Summer is winding down here in Missoula.

Orly and Dotty are practicing their berry-gathering skills: The transplanted raspberries (well, some of them) produced a minuscule late-summer crop. The girls gleefully discovered this bounty a few days ago and quickly demolished the handful of berries, mostly under-ripe. Patience and delayed gratification are not their strengths … Though persistence is. They check and recheck for new or missed berries several times a day. Several times an hour if I let them.

When not searching for berries — and the occasional fallen apple from the neighbors’ tree — Dotty is energetically pouncing on every floating leaf and fallen stick, which makes her play time in the yard, and even more so, our walks … interesting.

I’m trying hard to break her habit of zooming off after each moving object and, of course, coming to a jarring hard stop at the end of the leash. Turns out that many dog trainers’ insistence that when dogs self-correct like that they learn not to bolt on the leash is hilarious … and wholly false, at least in Dotty’s case.

She does love to carry things in her mouth on our walks, which may be a useful skill in her service dog work. Especially if she’s partnered with someone who loves sticks and candy wrappers. (Or maybe I need to work on broadening Dotty’s interests.)

As the trees turn, I look at all those leaves and wonder whether Dotty would settle for mall walking for a few weeks. My arms just can’t take it!

I take comfort from the memory that Orly went through a similar distracted phase, pouncing on leaves and taking off in every direction while on leash; it wasn’t even very long ago. And she’s now a wonderful walking companion.

As Dotty leaps and pounces and twirls through fall, I try to savor this phase — even as I wish for it to end.