December Danes

The word that best describes today is "wet" because everything is still very wet and muddy and I don't think any drying happened today. The sun made a rare appearance for a few hours in the early to mid afternoon, however, and I got most of the dogs out to the pasture for a romp. 

Four Danes, and Paisley

Della and Oakley in the back

Paige and Maze in front

I did a blog post one time titled "Little dog, big world" or something like that. I can't find it right now, but it was about my little girl Maya, ready to take on the whole world. Bailey reminds me so much of Maya and this picture really draws a parallel between the two dogs — small in stature, but big in everything else and ready to take on the world. 

Oakley and Paige, Bailey in the background

This is how Oakley walks. She doesn't, she flies.

Bailey and Oakley

Della

Maze

When they are hunting, heads are down but tails are up and thankfully Maya's is pretty easy to spot. Bailey's is slightly harder because she has black on her tail instead of white.

Oakley, with ears folded back in sport mode.

After the pasture run I got some dogs back in the house, some confined to the dog yard, and Elvis and Maya were still out hunting in the pasture. I only got Bailey back in because I went after her and got a leash on her. I was going to take her out on another walk alone, but Della saw me getting ready and refused to come back in the house. She was determined to go along. And so she did.

Della got a new Gentle Leader for Christmas, it's slender and black and blends in much better with her coat than the red one I had been using. I got it fitted on her and we had a nice walk with fewer sniff stops because I had better control of the position of her head. A couple of times she just stopped and refused to move, which meant she wanted to stop and sniff, and we did, but we made a much better pace overall.

Bailey may have many of Maya's natural instincts, some of which are problematic, but Della is proving to be a good role model for proper on-leash behavior.

It was getting dark, chilly, and a few new raindrops were falling as we neared the end of the walk.