My Excellent Hike at the Lake!

Yesterday mom and dad took me on a wonderful walk! We went to the lake where we went camping last year and actually drove into the closed area of the campground so we could hike on the trails in there. No one was around and we had a great time! It was cold (not for me but for mom who wore all of her winter stuff) like 40 and partly sunny with a cold wind. The trails were muddy and leaf-covered and had various places where you could walk right down to the shore of the lake.

There were lots of limbs down from recent ice storms and I had to work my way around them.

We crossed a couple little run-off streams and one time I totally jumped to the other side!

I am always out in front blazing the trail!

Parts of the lake were still completely ice covered but here the water was high and wavy from the wind.

This is the beach at the campground! I don't like to swim but I sure do like the beach! Look at all the Canada Goose tracks in the sand. Lucky for them they had already flown away because I would've herded them all! I was super excited and got major zoomies - dad filmed it - listen to him laughing and out of breath - you would think HE was the one doing the zooming! LOL!

We were all three muddy and tired when we got back in the car but what an awesome day!!

Gotta zoom!

Ricky

The First Real Week of the Year

Well today starts the first real week of the year - meaning back to work and teaching for mom and dad. We did have a great couple weeks off - the weather was actually pretty good for a few days in there and we got out and did some fun walks! Mom took me to our favorite city park a couple of times (she never remembers the camera when we go there for some reason). Dad and mom also took me to the cemetery - some of you might think it's a little creepy and weird to go walking in a cemetery, but this one is a fabulous place to walk - lots of big trees and big areas to wander around in. And unfortunately lots of places to make me pose and not smile for the camera!

On another day we went up to the lake - you know the lake where we went camping back in August. No camping or swimming this time but we did go on a hike.

The water is really low - it's hard to tell in the photo but mom and I are standing on top of a bank and it's about 4 feet down to the ground from there. Usually the water is all the way up to where we are standing.

This is a view from the end of a new trail we discovered.

We have also done quite a bit of backyard agility practice working on some of the handling exercises from Linda Mecklenburg that have been in the last few issues of Clean Run and also just working on speed and faster weaves with harder entries - no video, of course, because mom never gets it together! This week we start our advanced intermediate agility class on Thursday nights. Looking forward to running longer sequences and learning how to handle them. Mom says we are entering our first trial in February (AKC at the barn where we have been going to watch trials since I was a pup). I notice that she hasn't mailed in the entry form yet - I think she's nervous and getting cold feet! Come on, mom, we've been training for a year now and it's time to see what we can do! (I bet she wouldn't be nervous if she knew that I promise to stick with her - no sniffing around - and promise to do the chute!)

When the weather is too cold or rainy we work inside on tricks, etc. We've got a bunch of tricks in the works including backwards circle and rebound. We just saw some excellent videos of these two tricks - one by Sian and one by ChiDaisy.
There are so many good dog trainers posting how-to videos at YouTube! It is a wonderful way to learn new things!

Gotta zoom!

Ricky

A Trip to the Lake

Yesterday dad and mom took me to the lake to swim and walk. For the very first time I got to run along the beach without any kind of leash on! Freedom! I ran and zoomed and swam a little bit and chased dad in and out of the water! I was careful not to abuse my rights to freedom and stuck with dad and mom. There is a dog trail near the beach that we explored. It was a beautiful sunny and cool morning. Perfect for cool weather shelties!






We had an awesome time!!!

Gotta zoom!

Ricky