Welcome Home, Duke!

We all love our dog, Duke. He is a terrific family dog--very gentle and sweet with the kids, very loving and loyal. Of course even good pets have their downfalls!

Duke's most frustrating habit is that he likes to dash out the front door and just take off. I have given up chasing him down by foot because he just will keep running, and I can't leave the kids on the street while I chase our dog through the neighborhood.

Every time Duke gets out, he always heads to the same spot and just hangs out sniffing the plants. I have found that it is easier to just hop in the van and drive over and pick him up--it takes much less time!

The Saturday before Thanksgiving we went to a friend's house to watch the BYU football game and left Duke outside in his dog run. When we got home about 4 1/2 hours later Ez went up to unlock the front door and up ran Duke out of nowhere! Earlier in the day we had the side gate open and never closed it all the way. Duke somehow figured out how to open his dog run gate (this is about the 4th time he has done that) and was in the back yard, but found and opportunity to go exploring, and so he took off!

We have no idea how far he wandered or how long he had been out wandering, but we were all extremely impressed that he found his way home. Duke was very calm and just layed down the entire evening. I think he was glad to be home.