“Smart Dog!”, comments the park employee from the rolled down window of his official vehicle. Our soft trail crosses the access road at 90 degrees and I was on the other side looking back for dawg lagging behind when I spotted the ranger. I thought we were busted. It was not a question of the pet’s safety, the truck was moving quite slowly probably deciding how my predicament would play out. Having awareness of the local animal leash law it was show time for us. Dawg would either make us both look good, else we were setting ourselves up for a warning lecture. It would not have been too swift for him to scamper across the roadway to join me. I faced him and gave a single wait voice command (which he knows) and he held short at the edge. Whew! I backtracked to rejoin him as he waited obediently and Mr. Ranger rolled on passed. I was relieved to hear ‘smart’ as opposed to the ‘leash’ word earful. Good dog!