Thank you all for the suggestions you left in the comments regarding how to handle the situation with the dogs (mostly Sampson) and the new puppy.  Besides asking for your thoughts, I reached out to a fellow blogger experienced in fostering and introducing new dogs.  I will write more about this in my Follow-Up Friday post, but I will tell you we are managing with crates and gates. 🙂

Back before Delilah joined our pack, Hubby, Sampson and I hiked together every weekend.  One of our favorite spots was the local reservoir.  You may remember I posted some beautiful foliage pictures from it back in October.

 

To take the dog’s minds off the puppy invading their territory, Hubby and I decided to take them to the reservoir as there are some really nice hiking trails over there.

I had Delilah on the long leash to start, as the reservoir is bordered on the front side by a very busy road.  There are also some houses along one side and I wanted to make sure we were past a trouble spot before I turned her loose.

Delilah hadn’t been down to this spot in years so she was pulling me like crazy.  Once we reached the spot where we had to cross a stream I knew it was time to let her off.

 

The pond was off to our left and it was protected by some downed trees and some shrubs, I didn’t think she could manage to get in although as soon as she SAW the pond she did try.  Hubby and I kept walking though and called her to us and she came a running.

Back when it was just the three of us, I managed to snag one of my favorite pictures of Sampson.  He had run ahead of us on the trail and when we rounded the corner, there he was.

 

We kept our eyes peeled for the rock and thought we’d stage a little reenactment.

 

There was a tree that had fallen across the path, it had two branches that were about 1 1/2 to 2 feet high and about 3 to 5 feet apart.

The dogs were running ahead and my jaw dropped as Delilah cleared the tree.  Notice that Sampson jumps, landing between the two branches but Delilah doesn’t.

We hiked in about twenty minutes or so before turning around.

The dogs were having a blast, at one point they found a small puddle and got their zoomies on, so they were both muddy.

Delilah was off-leash for almost the entire walk, she ran back and was treated so often, that I ran out of treats.

I was leery about the pond on the way out, I knew she wanted in, so as soon as it came into my sight, I leashed her up.  Truthfully she probably could have stayed off-leash for a couple of minutes longer, but I wanted to err on the side of caution.

I forgot about crossing the stream though, as soon as I unclipped her….she found her way into the pond

She’s a Lab, through and through.

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