Today it finally stopped raining, and though we had fresh snow on the ground early this morning, it was gone by early afternoon.   By late afternoon it was just above 40 degrees, the sun was out and it felt like the perfect time to get a good walk in. So Katie and I drove to a metro park where I used to train for marathons. There’s a 8.5 mile paved bike path around a beautiful lake there, but I didn’t think we’d walk the whole thing. After all Katie has short legs and hasn’t ever walked that far.  And I’d probably hurt myself if we tried.

Of course I forgot the camera, but we had a great time, maybe even a better time because I wasn’t asking Katie to pose. We walked 3/4 of a mile out and back, so a total of 1.5 miles. She moved almost the whole way with her fast little sheltie prance so I got a workout too. Of course she did take quite a few sudden detours to sniff trees and leaves and mud.

We worked on her understanding that we needed to stay on our side of the middle line. She’s a girl just like her Mom, focused on the lake and not always paying attention to other people on the path. She saw swans and sandhill cranes and mallard ducks and Canadian geese. She loved watching the swans running after each other, their huge feet slapping the water. And she loved getting up close to a mallard duck pair that swam near the shore.  She did fine with the few bikes and other dogs that went by. At first I was nervous and tried to get her to “HEEL!” and focus on me, but she wasn’t at all interested in the treats I had, too much out there to watch instead. She did notice a few cars and I could tell she was thinking about barking and chasing, but she looked at me and I said “NO!” and that was that.

So all in all this was a good experience; our first longer walk ever, the first field trip since the long winter, a wonderful late afternoon activity. If it’s nice on Wednesday maybe we’ll go back. By the last quarter mile back she wasn’t prancing out at the end of her leash anymore, she was walking more slowly next to me. I thought I wore her out, but tonight I’m the one falling asleep on the sofa.  She’s keeping watch out the backdoor for marauding possums or raccoons!