3mph

33/58 degrees F, it was CRISP when we left this morning. Timed our “walk” today. Fed the dogs at 0800. Left at 0938, came back at 1040. We traveled a shade over 3 miles. With a short water break halfway. I’m calling it a walking pace of 3mph over the flat.

We changed up the route and I had plenty of time to think amid the loose-leash training with Mensa & Tok. I put them in chain collars for their leash-collar and left them in their semi-slip sledding collars embroidered with my phone number for their id-collar — I am a huge fan of the 2-collar system. Because if the leash-collar breaks, they still have ID on them. Instead of me chasing them with a broken-ID collar in my hand yelling, Come back, come back!

Tok picked up the training in the first couple of “eh!” corrections (think hoarse seagull, that’s the sound I make when the leashes go tight and I stop in my tracks). Mensa wants to lead out and Tok wants to follow at her shoulder or behind, and I don’t mind either so long as I don’t get jerked around. This is not obedience training, this is loose-leash walking. By the Fire Fall they were walking with a nice minor-tension in the lead, just enough to let them know I was back there. I can live with that for hiking.

Couple of things to do differently next time.

• Put Yuki up when walking Mensa. Forget that. Again. They just do not like each other and the time to work on that is not when I’ve got Mensa & Tok on leashes outside a fence.
• Bring camera, I keep forgetting that.
• Upon reflection, I’m going to add Emmer & daughter Yodel to the hiking training group. I like the mother-daughter aspect of hiking with Mensa & Tok.
• Bayou and Yuki are not related (closely) but they do live and play together. I may add them as well. After individual loose-leash training. I want to continue that close relationship as long as possible between two adult females.
• And bring water bowl and water — in their packs when they arrive. Have 2 wenahas and 1 palisades on the way.

So far we have encountered 2 chained dogs on this route. This morning there was only 1 chained dog. That makes for a good route. Waved at everybody we saw, which was not many, and all of them in vehicles.