a new take on chasing a dog

In which the English cleric and wit Sydney Smith finds himself at Sir Edwin Landseer's studio chasing down a dog in the oddest way...

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Sydney Smith was once visiting the Landseer studio, and his eye chanced to light on the picture of a very peculiar-looking dog.
“Yes, it's a queer picture of a queer dog. The drawing is bad enough, and never pleased me!” And Landseer picked up the picture and gave it a toss out of the window. “You may have it if you care to go get it,” he carelessly remarked to the visitor. Smith made haste to run downstairs and out of the house to secure his prize. He found it lodged in the branches of a tree.
In telling the tale years afterward, Smith remarked that, whereas many men had climbed trees to evade dogs, yet he alone of all men had once climbed a tree to secure one.

-- from Hubbard, Elbert, 1856-1915. Little Journeys to the Homes of Eminent Painters. Miriam ed East Aurora, N.Y.: The Roycrofters, 1911-12. p, 123-4.