Autumn Days

This is my favorite time of year. It's clear, cool, beautiful, and I don't have anything else that I really must do, so we walked. The dogs love the cool weather and it's absolutely the best for walking.

I put Kaiser and Galaxy together Sunday
morning. They didn't play together right away
but Kaiser played with all the toys in Daneland.

Galaxy

I took Max, Theo, and Kaiser out to the pasture to run this morning, along with Della and Serena. It was Kaiser's first time out there. I was going to bring Galaxy out too, but everyone was really keyed up and I thought that a second new dog might push the stupid level up to critical. As it was, Della was on Kaiser from the first moment they were out there together. He's young and fast, but she's young and has longer legs. She could match him easily and spent a lot of time running next to him with her head over him ready to run him over or knock him down, which she did a few times. Once she established herself as queen of the pasture she backed off a bit and everyone just ran and had a good time.

That was a good start on exercise for the dogs, but for me to get any exercise I had to get out and walk. I also had to get Maya out, and Trooper was wanting to go too, so the three of us did a nice hike, just over two miles long. I swapped out Trooper for the next leg of the hike and brought Kaiser. He was pretty good on the leash, but his nose was on the ground most of the time and he was following scent more than following the trail. Still, it wasn't bad for a first hike. We did another 2+ miles and then I brought Kaiser back home and picked up Galaxy. He wasn't bad on the leash either and he wasn't scent driven the way Kaiser was. He was curious about everything he saw, which included a few people and a couple horses. He didn't react badly to any of it. We did another two miles with Galaxy so the sun had gone down and it was beginning to get dark towards the end. That's perfect deer spotting time and Maya did see a couple near the end of our hike. She enjoyed that. Galaxy didn't notice them.

Between the three hikes, Maya and I walked about 6.5 miles today, the most we've done in one day in a long time. I can certainly feel it and I know I will tomorrow. The best thing is that all the dogs are calm and quiet this evening.

Della, running into and over Kaiser.

Della executing a take-down.

There was no way Kaiser could outrun Della, but she liked it that he tried.

Kaiser, Della, Max, and Theo

Front to back: Theo, Max, Kaiser

Della leading the shepherds in a game of chase.

Maya and Trooper

A rare moment when Kaiser did not have his nose
to the ground.

Kaiser and Maya

Galaxy

Maya's fur in the setting sun just glows.

10 months old, 106 pounds, still a goofy pup.

My little girl Maya would follow me to the ends of the earth.