A Fast Four

Ochie after our walk today

Ochie has been bouncing a lot lately. He jumps a good three feet straight up into the air, all four feet off the ground. It's how you know that Ochie is excited, as if you couldn't tell. Sparky didn't mind having a day off so I took Ochie out today for a fast four miles.

I had logged 10 miles yesterday between the hike with Sparky and the mowing in the evening, so four miles was enough for me today too. We did it in just over 13 minutes per mile on average, which is fast for me. I have to include a fair amount of jogging in each mile to make that kind of time. Ochie was more than happy to go as fast as I wanted and he would have gone a lot faster on his own.

Ochie meeting shepherds at the park.

I've been telling myself and other people that he may be a German Shepherd / Norweigan Elkhound mix, or something like that. But the more I see of him, I think he's pure sled dog, whatever they are breeding and using for that purpose these days. He's got that kind of energy, drive, and enthusiasm for running and pulling, and it just doesn't stop.

When we got back to the dog park area, we stopped at one of the picnic shelters to cool down. I got a couple pictures of Ochie and a woman came by with two beautiful German Shepherds. Ochie is fine with other dogs generally, that's why I take him on the parts of the trail where we are most likely to encounter people and other dogs. At least this woman asked if he was friendly and if it was ok for her dogs to approach. They were off leash but she did seem to have good verbal control over them at least. Most people up there do not, nor do they seem to understand the importance of leashes, but that's a rant for another day.

When we got home I decided to have another go at getting the riding mower started for the first time this year. I had tried but failed on Sunday, but today the mower god was smiling and it started up with just a couple of tries and tricks. I brought Max out to the pasture with me to run while I mowed.