Hiking in Hocking Hills and the Training Challenge is ON!

We went to one of my most favorite places today - the Cedar Falls trail at Hocking Hills!

This time of year, there isn't much water coming over the falls, but it's still pretty:

There were two big snapping turtles - this is the smaller one:

We were all alone for a little bit and I got to be off-leash:

Me and mom:

Again:

Doing some hiking - I am on a flexi-leash - there are cliffs and stuff so it's too dangerous for off-leash and mom controls the flexi carefully:

Tiger swallowtails were everywhere:

Me and dad:

Taking a break:

Me and mom again:

There were also lots of red-spotted purples:

The trail is so beautiful:

It follows a creek most of the time:

We even got a little video - listen to the sound of the cicadas in the background!

Enough of that! Ok, I declare that the training challenge is ON for anyone and everyone who wants to participate! Starting this week and running for as long as you all want to - we are thinking until the weather gets too bad for regular outdoor trips for us. But you don't have to be outside to do the challenge. This is how we view the challenge - we are going to do at least one thing each week that takes us out of our comfort zone. For us, it's very comfortable to practice agility at home and do tricks, walk around our own neighborhood, go to my favorite parks, and go to classes. So we want to motivate ourselves to work on other things - like take some agility equipment to safe locations other than our backyard (new neighbors yards, new parks, etc.), or go to places where I can see cars going by and work on my control and ability to listen to mom and not go bonkers, or train around other dogs - ones I know or don't know as I get all weirded out sometimes in those situations and don't even remember how to come to mom when she calls. You can make the challenge anything you want it to be. Video and/or pictures are always great but not required. We are going to post about our challenge every Sunday. If you have to miss a week, there is no penalty! :) But for the challenge to work, we all have to try to be consistent. During the weeks that we tried this with Marie, we felt just the right amount of pressure and obligation to do it and we got out there and it got a little easier as we went along. It's amazing how people miles and miles away can encourage you to grow and learn - this blogging and the internet are wonderful tools!

Let me know if you are going to participate in the training challenge and if someone is creative, come up with a good name for it and we'll use it! Let's get busy - the challenge starts......

NOW!

Gotta zoom!

Ricky