Heart Like a Dog

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

Snow Fall

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It started snowing here late this morning.  I figured by the time I got home from work the snow might be too deep, so I decided to go home on lunch and give the dogs a half hour walk.

I have to say walking in the woods with the dogs during a snow fall rates in my top ten favorite things to do.

I love how the only sounds I hear are the squeaking of the snow under my boots and the jingle of the dog’s tags clinking against their collars as they run.

They stop.  Ears up, listening.  Then noses to the ground, they are off and running again.

Racing The Sun

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We had a lovely tease of spring days to come yesterday.

I had to run out and pick up a prescription and when I stepped outside around 3:00 pm, spring fever slapped me hard in the face.

I immediately regretted not letting the prescription wait and instead running home and grabbing the dogs for a walk.  I debated whether I had the time to do both.  In the end the prescription won out.

Hubby and I had planned to do our around the block walk, but the fresh spring air kept dancing in and out of my mind.   When one of my co-workers suggested slipping out early, I packed up my stuff and left.

As soon as I walked in the house, I ignored our traditional greetings and rituals and instead ran right for my sneakers, collecting poop bags, pepper spray, and treat bags as I dialed up my walking friend.  Poor sweetie was suffering from a miserable virus/cold so I said, “Pass.”

I quickly switched the dog’s collars bypassed the flea and tick spray as well as their safety vests and hustled them into the car.

I raced up to the park hoping we would have time for a quick run through the woods and praying on-one else would be around.

My luck ran out as I pulled up and three teenage boys were just stepping out of their car.

“Hey fellows, how’s it going?  Would you mind if I let the dogs out?  I’m trying to get a quick run in before dark.  They’re friendly.”

They had no problems with it so I let the dogs out, after a quick greeting the dogs headed off towards the field.

I chatted with the guys for a couple of minutes but didn’t want to seem like a stalker, besides their young legs moved much quicker than these old ones and they quickly out distanced me.

They headed down to the lower walking trails and Sampson, Delilah and I stayed on the upper ones.

I couldn’t remember what time the sun was scheduled to set, but figured I had about half an hour.  I kept my eye on the western sky, checking the position of the sun.  After we’d been there about 25 minutes we started heading out, while it wasn’t really getting dark I decided I wasn’t willing to risk another run through.

The sun setting as we arrived home.

It was just enough to satisfy the spring fever in my soul and it helped Delilah snooze through her snack time.  In fact, I had to wake her up to give it to her. 😉

Book update: My book has 12,623 words.

Inquiring Minds

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Like most of you (I’m pretty sure) I love the weekend.  Although mine do tend to fill up quickly, what with house cleaning, laundry, grocery shopping etc.

In the midst of all the chaos that comes with my weekend, I try really hard to get the dogs out for a couple of nice long walks.  Most of the time I try to get them out for at least an hour each day.

I am really looking forward to the longer days when I can come home and grab them after work and take some long walks, while Hubby stays home and cooks on the grill. 🙂

I can’t always connect with my walking pal during the week (at least not right now) but on the weekends whenever possible, we try to get the dogs all out together.

While she only has Brady, she very frequently has her friend’s dog, Kodak.  All the dogs get along pretty well with the exception sometimes of Sampson whose been getting a little bit snarkier the older he gets. 🙁

Saturday we had all the dogs out and walked them around the woods for an hour and twenty minutes, it was awesome.  It’s nice to have someone to chat with while walking and I hate to say it because I’m afraid I’ll jinx myself, but I really feel Delilah does much better with a larger pack of dogs.

When all the dogs take off through the woods chasing a herd of deer, nine out of ten times Delilah is the first one back after being called.  She’s been doing so good I’m actually considering cutting her leash down to fifteen feet.

When we aren’t walking with the other dogs, I hold her leash in certain areas and in other areas I let it drop, for the most part she is always in my sight and if they get too far ahead of me, I call them back.

She’s been pretty good about returning and I am very generous with the treats.  I’m a firm believer in treating and I don’t care if I have to carry treats with me all the time as long as my dogs return when I call them.   Judge me if you want, I’m tough. 🙂

So here’s my question, I’ve never trained a dog using the long leash before.  Have you?  How long did you keep them on the long leash?  Did you slowly cut the leash back or did you just stop all together.

Inquiring minds want to know. 🙂

Book update:  My book has 11,023 words.

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