Heart Like a Dog

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

What the Fashionable Dog Walker is Wearing

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The thing I dislike about this time of year is it begins to be dark earlier and it stays dark later in the mornings. Many times the dogs and I are walking in the dark.

In the colder months, I have an ear muff with a visor and I have a little light that clips on the visor. (Perfect to keep your hands free for rewarding or picking up….um…stuff.)

Let there be light.

This little light of mine…

Except at the end of last winter one of the clips on the light broke AND I can’t find the visor or the light.

So far I haven’t needed a light to walk the dogs either in the morning or evening.  Except for last Thursday.  Last Thursday we woke up to rain combined with a little bit of fog.  Sampson and Delilah don’t care, as long as I’m willing to walk in the weather, they are too.

Some mornings when we walk we never see a person or car.  Other mornings there are many people out and about.  Because it was darker than normal I needed something to light me up in the darkness.  I have no reflective clothing, which is something I really need to get.  Sampson and Delilah have reflective vests, but I can only find one.

So we improvised.

This little light of mine....

Yeah, I’m fashionable! 

It’s Hubby’s headlight lamp adjusted to fit over my neck.  It worked as a temporary light, but it’s not really functional for walking when it’s dark.   And it only highlights me. 🙁

While I typically pay attention to my surroundings and either place the dogs on the inside between my body and the curb, or bring them up off the road, I’d still like them to have something that is either reflective or lights up.

Amy from Go Pet Friendly shared a post last week highlighting some great new products she found at SuperZoo, one of which is a new line of reflective gear from Alcott, and these are definitely on my list of items to check out.  

I know many of you walk your dogs at night or early morning, and I was wondering, what do you use for your dogs to make sure they are visible to any cars you might encounter?  For me it’s not feasible to carry a flashlight, I’m not coordinated enough. 🙂  

Standing Outside The Fire

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Last night was the last Freestyle class for Delilah and myself.   Ariane said it could be as long or as short as we’d like.  I figured if I could string three tricks together I’d be happy.  I took the four or five solid tricks she knows and plotted it out in my head, how I might be able to make them flow together.

All week I’d been thinking of the song I’d play for our performance, I was pretty set on “Hey There Delilah” by The Plain White Tees, but decided to go through my songs on the way to class and see if I found one I thought fit her personality a bit better.

As it turns out, I thought the lyrics to Standing Outside the Fire by Garth Brooks exemplified her zest for life pretty well.

We call them cool
Those hearts that have no scars to show
The ones that never do let go
And risk the tables being turned

We call them fools
Who have to dance within the flame
Who chance the sorrow and the shame
That always comes with getting burned

But you’ve got to be tough when consumed by desire
‘Cause it’s not enough just to stand outside the fire

We call them strong
Those who can face this world alone
Who seem to get by on their own
Those who will never take the fall

We call them weak
Who are unable to resist
The slightest chance love might exist
And for that forsake it all

They’re so hell-bent on giving ,walking a wire
Convinced it’s not living if you stand outside the fire

Standing outside the fire
Standing outside the fire
Life is not tried, it is merely survived
If you’re standing outside the fire

There’s this love that is burning
Deep in my soul
Constantly yearning to get out of control
Wanting to fly higher and higher
I can’t abide
Standing outside the fire

Standing outside the fire
Standing outside the fire
Life is not tried, it is merely survived
If you’re standing outside the fire

Standing outside the fire
Standing outside the fire
Life is not tried, it is merely survived
If you’re standing outside the fire

Normally I love to go first.  Not last night.  I waited.  We went fourth.  What I didn’t anticipate was a change in venue, from our little corner of the room to the center.  The center she associates with scent training.

Yeah, I lost her a couple of times.  But I promised you the video so here it is.  Ariane was filming and might have missed the first few seconds.

If the video doesn’t work, click HERE.

Next time it might be wise to let her scope out the food situation BEFORE we start the routine.  I do think she has some great spins and her leg weaves are coming along nicely.  We’re certainly not ready to step into a real ring!  Although I would like to continue working on tricks and work up a little routine.

I think she has potential, what do you think?

 

Park Day

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Today we’re joining our friend Gizmo and his buddy Finn Howard for Parks Day.  A day designed to celebrate and share the beauty of your favorite park.

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Long time readers of this blog know that our preferred walk is in our park.  The tiny little park at the top of our street.  The park’s formal name is Boulder Ridge Park.

Our park is not like your typical city or state park.  There are no areas for picnicking, no benches, no bathroom facilities and no place to swim.

Just a big beautiful field perfect for getting your puppy zoomies on and lots of nice trails for hiking.

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The enormous field is used for LaCrosse practice three times per week from mid-March until early June, I usually try to schedule our walks so we don’t interfere with their practice.

There are three main trails.  The yellow trail is the easiest, with slight hills and fairly clear trails.  The blue and yellow is slightly more difficult, with tree stumps, and small rocks.  The orange trail is the longest and also the hardest, with many steep inclines designed for those who like a little bit of a challenge.

Most of the trails are contained within the park and generally intersect with one of the other trails at some point.  The orange trail encircles the park and from start to finish would generally take us about 30 to 40 minutes. The blue and yellow trail leads down to and then crosses the local rail trail where you can pick it up and follow it in to Valley Falls, a beautiful town maintained park, with many more miles of hiking trails (and picnic areas, bathroom facilities and swimming.) 😀

Because the trails lead outside of the park, It’s important to understand the markings for the trail system.

IMG_4755 This marker indicates I’m on the orange trail which shifts to the left, while intersecting with the blue and yellow which would drift off to the right.

IMG_4757 There are also some unmarked trails that have been made either by the deer or two-legged adventurers, no worries they all lead somewhere.

In the last 18 months or so, we’ve had three pretty bad storms, Snowtober of 2011 dumped a lot of wet heavy snow.  Unfortunately most of the trees still had their leaves.   Many branches and trees that didn’t break from the weight of the snow, were weakened.  With each subsequent storm (Sandy last fall and the Blizzard of 2013) more and more limbs and trees fall.

IMG_4745 Most of the trees/branches miraculously fell off the trails.  In other areas, hikers move what we can.

IMG_4748 Whenever possible we use the downed trees to practice agility jumps.

IMG_4747 Of course sometimes it’s just not possible.

Even without all the facilities a state park has, our little park is just perfect for us.  It’s super convenient (I can walk the dogs there in less than two minutes,) it’s far away from busy roads so a dog with a good recall can be off-leash and it’s really not used by a lot of people (not counting LaCrosse of course.)

Plus we get to do fun things like climb rocks.

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 This is the Park’s Day blog hop hosted by Gizmo and Finn Howard. Visit Gizmo to add your link.

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