When we play in our front yard, we are out there as a whole family, the dogs, my hubby and I and our 2 kids. We have been doing this with all of our dogs for over 5 years. Otis has never chased anything past the ditch on our side and if it wasn't for me running after Luna our schnauzer.yorkie mix( she was chasing a squirrel), he probably wouldn't have gotten hit. We made it over to the other side of the road, I picked Luna up, and saw 1 car in the bottom of our street, 1+ blocks away. I grabbed Otis by his collar and before I knew what happened he pulled loose and started running back across the street to go home. The car was now about 25yards away, so I stepped into the street and started waving my hands and scream for him to slow down..he didn't and hit Otis with his frontbumper. Otis went flying into the air and landed on the street, but by this time the car was over him and before I even had a chance to see the licenseplate, the car drove off…he never even stopped, but the sound was so loud, my neighbours came out wondering what that was..meanwhile Otis is now running B-500 style through our yard frantically looking for our door, but he kept on missing it in his hysteria, poor dog. He finally saw my daughter by the back gate leading into our back yard, and there he kept on running b-500 going balistic. I had to physically pick him up, for him to calm down. All this happened so fast yet so slow like in slow motion, surreal, all while I was screaming at the top of my lungs..."you ran over my dog you ---", "you just hit a living creature.."..maybe it is no wonder the guy didn't stop, I probably looked like I had murder in my eyes..I couldn't believe it. He didn't stop when clearly his car bumped something and he saw me out there with one dog in my arms and the other, just a few seconds before, I had in my hands..? Like I said we do this every day (unless the weather is bad) and have for years, with Otis we have only done it since we got him about a month and a half ago. My poor daughter is blaming herself since it was her dog that ran after the squirrel, but needless to say nowone is to blame except maybe me..for taking it for granted...the things we do..it was a quiet saturday afternoon, in blistering 98 degree heat, no one was out, except us and that one silver Ford Taurus. Now we won't play outside anymore..in our backyard yes, but it is smaller, and more things in the way for Otis to really gun it, but that is OK.
Today Otis had a good day, he was checked out by our vet and he passed with flying colors. His obedience training is a whole other story..lets just say we need to work on it..LOL