Happy Day, Happy Dogs

The last post was slightly depressing in nature, so I thought we needed something more cheery and uplifting.

The never-ending winter from hell is still upon us as you can see from all of the snow in these pictures, but there is a light at the end of the tunnel. The last few days have actually given us sunshine and above-freezing temperatures! Yesterday it reached 41 degrees and today the thermometer on my car read 47 degrees! Above zero!

I took the dogs walking yesterday on the trail we discovered last fall whilst out looking for Lucy the lost Klee Kai (who was never found, by the way; sad). I chose that trail because I figured it had a better chance of not being muddy like the bike trail, which gets soft and squishy every spring.

Silly me. There was still over 4" of snow pack on the trail yesterday, and that was following several days of gradual thawing. We went back today since I figured it would still be fine and I was right (the pictures are from today). There is still a lot of melting that needs to happen. Our back yard looks about the same. We are pretty much down to the solid ice layer that needs to melt now, though, which means we pretty much can't do anything back there.

The dogs have LOVED getting back out on the trail to romp and run. We've been leash-walking around town the last week or two and I tell you, it blows. None of us are fans of the constrictions of a leash. Well, Kaiser has no choice... But at least on the trail he gets all 23' of his Flexi.  :o)

Everyone came back to the car panting both days and we were only out 30-40 minutes at a time. They just never stopped running. Today they were a bit naughty.... We walked in the opposite direction and apparently entered the land of squirrels. Surprisingly, it was Luke who ran off on us. Likely the only reason Secret didn't follow is because she had already tree'd a squirrel of her own.

Tomorrow they say it might get up to FIFTY degrees! Too much more of this and I suppose we'll be stuck to walking the streets again, but hopefully it's only a short time before our trails are snow- (and mud-) free. And the yard of course -- who can forget the yard? I really want to get back to training the dogs again! In general, though, I'm just looking forward to being back outside. It's been a long winter...

In agility news, I've decided to keep Secret out of the NADAC trial in April. She's already past her NATCH 2 points in Regular and Jumpers -- lord knows we don't need any more of them at the moment -- and if I entered her only in Chances that's about the least motivating option on the planet for her. So, that said, she'll sit this one out. I am going to go ahead and enter Secret (and Luke) in the USDAA trial over at New Berlin the last weekend of the month. Hopefully by then we'll have actually had a chance to train again and maybe Secret will remember that agility is supposed to be fun. Like our walk today.