Leo and Della

We only had time for a short two miler shortly before dark, but I took Leo and Della. For those of you keeping track at home, there's a complicated, proprietary algorithm that determines who gets to go on which walks. It pretty much boils down to Maya always gets to go if she wants to. Della needs to go as much as possible, although I can substitute pasture and/or yard time for the walk depending on the day. It's good for Leo's physical and social development to walk with different dogs and have different experiences, so as long as he's here I try to take him as much as possible.

Serena likes to go, but doesn't insist upon it. She's really an indoor girl at heart. Theo always likes to go and I like to walk him because he's a gorgeous shepherd, but he spends the days outdoors anyway and what he really needs to make him happy is some time playing ball. Trooper gets most of his exercise doing the long stroll around the yard at his own pace, barking at trucks that come down our road. He tells me when he's really wanting to go for a walk, and I'll make a short one for him. Arby is the new guy around here and he was excited about his first walk, but he's an old guy too, so I'm still figuring out where he'll fit in. He now has solo walkabout privileges in the yard. He wanders around for about 10 minutes and then shows up at either the front or back door and barks until someone lets him in.

I haven't walked Max in a long time. He's outside all day anyway chasing his demons. He's actually quite good at following a trail, even covered in snow, but he's a lot of crazy to handle if he spots a deer, real or imaginary.