Last week we joined in the #DogWalkingWeek celebration and challenge hosted by MyGBGV Life and Cascadian Nomads. The challenge was to walk every day from October 1-7th, and I’m happy to report we got out every day! In my post at the beginning “Shifting Gears” I gave you a preview of our first two walks, and now I want to fill you in a bit more on our week and share some of the photos we took.
One of our favorite walks is from our house down to the Christmas tree farm below us. The autumn colors were really looking beautiful on Day 1 when Sheba and I headed out.
I knew we needed to try some new routes and see some new scenery though. On Day 2 Cricket and I headed to the historic district in our town. We parked at the beach where Cricket enjoyed wading in the water, and then headed down the street to see the sights. It’s a beautiful street with many old houses and historic buildings.
In my first post I asked if anyone knew what this contraption was, and here’s the answer! I thought that was pretty interesting, I’ve seen that many times and had never stopped to see what it actually was!
On Day 3 Luke and I walked from the house and worked on his training. Our first goal is to get him to listen and pay attention to me when we walk! We worked on that in our clicker training session last night, and I feel now like I know more what to do. Sorry, no photos from Day 3 as I just didn’t want any additional distractions!
On Day 4 Sheba and I went to a place where I used to walk Kobi all the time….the rail trail along Mascoma Lake one town over from us. I haven’t been there with any of the dogs since Kobi died, so it was a little difficult. But once we got there we enjoyed the walk and the scenery and that got my mind off missing Kobi.
Who is this guy tied to a tree along the trail?! I think I was more freaked out about it than Sheba was. This town puts scarecrows out all around town, so I hope this was part of that. Happy Halloween!
On Day 5 Cricket and I drove a few miles down the road and walked this pretty country road. It’s a quiet road without much traffic, and no houses, so we didn’t have to worry about off leash dogs (a concern with leash reactive Cricket).
On Day 6 Luke and I headed out from home and down towards the tree farm, working on his training some again. Then I just let him do some walking and sniffing, and we took a few photos this time.
On Day 7 it was raining off and on so Sheba and I stayed close to home and walked to the tree farm, and then back up the road to the farm field. However, they had recently put manure down in the field so we didn’t end up going far in it. It was dried and not smelly but I was afraid Sheba would decide she wanted to roll in it!
This was a perfect week for this challenge for us….the fall foliage was at its peak in many places and the scenery was beautiful.
But how do we keep motivated to continue our walking, especially when that foliage is passing and until snow falls, things aren’t going to be looking very beautiful?
Look at those smiling faces above, that’s all the motivation I need. They enjoy their walks and their one on one time with Mom. Also, Bethany from Cascadian Nomads suggested to me that I might see a big difference in my dogs’ walking manners when walking them days in a row. I only walk them individually at this time, but even more frequent walks seemed to make a difference. By my 3rd walk with Sheba, I couldn’t believe how much better she was walking! She was pulling less and walking more in a straight line (I always say walking her is like flying a kite, because she weaves back and forth so much). Both Luke and Cricket seemed to be paying more attention to me as well, one of my goals with both of them.
Did you take the #DogWalkingWeek challenge? What benefits did you learn if you walked your dog more often (or already did so before the challenge)?
This is super, Jan-great job getting out, and the variety you thought of was cool. But so pretty everywhere too! I guess we do live in a beautiful part of the country, even though we complain about the weather a lot, huh? That is an interesting thought about if you walk a dog days in a row, they may walk better-hhmmmm! Loved the Canaan St foray too!
Thanks, Lynn! It was kind of challenging coming up with new places. I definitely want to get back to Canaan St. again, and maybe go a little further next time.
You have such beautiful places to walk. Good for you or doing so well on the challenge.
If only we could do as well when we’re NOT challenged….LOL!
What a beautiful walk, thanks for the wrap up, I so enjoyed it.
I’m so glad you enjoyed it!
What lucky dogs those are great walks! We are proud of you making the walk without Kobi for the first time. Time for new memories we hope! Love Dolly
Yes, it is time. That is a nice place to walk and I’ve missed it. I’ll be taking Sheba there more. There are too many off leash dogs to take the other dogs there, but Sheba does OK with that.
I wish we had so many beautiful fall colors here (Northern California). But I don’t envy your cold weather and snow….and need for a snow roller! The dogs look so happy, I hope that helps your motivation to keep walking them even though the week is over. And that scarecrow….that would be very creepy to come upon in the woods.
It was pretty creepy! I was surprised that Sheba didn’t react to it at all.
I’ll definitely be wishing I was in CA too when that winter gets here….I don’t look forward to it! We try to make the best of it though.
You live in such a beautiful part of the country. I would walk Cody every day if I had that scenery.
As much as I am not too nuts about winter, I don’t think I could ever leave this area.
Gorgeous colors over there! It’s been pretty hot here, so I haven’t really seen any leaf changes here yet. Maybe today, a cold front came in 🙂 Yes, that scarecrow would have freaked me out for sure! lol
It did take me off guard, kind of in the middle of nowhere! LOL
Hope you get to see some pretty colors soon too.
That was sure some happy walks and we love those smiles! Thanks for the nice comments about Gracie, she is quite the character!!!
Thanks, Brian! I just love seeing Gracie, because it brings back good memories for me….she is such a cutie.
wow! Beautiful!
I just love that snow roller thing!!!!
ღ husky hugz ღ frum our pack at Love is being owned by a husky!
That’s pretty cool, isn’t it? I love history and seeing old things like that.
What great locations you have to walk. It is really gorgeous.
Thanks, we try not to take it for granted!
What beautiful walks you took! Mom likes to go where she used to walk her last dog Trine. It makes her sad, but she talks to us about Trine on those walks and that makes her feel good. Keep up the walking and all the things you do will become habit for the dogs.
It is nice to bring back happy memories of all the nice walks Kobi and I had there.
We are going to do our best to keep up the walks!
That Christmas tree farm looks like a really fun place to walk, I wish we had one of those nearby. You went to a lot of great looking places, Mascoma Lake looks amazing with all those beautiful autumn colors. Glad to hear the training is going well – getting their attention when there’s so many sights, smells, and sounds is tough. Looks like you really did have a perfect week of walks, such beautiful scenery and great smiles on the dogs.
The weather wasn’t quite perfect, a few of the days were rainy, but somehow we were always able to get our walks in inbetween the rain showers!
It’s funny Luke’s trainer said something similar to you the other night, that we shouldn’t expect too much yet when we’re outside working on things. He did so well in his training session though, that I know we’ll get there eventually!
how great! I had no clue about this snow roller, it was interesting to read about. My mom screamed as she saw the guy on the tree. she said OMG they found a body while walking…I hope it’s really just a howl-o-ween joke :o)
The snow roller is pretty cool, isn’t it? I bet it was much quieter than the plows they use these days!
I hope the body was a joke too….it was on a part of the trail where there were no houses, just woods, and no one else was walking there either!