Super Hero Holly Catches Lola by Katherine Peacock

Yaka, Lola, and Holly

When I lived in Boulder, CO, I had some very close friends named Ryan & Emily. They had a fancy for wolf-hybrids & had two of them. Yaka was the big male & Lola was the gangly long-legged female. She was skinny, high energy, & very submissive. At heart though, Lola was a wild animal. The best escape artist I’ve ever seen. Yaka, Lola, & Holly were the best of friends. They would run & wrestle for hours. But when it was time to leave the dog park, Lola would have been happier being left behind.

Lola also had a habit of escaping from the yard Jail Break style. She would dig, climb, do anything to get out. Ryan and Emily on several occasions had to call Boulder County Animal Control to help catch her, which usually ending up failing. Lola would run until she couldn’t run anymore. They spent long hours driving around looking for her, eventually finding her in the wee hours of the morning laying down somewhere.

Ryan made a comment half-jokingly half-seriously one evening that he wished he had tranquilizer darts for her.

The dog parks in Boulder are HUGE. Any time Ryan or Emily got close to Lola, she bolted. We always had to employ an army of Dog Park Diehards to surround her in hopes of capturing this crazy animal, but she always found a way to slip past the lines.

Enter super hero Holly. Once again she came to the rescue. One evening she stopped rough-housing with Yaka long enough to watch what we were trying to do. The herding instinct set in & she joined in the hunt.  Holly, being much faster than Lola, started chasing her down. When Holly got close enough she would nip at Lola’s flanks. Lola screeched to a halt & zipped in the other direction, but Lola could never shake Holly off her tail.

Holly would then go in for the “kill”, scruffing Lola and pinning her to the ground in an “I’m the leader of you” kind of way. Holly stood guard over her until Ryan or Emily could wrap their fingers around Lola’s collar.

Holly became the go to system for capturing Lola. When it was time to leave the park, I would give Holly a command. “Go get Lola.” It got to the point that when Lola saw Holly coming, she just laid down & waited for Holly’s arrival.

When Lola escaped from the yard, Ryan & Emily didn’t call animal control anymore. They called Holly. Arriving at their house, I would let Holly off the leash & we followed her in the direction that Lola dashed off to. Finding Lola, Holly would wrestle her to the ground & wait for our arrival.

I think this system worked for us because Holly & Lola knew each other. They were friends & role-played the predator/pray, dominate/submissive game all the time. They practiced this scenario frequently and unknowingly. I know Ryan & Emily were thankful. Holly saved them from the frustration of being unable to catch their wild at heart dog.