Heart Like a Dog

The Good, the Bad, and the Oh My God of living with dogs!

Off-Roading

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Lately when I go to walk the dogs on Monday or Wednesday, I head over to the second entrance to avoid the commotion of the LaCrosse team arriving at our regular entrance.  Last night I was bit later than normal and thought maybe most of the people had already arrived.  I was wrong.

I turned around and headed over to the other entrance.  This takes about 5 minutes since we need to go down one hill and up another.  As I pulled up to the second entrance I realized there was already a car there and the person inside had a dog.

The woman was fussing about in her car doing what I don’t know, but her music was blaring and I could see a small Cocker Spaniel type dog sitting on her lap. I waited a minute or so and got frustrated with her just sitting there, so I said too bad; we’re going to back to our entrance and we’ll deal with LaCrosse!

I basically wasted about 15 minutes trying to figure out the best way to get to our trails.

There was one young boy getting dropped off as we entered the park, I could see him focused on the dogs and walking cautiously.  I kept both Sampson and Delilah on leash and guided them off the main path.  As we got to the top of the hill I saw their friend Brady and his mom entering from their side.  I said, “Go get Brady.”  And Sampson took off.  Delilah of course was forced to wait and go at my pace.

We started down one of our paths and ran into my next door neighbor of all things, with her two small boys and her dog Gunner.  I still can’t figure out what kind of dog Gunner is.  His face reminds me of an Akita, but he is not large and he is all black.  I call him… Sirius Black.

They were all sitting on the top of a large rock and while we live next door to each other, the dogs have never met.  My neighbor says that Gunner is friendly and the only time she’s ever seen him act aggressively is protecting the children.  While I thought the woods were a fairly neutral place to introduce the dogs, I preferred to do it while Hubby was around.

My friend said, “What do all these people see in these woods?”

I laughed and responded with ,“Probably the same thing we do.”

So my walking friend said, “We’ll have to go to my place.”

Turns out she just had a survey completed and she owns a LOT of land behind her house, which is wooded, has a creek and lots of boulders!  So we went off-road. 😉

Naturally we discussed all the things she could do with that extra land she has, most of which included places for the dogs to run without running into a lot of other people.

We ended up with a longer than planned walk, but the excitement and change of scenery helped tire the dogs out.

It's Not All About Delilah

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The tag line of my blog is, “Life With Sampson And Delilah….the 411.”

Sometimes I feel like it should be called “Life With Delilah,” because it seems I only blog about Delilah and the challenges she brings to the household.

Tonight I was struggling with a topic and decided to look through some pictures and see if I could come up with something to blog about.

When Sampson was a young puppy we got into the habit of hiking every weekend.  We have lots of trails in the area in which we live and Sampson absolutely loved exploring them.

At that time I already had the idea to write a children’s book about Sampson so I took lots of pictures.

Here are a few of my favorites.

He had run ahead of us on the trail and when we turned the corner, there he was resting on the rock.

Walking this trail is what made me fall in love with walking in the snow.   I love the play of sunlight and shadow in this photo.

When I first taught Sampson how to drink from my water bottle Hubby wasn’t very pleased. He quickly realized the benefit when we started hiking.

This photo was taken not far from where we currently live.  I loved this photo so much I had it blown up and framed. I love how they are both looking ahead, contemplating what the trail holds for them.

See….it’s not all about Delilah. 😉

How do you find a topic when you aren’t sure what to blog about?

 

 

Which Would Scare You?

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As I’ve mentioned previously, the local LaCrosse team has commandeered our field, which makes getting into the park on Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays a bit difficult.  The way I’ve been managing this is by trying to get home on my lunch hour on Mondays and Wednesdays in order to get our walk in.

On Saturdays I just wait until later in the day.

My friend has it easy, as her entrance is not anywhere near the field.  Today it dawned on me, all I have to do is use the alternate entrance.

DUH!  WHY DIDN’T I THINK OF THIS BEFORE?

I made a very crude drawing of our walking area and the two entrances.  You may laugh if you’d like, I’m well aware that I am not an artist. 🙂

I told you it was crude.

The brown dots represent trees but there are probably a lot more.  There are a couple of other trails as well, but for simplicity sake (and my poor drawing abilities) I kept it to a minimum.

We arrived at the entrance the same time as a man on foot.  I asked him if he’d mind if I let the dogs out.  He didn’t.  He was a thin man, glasses and a golf cap.  He kind of reminded me of a geek.  We sort of walked into the woods together, chatting a bit.

Just after we entered the woods Sampson saw someone and took off.  A few seconds later a jogger ran past.  He was big and beefy.  I apologized for Sampson and he said, “He’s a nice dog.”

Now which man would make you nervous if you were a woman walking alone?

Yup, it was the nerdy guy that freaked me out.  He was heading down the orange trail so I stayed on the yellow. We did a quick cut through and went to the orange trail in the opposite direction.

I usually carry my camera in my back pocket but I switched it out and put my pepper blaster back there.   When we eventually found our way to the orange trail, Delilah’s leash snagged a really large stick.  I picked it up and used it as a walking stick.

Luckily for us we did not run into either guy again, but we did have a scary dog encounter.

It took place up near the entrance we had used.  I was planning on walking the dogs down the orange trail for a bit.  Sampson was up near the entrance while Delilah and I had started on our way.  I called Sampson but he didn’t respond.  I looked and saw him still and stiff.

I started walking toward him and that’s when I noticed Tia the German Shepherd.  We have walked with Tia before but it was a long time ago and Tia has grown into quite the big girl.

Sampson was tall and stiff  and while Tia wasn’t in a full poised to spring position, she wasn’t standing tall either.  I called to Sampson over and over again, but he wouldn’t turn his head.  Meanwhile Tia’s mom was calling Tia with no response either.

I saw Tia’s lip raise in a slight snarl.  I had Delilah on leash and didn’t know what to do.  I couldn’t approach Sampson with Delilah because I know she would have dove right into the middle of it, but I had no-one to hold her either.

Thankfully Tia’s mom got in there and diffused the situation enough so Sampson turned and started back towards me, then Tia feeling brave since Sampson’s back was toward her, ran closer to Sampson to get a good sniff in.

At that point I realized there was not going to be a dog fight and so Delilah and I approached and Delilah rushed right up to Tia who ran towards her mom with her hair all up on her back.

Later as we were leaving the woods I saw Tia’s other mom walking in, baby on her hip and Tia on leash.  I stopped my dogs and put Sampson’s leash on and waited until they had chosen the path leading away from us, then we left the way we’d come in.

Yes there was a bit of excitement but it really was easier than trying to get thru the LaCrosse people to get to the woods.

And I’m happy because I have my lunches free again. 🙂

And truthfully, the two dogs staring each other down scared me way more than the geeky man.

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