One more for the road

I heading to Kansas for a couple weeks. I'm leaving Clay with just nine dogs to care for (Mickey is out for a couple weeks with a potential adopter).

I got everyone out for one last hike on Friday.

First up was Maya, Theo, and Trooper.

One thing about being at the tail end of the pack,
I get to observe a lot of dog tails. Maya and Theo
always carry their's up and curved when they are
on the trail and excited.

It sometimes gets a little crowded
for three dogs on a narrow trail.

Maya will often move off to the side or even
drop back to walk near me, except when
Summer is along. She doesn't want to cede
 the lead position to another female dog.

After two miles, I took Trooper and Theo back home and picked up Max and Summer to take their place for another two miles.

Summer has her nose to the ground most of the time when we are walking. The other two
use their eyes and ears more to scan the forest and look for deer.

I took Summer back home and picked up Sparky for the final two miles. Everyone got at least two miles, Max got four and Maya and I had six.

Sparky walks fine with Maya and Max, but I have my doubts about how he'd do with either
Trooper or Theo.