Milly ran off for the first time today
 

So, here's the story:

Milly is just over a year old now, and she has always been one of those "velcro" puppies, never wanting to leave my side. When she's off-leash I have always been 110% certain that she would never refuse a recall, and would never run away. And she never did. Until yesterday.

We were out walking in a local nature reserve, before sunset, but at around 9pm. It's usually a great experience for her, with horses, ducks, geese, swans and rabbits being frequently encountered. She doesn't pay much attention to them anymore and prefers sniffing the grass, but will occasionally go to investigate, and if she gets too close, a quick command will bring her away from them.

As we were walking through one of the woodland trails, 3 children on bikes suddenly appeared coming over a little dip in the trail. At high speed. They weren't bad kids, or anything like that, and as soon as they saw us, they slammed on the brakes, but by the time they had stopped, Milly had already dashed past me and disappeared, trying to get away.
Of course I immediately turned my back on the boys and rushed off to look for her, calling her name. It was the worst feeling of dread I have ever had...

Thankfully, after a few minutes of calling and retracing my steps, she popped her head out from behind a bush, but didn't make a move towards me, she just cowered there giving me her puppy eyes, whining until I reached the spot where she was hiding. I had to carry her home, because she just wouldn't budge from that spot, and she refused to walk, period.

I really hope this bad experience doesn't affect her in the future, she's never really been the bravest of souls and I worry that incidents like this will make her even more nervous :(

Poor Milly. She must have been terrified by these big things coming at her. I am happy that she hid rather than continued running. Hopefully she'll snap back and not be afraid to go for a walk.

Yep, I don't even want to think about the alternative to her running off. I'm quite shocked really that anyone would cycle on such narrow paths inside a National Trust area... it's normally regulated pretty strictly and there's often a man walking looking for horse riders and cyclists to ask them to leave, so it's always previously been a really safe place to let her explore.

I'll try her out today and see how she goes. I really hope that area isn't spoiled for her permanently cause there just aren't very many good, safe places for a dog to run around near here during the summer months (the nearby beach is off limits to dogs during summer and it's a good drive to a beach she can run around on)

Maybe I'm just panicking over nothing and she will spring back :) here's hoping!

I am so glad that you were able to find Milly. Must have been terrifying. Just learned the hard way a few days ago to never, ever trust any of my doggies off leash. Chased my daughter's Pommie back and forth down 4 blocks the other day in 101 degree heat and in bare feet (had to kick off my mule sneakers so I could run). Only caught her because she stopped to sniff the smells at someone's left-over garage sale. Needless to say I was pretty emotional once I caught her.