Hiking and doggos...

We were brave souls. Since it was so cool out, I packed up the dogs and we headed to the Reserve to walk/hike along the paved old 131 trail.

My reasoning was that it was nice enough to take a drive and a hike with the dogs and it would be a good way to work with Hannah on some more leash work on a somewhat busy path where we could see horses, bicyclists, walkers, and runners.

The dogs can be off leash now at the Reserve and are only required to be on leash during the nesting season for birds that have ground nests.

I chose to let Charlie drag his leash even though he never chases a bike or horse but will decide to visit hikers with a waggy tail. His recall is excellent while Hannah is still learning so much. Both dogs wear a training collar.

If they get loose and for some reason run off, I can locate them and use the buzzer or the vibration mode to distract them from the chase. They know if the collar vibrates, they should come to me and get a treat. This works so well!

I may have explained before that I got a collar for Charlie after he scented something when he was just a year old and took off through our forest. I spent 45 frightening minutes looking for a 7 inch tall young dog, calling and crying. When the foliage grows up past his height he can literally disappear.

At 8 years old he still is a 'hunter', but he is more reserved about chasing too far. The collar reminds him to come back to me.

The walk started out wonderfully. We were hiking when a heard a voice call out....

Bicycles coming!

Two ladies on bikes came up behind us. I told the dogs to sit. I knelt next to Hannah who always barked alarmingly at any stranger and asked her to sit. I held her 'sit' treat [a Cheerio] above her nose and she glanced at the bikes and at me and at the bikes and me...

and held her sit!

She got 3 Cheerios as did Charlie and a lot of praise. 

The next distraction we ran into was an older couple on some horses. Now, Hannah is more used to the Mules at home. She has been exposed to the Mini Donkeys, mini Goats, and Horses at Kristi's farm so they aren't as alarming to her as they used to be.

I made her sit once more and she did. The couple on the horses said, "Oh what nice pups. You don't have to do that, our horses are okay with dogs." 

I explained that I was training Hannah and she needed to understand that she should be quiet on the trails and not bark like she used to.

They stopped and asked what kind of dogs I had and said nice things about how I was working with my little dogs. 

What I did expect was that we would get attacked by mosquitoes and deer flies as we were hiking a paved trail next to the Kickapoo River. I had sprayed well before taking the trail, but man those bugs were insane! 

All the horses we saw had fantastic riding fly masks which made them look like Medieval Mounts.

Hmm. I like summer, hate bugs. 
So I like winter so much more!

We finally made it to the pond with the floating dock and bench. There was a nice breeze and surprisingly NO bugs!

The View

Water and snack break.

Another view from the bench.

Dogs under the bench in the shade.

See that scummy green water? Guess who decided to go for a little swim? Yes. Hannah. She got covered in duckweed and mud. Hmmm, so smelly and so wonderful! She was sooo happy!

So much for keeping her little seroma dry! [I cleaned that spot off]. That spot is almost perfectly healed at this point!

I decided that we would turn around at this point and call it a good day. The temps were warming up in the valley with no breeze and I didn't want Charlie to get overheated.

Hannah pranced, Charlie hiked like a trooper. The deer flies zoomed in and the skeeters, attacked often until we got out of the valley.

Next week, I'll let the dogs stay home while I take my bike and do the 9 mile paved trail. I usually do that when the weather is hot and buggy because I'm going fast enough to avoid insects, yet can still enjoy the outside and the wild flowers.

Found these on our walk, but stopping for any length of time was asking to be covered with Bitey Insects....

I see that the weather for this weekend is going to be very steamy and dangerously hot again. I guess this afternoon I'll be scrubbing water tanks and refilling them along with making sure the mules and pony have access to good shade.

Thank goodness I spent yesterday afternoon mowing most of the yard. 

I think I'll pick up some items to make a noodle salad and some cold meals for this weekend.

Small Dog Training

I've been researching and looking for puppy socialization classes and small dog training classes. As I said before, I thought this would be good for Charlie.

Small dogs present with a bigger challenge than large dogs to train. I did okay with Morris but I think I could have done a better job.
Charlie may be smaller than Morris.

Most classes that are what I am looking for are one hour away from home. That means a fairly long drive. It appears they may be a puppy class held at a local vet's office but I haven't seen any updates on classes since 2014. Hmmm, that does not look promising either.

So I took Charlie on his first solo hike yesterday. Since he is so small, I figured the woods would present a huge problem for him. But I also figured if he felt lost he'd respond by coming to me faster than he did in the yard.

I thought it best to see if he would learn to come to my whistle and when I call his name.

Charlie's aptitude was rather surprising.

You can see that I had to hold the camera on the ground to catch a shot of him. By my boot imprint you can see just how small he really is.

I was reading that to train a small dog like Charlie, a person must get down on their level. Uh-oh! Well, I can do that. I want Charlie to always come when called, always. I want to teach him also not to jump on people. Even though he is tiny and cute, jumping on people is just poor manners.

So I let Charlie become distracted by something and then ran ahead on the trail and whistled. He saw that I'd moved away and came on the run.

However since he is part mini dachshund, he does have a nose. When something too interesting distracted him, he couldn't help himself.

Look at those raccoon tracks in comparison to Charlie's size! He was fascinated by the smells and followed the tracks.

Soon the cold wind and the icy snow was making him shiver. Well, I think that is why he was trembling.
So I decided to see if he'd travel in my sling camera bag. I'd stuck a towel in the bottom of it and had taken out the camera holder.

Apparently this was satisfactory to Charlie as long as he could see out and chew a bit on the edge of the bag.

After about 10 minutes in the bag he was ready to rock and roll again in the woods.

I figured he'd wimp out over large logs. However I was very wrong. He scrambled up onto the log and walked it like a tight rope until he decided to leap off.

His balance and dexterity are amazing for such a small creature.

When we got to the gravel road, I put him on a leash. He doesn't like being constrained. I walked with him on a loose lead and when he decided to fight it, I stopped and waited until he figured it out.
It took a lot more time, but in the end I think it will be worth it.

We also did a 'come when called' exercise on the road. I let him loose and then ran like the devil while whistling loud.
Charlie is fast! He came on the run, even while temporarily distracted by an mystical oak leaf that fluttered before him.

I kneeled on the road and praised him and pet him.

I picked him up to walk the rest of the way home with him. I figured he'd had enough of the outdoors.
No, Charlie struggled and wanted down.
He walked from the mailbox to the lower end of the driveway on his leash.

I try to keep things short for him as puppies don't have a huge attention span. But the walk in the woods was excellent exercise and training at the same time.

I see an independence streak in him which is fine. He is a bit mischievous also. But he has caught on to potty training rather quickly. Yesterday he only had one mishap. That really was my fault for not paying attention.

Adventures with Charlie. This coming year should prove to be interesting!