Dirty dogs

     This morning, hubby was feeling particularly poorly so I turned the pups outside to play away from us in the house.  After about 30 minutes, they were nowhere to be seen, would not come when called and though we live on 30 acres with nothing but farmland around us, we are only 4/10 of a mile off of the road up to Mountain Lake Hotel,, so I began to worry about them.
     My concern increased when after about 15 more minutes, they still had not appeared, nor came when called.  On went the jacket and sneakers to set out looking for them.  The plan was to go look down the bull path to the sinkhole as they often come out of the woods from that direction, then if not there, to get in the car and go check the local roads.
     Fortunately, and unfortunately, I found them, in the sinkhole, Shadow running back and forth through the muddy creek, Ranger laying like a fat sow in the mud beside the creek.  Once caught in the act, Shadow came up the hill at a trot, muddy from the bottom of her paws to the tip of her ears and wanted to launch herself on me.  After finding her leash, I led her to the yard hydrant and hooked up the hose to wash her down.  Hubby walked to the bottom of the hill and retrieved the slow moving hulk of a mastiff to slowly follow him.  While  he was bringing the beast up the hill, I tried to hose down the shepherd.  She danced and jerked on the leash like a puppet on a string, not at all in favor of the cleaning, so I brought her in and tried to bath her in the tub.  She was in no more favor of that and tried to bolt from the tub, spinning and tugging at the leash like a dervish.  Once semi cleaned and not willing to be dried, she was put back outside on a tie down, also not to her favor.
     In the meantime, Ranger was dancing and trying to eat the water coming from the hose, thinking it was all a big game and hubby enjoying playing with him.
     Shadow has not been allowed outside for the remainder of the day or evening without being tied out on a long chain.  She is not pleased with that and I am not pleased with her. It may be a while before she is given free run outside while Ranger is also outside.  We may have to invest in invisible fence or work more on training them as to where they are allowed and to come consistently when called.  If we could figure out how to keep Ferdinand the neighbor's bull from coming up the path, it would probably keep the dogs from going down it, but so far that has been a failure.