Chloe's First Walk

I have Thursday and Fridays off in the month of December. I started the day early with house cleaning and kept at it until mid-afternoon. I had sent the Danes and shepherds out to the pasture to run and play on their own, but not the new girl or Maya.

I don't trust Chloe any farther than I can throw her. She needs a few days to bond and "home" before I'll consider letting her out to the pasture. She's been doing the German Shepherd hunger strike, even though I'm giving her the exact food she had been eating, so I know she hasn't settled in quite yet. The best way I know to build trust is leash walking so that's what we did this afternoon. Maya and I took Chloe on her first hike.

She was excited and loved it right from the start. I used a martingale collar on her for a positive hold and she gave my arms and back a good workout. Her leash was tight nearly every moment we were out there. She didn't just pull forward either, there was a lot of back and forth. Mostly she had her nose to the ground and was very scent-oriented. She wanted to stop and sniff every interesting spot she came to, and she didn't want to move on. Maya finally explained to her that you can't stay indefinitely at every spot because Dad and the leash run out of patience. You stop, sniff, pee on it, and move on.

When I stopped she would turn around and look, but I had
to be very fast, and very lucky, to get the picture.

This was her most of the way, head down, at the far end of
a very taut leash.

I don't know how much hiking in the woods she has done,
but she clearly enjoyed it.

Most of my pics were of the back of her head, but
that's a nice view. Look at the pretty markings and
those ever-so-alert ears.

My little girl is all grown up now, beginning to show a fair
amount of grey. But she always wants to go along.

Chloe stopped to sniff, a lot, and this is
a lucky behind-the-back shot of her
catching up to us.

This says it all about her walking style: head down,
leash tight, and walking diagonally across the line of travel. 

Maya modeled lots of good walking
behavior, but I'm not sure Chloe noticed.

Towards the end of the hike I spotted a picnic table in a spot that looked like a dog standing on top of it would still catch the last rays of the setting sun. We made a beeline for that table and much to my surprise, Chloe cooperated by jumping right up on top of it like I wanted. Sure enough, we caught the last few minutes of the golden hour. The sun lit up her fur and she posed with that typical German Shepherd look of intelligent intensity. There are lots of similar pics here because how could I choose? This girl is pretty.

After I got the girls back in the van and we were leaving the park, we came across 7 or 8 deer who were out for the evening. I was very glad that both dogs were in crates in the van and didn't see them.

Oh, and when we got home, Chloe ate her dinner without evening thinking about it. The hunger strike is over and bonding has begun.