It is that time of the week again where we give our update on how Grace, Benson and I are doing on the Woof Walk Challenge! We have now walked just over 135km towards our 1000km goal! The dogs have gotten into the new and more active routine, and look forward to our jaunts through the neighbourhood to meet all their new and old friends! Since the challenge goes until the end of December, there is lots of time left if you would like to donate! You can find links to our donation page in the original post here!
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Glen Stewart Park
This week, we decided that we would start spending more time heading over to the Glen Stewart Park near us to catch up with some old friends we haven’t seen for a while! We have been walking down to the beach a couple times a day and I decided it was time to switch up the routine a bit. We saw lots of our old friends, and met lots of new ones! After work on weekdays that park turns into a full on dog park, with everyone meeting up with their pups!
Some of our friends from the beach have also started to come and join in on the fun in the park at that time of the day! Benson has developed this really funny habit of running to the top of the hills on either side of the park…hiding in the brush…then running FULL SPEED down through the brush and jumping through it into the clearing! It is a little Jurassic Park-like because all you can see is the trees swaying before he bursts out! He has gotten some of his friends into this habit as well…
Balls are a hot commodity in this park, as your ball becomes a game of keep away with all the other dogs! Benson has his favorite hot pink Hartz duraPlay ball that we take over and he makes sure to keep that ball well within reach! He loves it so much that I actually just ordered more since the squeaker in his lost it’s voice a long time ago…But I find even with his constant chewing on it that it has stood the test of time!
More Puppies!
Benson is always thrilled when he meets new puppies on our walk! We met new puppies on the boardwalk, in the dog park and in the Glen Stewart Park! Benson always has a blast meeting new friends and will lie down and roll over and let them climb all over him with a look of pure bliss on his face! It always amazes me how gentle he is with puppies given his size.
Grace on the other hand has decided that she is too good for puppy attention all of a sudden. If they try to play with her she will let them know with some friendly growling that she isn’t up for that foolishness anymore…Oh Grace if only you remembered that you were one of the worst offenders in this regard when you were a puppy…a mere few months ago…
Wrestle Time!
Every walk has a wrestle. EVERY walk. I thought that they were getting better with their walking and decided to try going with their regular collars again one walk instead of their harnesses. MISTAKE! We had barely made it two houses and I was having a chat with some of our neighbours…when they decided it was time to have a go at it!
Since Grace is a master of escaping her collar when she wants to go somewhere (or doesn’t…), I have hers adjusted so she can’t slip it…Benson’s wasn’t as tight and when they started wrestling he got out of his collar! Being a time of day when there is a lot of traffic going down our street I panicked when I realized the big guy was out of his collar and off his leash since he has no problem bouncing right out into the road without any thought! The neighbours ran down and grabbed Grace’s leash while I wrestled with Benson trying to get him back into his collar!
It took me a few minutes but I finally got the big guy leashed again! And tightened that collar right up…Lesson learned, they aren’t ready yet to go on their regular collars for walks! Back to the harnesses…
SQUIRREL
Kew Gardens is always a really nice walk up from the beach for us on our way back home, but I tend to avoid it because I think about five thousand squirrels live in there! Benson has taken me down more than once in hot pursuit and will stand at the base of trees jumping up in the air at them! So it is a route I don’t tend to take very often…
One day I decided that the cool of the canopy would be better than walking down the full sun in the boardwalk. I have noticed that the squirrel population seems to have dwindled a bit and they aren’t as plentiful in the park this year (perhaps due to the explosion of foxes in the area…) and decided to risk it. We did not see one single squirrel on that walk but Benson was on high alert! His head was whipping all over the place, scanning the ground and the trees for any sign of a squirrel he could chase! But sadly for him, there were none to be found on that day…and Mom held on to her dignity!
We are well on our way now to meet our goal! The weather has been perfect for walking, with temperatures not too hot and the humidity low making for some great days where we can get some extra steps in. Grace, Benson and I are enjoying getting out more often and doing some extra exploring! And I am also very keen to get more kilometers in before we hit the winter walks…Continue to follow along with us on our journey!
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