Finnegan’s Great Adventures

In March ’24 we adopted Finn from Beagle Freedom Project (BFP). Just a month prior BFP had done the impossible - they shut down an animal testing lab and liberated all 200’ish cats and dogs that were being used as test subjects on that once horrific property. Some of the dogs from that lab were as old as eleven, Finn was just over two. Each animal had a number and the numbers were in the 6,000+ yet there were only just shy of 200 animals on site. Sure, some had passed of old age, but for those who don’t know about animal testing I encourage you to google a term called LD50, in the context of animal testing. I encourage you to learn about animal testing in general.

About two months after adopting Finn, and him realizing there was a big beautiful world beyond our one acre property he began digging out of our fenced yard and into our neighbor’s property. He wears a GPS tracking collar and I’m good friends with my neighbor so it wasn’t super concerning as I could easily track him down within a few minutes. But as time went on he became more brave and it started happening with more frequency. He also started venturing further into the 80 acres of forested land behind our house and this is where things began to get a little unnerving.

Finn is a hound, a scent hound to be precise, and when he’s picked up a scent he is laser-focused on said scent. When he’s on a scent he has zero concept of what’s around him and what lurks in those 80 acres and the surrounding mountains behind our property. We regularly hear coyotes, neighbors have caught bobcats and even cougars on outdoor cameras, and we’ve had bear scat on our property. We live in the country and we love it but Finn, still learning how to “dog”, and not really having a clue about his surroundings when he’s on a scent, doesn’t stand a chance out in the forest all alone.

The last time he went on an adventure I chased him around the woods for nearly two hours, at dusk, through thick vegetation, watching him repeatedly look me dead in the eye, turn and head in the opposite direction. It took four people to finally corner him into some blackberry bushes with headlights pointed right at him for him to break his scent for me to finally be able to get a slip lead around him.

Enough was enough. It was time for “the talk”.

I hadn’t wanted to talk to Finn about it being scary in the woods behind our house. I didn’t want him to ever feel scared again. His life before he came here was nothing but fear and terror, and I wanted the rest of his life to be love and joy. But I couldn’t risk his life any longer, I had to tell him what was out there and I had to be real about it.

I started the conversation telling him how much I love him - it was a mutual love fest. These are the best conversations and I get to have these types of talks with my own dogs pretty regularly. Then we talked about his food- I asked him if he likes his food (we cook for them) - he showed me him licking his lips so I took that as a “YES”, he likes his food. Yay!

Then I got to the heart of the matter. I told him how important it is to stay in the yard. I described in great detail, the big predators out there; coyotes, bobcats, cougars, bears. I showed him their claws, their teeth, their fur. How they hunted and how fast they could run. He was convinced he could outrun them, even FIGHT them. He is a stubborn and cocky little dude! We went back and forth with this for several minutes - it was like arguing with a defiant toddler - until I finally told them that these predators are so big and so skilled they could kill me and dad. That seemed to get through to him and he reluctantly agreed to stay in the yard. 

It’s been a few weeks since Finn and I had this chat and I have to say he has been a different dog. It’s too early to say whether or not our chat will be a foolproof method to keep him from escaping under the fence but his recall is 100% better than it was before the talk. 

Finn’s insistence that he could outrun or fight a predator initially made me chuckle but after giving it some more thought I realized how perfectly these two sentiments fit his personality. Finn IS very fast. He and his siblings run around the backyard playing chase all the time and Finn is always the one being chased. He loves this game and he’s always out in front.  And though he is younger and smaller than all of our other dogs he has no problem taking them on if he feels he needs to defend himself (or me), and he will win every single time. He is tough! In hindsight, I can see why he would think he could outrun or win a fight against a predator. He does it all the time at home. 

Sometimes they do or say something that just seems cute or silly but there’s deeper meaning behind it if we stop to listen. .