Change of Venue

I had three dogs with me on the way to do our walk at Pleasant Grove. When I got there I saw many cars parked in the field and as I suspected, much of the park was taken over by a high school cross country meet for the day. Not knowing their route, the only prudent course was to change course. Instead of the two mile walk on the roadway at Pleasant Grove, we went to the other end of the park and did the one mile walk down to the river and back.

That was fine because I had Trooper and TJ with me, along with Maya, so one mile was really enough for them. It also provided some different scenery for pictures and a break from our summer-long walking route. I'd like to have a good, solid, tick-killing freeze before venturing back into the woods, but I think we will start doing some of the less grassy trails soon.

The loop down to the river and back is just over a mile, so I did a second walk with three different dogs: Serena, Cooper, and Coco. I was stupid and put a regular harness on Cooper, which meant that I got a good arm, back, and shoulder workout holding onto him. I finally just put clipped the leash to his regular collar so he would at least have to choke himself a bit if he wanted to pull really hard.

I have the standard issue number of hands - two. However, with three dogs on three leashes, I really need at least four: one to hold the leashes, which are connected on my end; a second hand to keep the leashes straight as dogs wrap around each other and me; a third hand to carry the poop bags that I dutifully used because we weren't in the woods; and a fourth to work the camera. With just two hands and two legs, I was severely handicapped.

Obviously something of great importance happened here.

I had not walked this trio in a long time. Trooper was happy to be out again and he even pulled
more than he should. TJ didn't pull but he didn't have any trouble keeping up either. We stopped
and did some brushing on TJ, leaving a good bit of white husky fur along the trail.

Our trees don't have a lot of color yet, but it's still pretty.

A lot of this area was under water several times this summer.
The bank that Trooper is on here is much steeper than it used
to be. There is a lot of new sand deposits above and outside
the river's banks.

Cooper was neutered on Monday and I've been
keeping him inside, but he was really ready to
get out and go today.

Cooper has a very good "sit" command and
his house manners have actually been better
than I expected.

Serena's former name was "Serenity" and it does fit her.
The new name captures the same spirit while being easier to
yell out the back door.

This is a great picture showing the relative
size of Serena and Coco.