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| Me and my gorgeous boy |
We had a little bit of an
interesting experience with our Mr Cooper when we were down the coast in
Phillip Island in February and I just wanted to share it with you all. It was a
very good reminder that no matter how much we domesticate, love and trust our
dogs, it’s amazing how a dogs natural instincts can still take over.
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| Having fun in Phillip Island |
The house we stay at in
Phillip Island has a massive garden and Cooper absolutely loves it. He looks
like a lion roaming around his jungle when we are there. He collects sticks and
can entertain himself for hours at a time. One slight issue we have up there
though is an abundance of wild rabbits. Cooper has developed a little
obsession over them and as much as we've tried to to teach him not to, he LOVES
chasing them! It’s his natural instinct. You see Golden Retrievers were
originally bread as hunting dogs who would collect ducks after they had been
shot.
One night we were taking
Cooper out to go to the toilet before bed and as we opened the door, there were
about 4 bunnies sitting in the back yard - Coop went charging. His natural
instinct completely took over and to our shock he actually caught one of the
bunnies!!! All we heard was the little bunny squeal and jase ran over and
grabbed Cooper and the bunny got away. Jase literally had to pick him up and
carry him inside (he weighs 32kg).
When we got Coop inside his
adrenaline was pumping so hard and he was revved up like we'd never seen before. It took him over an hour of pacing up down wanting to go back outside
until finally he calmed down. His natural instinct to hunt was in full flight!!
It was definitely a strange
feeling seeing your beloved pet in a state like that. Coop honestly does not
have a mean bone in his body and to this day we've never seen the slightest
hint of aggression EVER! However it does provide us with a strong
reminder that no matter how much we try and domesticate and humanise our dogs,
they do have strong natural instincts that can take over.
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| Coop loving life in Phillip Island |
We have been back to Phillip Island since and Cooper still continues to chase the bunnies – although thankfully, he hasn’t caught another one! Maybe the bunnies have learnt how to out smart our pooch!
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| Coop at the beach in Phillip Island |
