After nine weeks of increased walking for the Woof Walk challenge, we are definitely noticing some changes! In the past week, we hit over 257 kilometers towards our 1000km goal! I have noticed Grace is slimmer and seems to be more peppy and Benson is looking great as well! Their food intake has gone up so I am keeping a close eye to make sure we don’t cancel out the good work we are doing!
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Wonky Summer Weather
Besides the heat, it has been raining cats and dogs! Almost every single day we have had torrential downpours that last as little as an hour or even several hours! This has put our schedule off a little…Benson definitely reminds me, sitting in the living room grunting at me when it’s walk time!
We have still managed to get out and about though, my dogs don’t really care if they are wet or not. Unlike me…But we have been finding enough opportunities to squeeze our walks in!
Meeting Up With Our Buddies
Grace and Benson have definitely gotten to know the dogs where we walk! Usually heading down to the beach in the morning and the ravine park at night, we run into who we consider the regular crew often! If we miss a day for weather or another reason, the excitement is palpable when we do run into our buddies again!
Today little Kiera looked like she was trying to ride Benson’s back she was so excited to see him! And I usually get quite the warm welcoming committee as well…Since I’m known to often have treats on hand! I actually made a new conquest this week as well!
Hara is a rescue dog that belongs to one of the walkers at the dog park. Typically quite skittish, it surprised me when she started coming to me for treats and rubs! Similar to Kiera…Where the dogs will come to me before the walkers! She even tried jumping up into my arms yesterday! I have to admit, I love the attention from all the dogs as I find it quite therapeutic.
Benson Gets Leashed!
We all know the story of how Kiera started getting leashed around me. Well, after finding the dead squirrel near the bushes in the park he found half a PIZZA in the bushes! Since then, I simply cannot keep him from running in there and coming out covered with burrs!
If he does it once, that’s it. Out comes the leash!! Grace even had a moment over the past week where she took off into the bushes and I couldn’t find her! At one point all I could see was her nose poking out. She was hiding from me! She finally came, covered in mud and burrs and it was HER turn to get leashed!
I’m really not sure what the fascination is with that particular park! We haven’t been going quite as much as a result. And when we do go I tend to stick at the end where there are NO bushes! I’m tired of spending over an hour a day combing burrs out of their fur…
More Allergies
It really has been quite the year for us and allergies. I thought the dogs were better and haven’t had Benson on Reactine as much. But all FIVE of the animals started shaking their heads over the past week! I bundled ALL of them into my car and off to the vet.
Finding nothing wrong again with their ears, the vet suggested allergies as the likely culprit. With Benson, his ears were inflamed but no sign of infection at least. He got an ear treatment and will need to go back in tomorrow for the second one.
With Grace, she has been chewing her front legs to the point they are scabby. And licking her belly non-stop. Smelling very sour even immediately after a bath. Allergy shot for her…but she seems much better and perkier now on our walks as I think she is much more comfortable! The cats all have drops too…
Grace Protests
The past couple of days have been HOT. And humid. Making walks a lot less comfortable. So as soon as Gracie finds a cooler spot in the shade or on the grass she FLOPS down on her side and refuses to move!
She also finds that she gets a lot of attention from passerby’s by doing this…She is a smart gal that one. Too smart sometimes…
Coaxing with lots of treats usually gets her up and moving again, but there were a couple occasions she absolutely refused to get back up! And she has learned if I drop the leash and walk away she’s free to run the other direction. So a lot of time on our walks was spent sitting and waiting for her highness to decide to move again!
Swimming Time!
To beat the heat, as soon as we get to the beach both dogs are running for the water! Grace spent most of this morning’s walk out paddling around. Guess what my floors are looking like right now…
Benson surprised me today by actually getting almost fully into the water as well! It’s relieving that he is getting more comfortable with the water because I can’t imagine how uncomfortable this heat is making him. But again, my poor floors!
The Water Fountain
In one of the parks we walk through there is a water fountain, but I haven’t seen it on since moving into my house two years ago.
One day last week as we headed home from the park I noticed it was on! Grace and Benson spent a lot of time checking it out and wading in it! I can imagine they thought it was just a giant water bowl!
Queen Street
Quite often when walking home from the park I will take the dogs down Queen Street. Grace thinks this is the BEST because she often gets bombarded with attention! I had thought my dogs would get less attention as adults than they did as puppies, but this has NOT turned out to be the case!
Grace will swing her bottom onto anyone walking behind her…beside her…in front of her…And the LOOK of pure joy on her face when she gets some attention! This is where I really think that I am going to end up taking her for training to be a therapy dog!
It looks like the weather is cooling down the next couple of days, so hopefully we can manage some longer walks. But we are still loving the challenge and having new adventures! I have some ideas where I want to explore over the next week, so stay tuned for that update!
6 comments
I can remember taking our Staffordshire Terrier for a walk through Colonial Williamsburg on a hot summer day. She was old and did not have the stamina that she once had. She decided to flop down on her side in the only puddle of muddy water we saw and refused to get back up. I am sure I was quite the picture carrying my 50-pound wet and muddy dog back to our car.
Oh wow, I can picture this! I have to bribe Grace with treats to get back up when she flops…which she does quite frequently…I think she has me well trained!
Awww. Kiera reminds me of my red merle Aussie when he was a pup! So important to socialize them!
She really is a sweet dog! Socialization early on is absolutely key! As I said in the post, Benson came home after the first lockdown so wasn’t socialized as well but I did what I could with him and kept working on him when we were allowed out and about again!
What adventures! My last dog was a small home body….didn’t like going outside. After his passing I felt instant guilt of all that he missed out on in life. Our newest dog wants to live ONLY outside and my goal is to give him all the experiences that I can.
Yes!! I love doing everything I can with my dogs!