Heart Like a Dog

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

A Visit to Risley Park

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Hubby and I had lots of time off over the Christmas/New Year’s holidays.  (I hope you did as well.)  Because of all the time off I was able to coerce Hubby into exploring a number of hiking areas all within a five minute drive from our house.

One of these places was a local reservoir that I refer to as Risley Pond, apparently it has been renamed Risley Park but it’s still got some nice trails that meander around the reservoir and there is a trail that leads up the mountain to a tower.

Risley Pond 6

During this particular visit we decided to stay on the lower trails and not attempt the tower paths.

Risley pond 1

Delilah of course had to be on leash, but Sampson was able to be a trail blazer.  A role he has relished from his very first hike.  He absolutely adores being outside running through the woods.

Risley Pond 2

We encountered a small group of men and teenagers who were working on building some bridges over areas where little streams run down from the mountains and feed the reservoir.  Sampson had to greet them and practically dragged Hubby through the stream, but Delilah could have cared less.  Of course it was impossible to get a photo of both dogs looking at the camera.  The small bridges are a great improvement, the last time we hiked here there were only rocks that were used as stepping stones to cross the brooks.

The trails start off on one side of the reservoir and wind their way behind it, when you come out on the other side, you need to navigate a small stream with rocks.  Delilah proved she was up for the job.

Risley Pond 3

Once we crossed the stream and climbed a small hill the reservoir was in plain view.  It had small bits of ice on the surface of the water, but Delilah didn’t care.  She wanted in!

Risley Pond 4

She saw a stick out in the water and was determined to retrieve it, but sadly dogs are not allowed in the water. 🙁  I’m not sure I would have let her in anyway because it was really cold!

Risley Pond 5

She had to be content with walking along the retaining wall which holds the reservoir back.

Many people use this park to walk, jog, snow shoe, cross country ski, fish, ice skate etc.  There are few benches scattered about the park for the fishermen, or the people who just want to sit and grab a bit of the wild beauty that exists there.

Risley Pond 7

And some dogs like it too.

Do you have a favorite park that offers all these recreational activities?  Do you have a Daring Delilah who likes to rock the boat?

You Make Me Smile – December 29, 2013

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Sampson and Delilah, the way you stop and look ahead on the trail, alert for dogs or people…

Sam and Dee you make me smile.

Lately I’ve been loving photos of people and dogs looking off in the distance.  When I can get these two actually looking at the same thing,  well it’s a bonus.

Do you struggle trying to get your dogs to look at the same thing at the same time?

Which Way Do We Go?

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Lately Sampson hasn’t been responding to me when we encounter people or other dogs on our walks.  This means his off-leash privileges have been revoked.  There are still some times and some days when I let him off leash a bit, but for the most part he’s on the long leash the same as Delilah.

I hear too many stories of dogs being lost or stolen and I’d rather not take the chance.  The kicker was the day he ran off, ignoring me completely and followed a couple of fellow hikers.

Sorry Sampson, that doesn’t fly with the Mama.

As those of you who walk more than one dog know, multiple dogs can prove to be challenging.  I’ve been searching for a leash coupler, but the places around me are out of stock on the 24″.  I have found it on-line, but the shipping options suck.  I think it’s ridiculous to pay $10 to ship a $5 leash, especially when I just shipped 95 calendars all for around $5 each.  One of my local stores is ordering a coupler for me but in the meantime, I walk two dogs and deal with the challenges.

What? You've never heard the tale of the two stubborn labs?

What? You’ve never heard the tale of the two stubborn labs?

 

At times (depending on my mood) this can be frustrating for me.  But not this day.  This day I chose to find the humor in it.  I took the photo and then I waited.  I waited to see who would move first.  And I thought, I can work with this.

Here’s where you come in.  Remember those Dogs of Blogville Calendars?

 

In order to get the cheapest price, I ordered a few extra.  So I thought, let’s do something fun and give one of those away.

Are you up for the challenge?

In the top photo, we have Sampson to the left side of the tree and Delilah to the right.  In the comments tell me who turned back to me first and which path we ended up taking.  Don’t worry, everyone who comments will go in the drawing for the calendar, you don’t need to have guessed correctly to win.

Random.org will choose the winner, which I’ll announce in next week’s Thanksgiving edition of This ‘N That Thursday. I’ll cut off entries Tuesday night at midnight EST.

Ready. Set. Which Way Do We Go?

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