.” She kept walking away. Oh I was not going to let her win. So I put the truck in drive and away I sped. I knew as I was looking in that rearview mirror that she would turn and come running at any second. I sped around the corner and stopped. I waited for her to show up. She never came running like I expected. Now I had a choice to make. She had won. She beat me this time. I looked at Glen and finally I laughed. I admitted my defeat and said I guess I really have met my match this time. We flipped around and drove back up the road and there she was sitting and smiling at me on the side of the road. Part of me just knew that she knew she had won. She knew from this day forward she would have me wrapped around her paw for the rest of my life. We had very few disagreements from that day forward. She was a very special girl and I needed her She taught me so many lessons. This was just one of those lessons and this was when she was still less than a year old. Miss the old gal!!
