English Shepherd Hike: June Edition

Everyone had such a great time during our English Shepherd hike May that they immediately suggested that we get our dogs together again for another hike.  Because everybody has a busy schedule, we settled on monthly hikes.  Unfortunately Laurie with Helo and Elvira, and Stephanie with Oliver could not come this time.  However, we did get an unexpected and welcome addition to the June hike. Mary convinced our mutual friend Jenn to come that morning.  Jenn owns four English Shepherds and a Border Collie cross, but only brought Chandler's cousin Nixie and Pace's sister Jure along for this hike.  It was great to see Jenn, because she was one of my earliest mentors in dog ownership and English Shepherds.

Nixie had to stay on leash.

She has a tendency to think I need some teeth paws on management,

Although for this hike I suspect she thought I wasn't doing a good enough job managing the others.

Imagine that!

Once again, the dogs had a great time mingling and sniffing as we wandered up the trail.

Kateri is smiling in this photo.

The chase games started soon after all the dogs became comfortable with each other.  At one point the dogs ran back and forth between the trail and the river.  This involved zooming through the woods down a mild slope until they hit the water about 400 feet away.  I think they did this four or five times before we moved on.

Pace seemed to be having an especially great time because his sister Jure was there.  Although they live in the same house, Mary and Jenn have separate packs and households; Pace had not played with his sister for a while, so the reunion between the two 15 month old dogs was rather rowdy at times.  Unfortunately for Pace and Jure, honorary uncle Chandler was on the job as playground police and broke up anything that looked like it was getting a bit too crazy.  Chandler manages this with his presence and some judicious shoulder checks, as far as I can tell.

Hey...Pace just cut his sister off.

All I'm doing is telling him to cross the trail and ditch in the ferns.

What do you mean Jure looks like she is laughing?

When we got to the dam, a red tailed hawk glided over, catching the thermals in a spiraling pattern.  I was able to get some great shots because we were on the hill that forms part of the dam, while the hawk was circling over the nearby meadow.

Hawk? What hawk?  You were supposed to be throwing my bumper into the water!

Of course the reservoir was the main attraction for the dogs once we got to the waterside.  Michelle was pleased to see that Kateri did try a bit of wading again, although she was not quite ready to go swimming with the other dogs yet.

I don't think Kateri was too thrilled by the steepness of this bank.

...and it doesn't help that Bug makes it look easy.

While the dogs were playing in the water, Patches (somewhat) achieved what seems to be one of his great ambitions.  For weeks he has been trying to steal the sticks and retriever bumpers that Chan fetches from the water.  Chan has fended him off every time, or at least managed to hold on to the opposite end of a very large stick in one case.  On this hike, Patches finally managed to steal the bumper from Jure.  As far as I could tell, Patches was elated.  Jure wasn't so thrilled, but her morale quickly rebounded as our outing continued.

Patches had better not think that this will work with me!

Once again, everyone had a great time (despite playground police and bumper snatchers).  At the end of the hike we set all the dogs up for a group photo.  Our next hike is scheduled for early July.

Left to right: Nixie, Jure, Kateri, Bug, Pace, me, Bridgett, Patches.

A very fun Saturday

It started innocently enough.  One of my English Shepherd owning Facebook friends realized she was close enough to join Chandler and I on one of our weekend hikes.  Stephanie set a day; I asked whether she'd  like to meet just Chan and I, or whether she would she like me to invite all the local ES people.  As far as she was concerned, more dogs were great.  What we ended up with was:

Seven women.
Eight English Shepherds.
One Cattle Dog cross...

...and we all had a GREAT time!

Look at all the cameras in this group!

After introductions, the dogs all got along fabulously.  They trotted and ran along the trail together, sniffing and marking all the interesting spots.

I'm taking point position!

The two tricolors, Pace and Patches, seemed to do some bonding.

Mom calls them the Tricolor Alliance.

There were multiple games of chase.

I'm going to get Elvira!!!!!!

Whee! Running with the pack!

Water loving dogs cooled off in the reservoir.

I give this splash a nine!  Excellent wake too, Bug!

Some who weren't so sure about water gave it a try.

Kateri is my grand-niece. We really have to work on her swimming skills.

Those that didn't like to wade abstained.

Really Oliver, you don't know what you're missing...

For the swimmers there was water fetch!

Patches is trying to steal MY stick. AGAIN!

...and also regular fetch on land.

I think this was more of a stick wrestling match between Bug and Pace...

After three hours of hiking, we all decided we'd like to do it again someday.

This was so much fun!!!!

Bridgett is smiling at you.  She says she had fun too.

Hiking with Laurie

As usual, I'm running behind on my posting.  On April 7th, I invited my friend Laurie and her dogs to join Chandler and me on our weekend reservoir hike.  She has two English Shepherds, Helo and Elvira.  This was their second visit to Buckingham Reservoir, as they had participated in Chandler's birthday celebration hike in October.  Elvira was a young puppy at that time, and she has done a lot of maturing since the last time we'd seen her.  She's bigger, but the most obvious difference is the appearance of her adult rough coat.  Of course she won't really be an adult until she is two, so at this point she's probably the equivalent of a teenager.

...not to mention playing with her is more fun now.

 

Helo was his usual amiable self.  It was good to see him doing well, because he has been having some issues with chronic Lyme disease and was undergoing more treatments at the time we took the hike.  Despite this, he seemed happy to see Chandler and me and even did a little bit of running during our hike.

Sable dogs...so much easier to get a photo of even when the light is wrong.

I'd be a black blob from this angle.

The final member of our canine hiking party was Ellie, a little black mix that Laurie was dogsitting.  I'm told she was rescued off the streets of Shanghai China while her owner was working there for a few years, and presently lives in New York City.  She certainly seemed happy enough to have a holiday in Connecticut, and got so fascinated by the sights and sounds of the reservoir that Laurie had to leash her for part of the hike because she kept falling behind to investigate interesting things.

Who wouldn't be happy running through pine woods and on grassy trails?

This was the first time I'd ever circled the entire reservoir, and the dogs all had a great time playing chase and wading into the shallows.  Chandler was the only swimming fanatic in the group, so we spent more time hiking.

They don't know what they're missing.

However, I think Elvira decided that starting a chase game soon after Chandler emerged from the water was a good idea.  As usual, Chan got to be the chasee much of the time.  During one of their games I managed to get a great photo of an English Shepherd "pileup" as Elvira chased Chandler into an ambush from Helo who cut him off.  Ellie was playing too, but I think she's hidden behind Chan in the photo:

Hey, you all are supposed to be BEHIND ME!  Watch where you are going!

The only fubar occurred when Chandler mistook Elvira's alert barks directed at another hiker as evidence of a real threat.  I had to grab him and give him a stern lecture.  Hopefully Laurie will be able to visit again soon so I can do some active training to address the problem.  I'm sure the alert barking is the issue as he hasn't had any issues while we were hiking with other people.  Otherwise it was a great day, both for us and the dogs.

Meeting new friends.

One of the nicest things about being part of a very small breed community are the friendships that form because people have their dogs as a common link. I've met some of my closest friends because of Chandler. English Shepherd owners may drive or fly many miles to be able to attend an English Shepherd Gathering and meet other owners and dogs. However, not all friendships have to span such distances. I recently discovered another English Shepherd owner living in the town next to mine. Last weekend Karen and I finally had the free time to take a hike together.

Karen's English Shepherd is named Patches. He's somehow connected to the Operation New Beginnings dogs, although I'm not sure if he was one of the dogs that was sent away before the raid, or if he was one of the dogs at the Metra. If so, I think he must have been a pup at the time, because he is younger than Chandler and seems to have gotten enough nutrition to grow to his full size. The only other thing I know is that Karen mentioned his foster family was in North Carolina.

Like me, Patches likes to run.

Karen also brought along her foster dog, Monty. He's a Great Pyrenees who is very shy around people. Apparently he comes from a situation where he was neither bonded to livestock nor socialized to people. He's probably similar in a lot of ways to the ONB dogs that needed "taming". Karen is working to socialize him and make him more confident around people. I think she appreciated that I knew that doing my best to ignore him would probably do Monty the most good. Monty quickly started shooting worried glances back at me if I walked behind him and Karen. I switched to walking in front of Karen and Monty for the rest of the hike, so he would be less concerned. He also got to listen to me talk Karen's ear off about English Shepherds, so I hope the experience of being around a garrulous but mostly harmless stranger was good for him.

Monty is handsome, but he got nervous
every time he heard Mom mention his name.

Chandler and Patches turned out to be practically two of a kind. They quickly bonded through the brotherhood of the zoomies, and spent some time running up and down the trail. Chandler got tired first. I think Patches has about five times the energy that Chan does.

Five times the energy? But I'm the one running in front!

Patches adores the water as much as Chandler does. Both boys spent some time fetching sticks out of the reservoir. I think Chan was the faster swimmer, but he's had a few more years of practice.

Here we come with our sticks!

The boys did get into a slight vocal tiff when Patches decided to try to steal Chandler's stick. Apparently, Patches is the bossy one in Karen's house. I'm not sure if he has been growled off before.

Hey! Go get your own stick!

Since Patches and Chan are both good-natured dogs, the little argument didn't do any damage. Soon after emerging from the water, the boys started a game of chase. Both Karen and I had a great time, and I think Chandler and Patches did too. Monty may feel otherwise, but I hope we stretched his horizons a little. I'm looking forward to taking another hike with Karen soon.

Wordless Wednesday: We met Patches last weekend.

Water Fetch

Chandler and I went hiking today. He had a great time. I managed to slip on the steep banking next to the dam. To his credit, Chan did look back over the top of the hill to see what had happened to me. I suspect he quickly figured out that the only damage done was to my ego and my clothes, which were liberally splattered with mud. There really wasn't any reason to put a halt to our exercise, so I trudged on, wiping at the mud and trying to find a good spot along the bank of the reservoir to rinse off the edge of my coat.

I found a good fetching stick first. It was about one inch thick and one and a half feet long, worn smooth and pale by the loss of its bark. Very easy to see.

Chandler quickly noticed that I was carrying it, and started to give me "hints". He'd stand in the shallows or on the edge of the bank, hoping that I'd toss the stick into the water for him. Unfortunately for him, the small plants and saplings that cluttered the edge of the reservoir preventing me from rinsing off my coat also kept me from tossing the stick. He had to wait until we forded a small stream and hiked into a small pine grove where there was a clear bank that would be good for fetching (and coat rinsing).

Despite the fact that it was less than forty degrees out today, Chandler proceeded to have a great time:



I find Chandler's love for playing water fetch very reassuring. As I have mentioned in other posts, I was recently surprised at how difficult it was to get Chandler to play. The fact that Chan will enthusiastically leap into cold water in hot pursuit of a floating stick proves that he is interested in playing. The problem is just that his definition of acceptable play circumstances has shrunken for some reason. My job will be convincing him to widen his perception of those circumstances. Convincing him will probably involve being very silly.

In the meantime, we'll keep playing water fetch, because he loves it and the exercise is good for his hips. Tomorrow we're going to the Wenzel Sugar House BEFORE hiking, to avoid muddy accidents. They're serving maple pudding cake this weekend, because Hebron is holding its Maple Festival. We were going to go today, but I really didn't want to show up looking like a ball of mud. Chandler wouldn't have cared (he'd just want some cake), but I did.

Wordless Wednesday: This place is infested with water ROUSs!

Snapshot Sunday: Don't break the ice.

Charter member of the ES polar bear club?

On Thursday my Doctor finally said that the pneumonia had been cleared from my lungs. I could go back to working full time and doing all my other normal activities. I was very happy.

Today was a clear day with good weather. It was only thirty degrees out, but that is normal for winter in Connecticut. A warm coat and hat would take care of any difficulties. I decided it was time to take Chandler out on a hike, as we hadn't been out on the trails for over a month because of my illness.

I quickly discovered two things.

1. After a month of forced rest I was out of shape and could not walk as fast as I was used to.

2. My dog is crazy.

No, really. (On point #2) We got to the reservoir, and he does this:

Cold? Well, maybe the water is a tad bit brisk.

I did mention it was 30 degrees outside, didn't I? A little thing like freezing weather will not stop my water dog. In that photo he is lying down in the water. To be fair, he didn't stay that way very long. In fact I think his hindquarters are already rising in that photo. However, he also waded in again when we got to the beach where I usually throw his buoy.

Of course, his fur then proceeded to freeze.

This is my new look. Do you like it?

The problem with frozen fur is that leaves tend to stick to it. Chan's britches ended up covered in leaves. Things stuck in his fur bother him, so he kept stopping to try to pick leaves off his chest, leg feathers, and britches. Unfortunately every time he sat he gathered more, much to his annoyance.

Hey! This is not my best side.
Point that camera elsewhere!

The only remedy was to defrost him. I turned the heat up in the car for the drive home. I haven't looked in the back seat yet. It seems to me that he entered the car with more leaves than he exited with.

A long time ago when the Earth was green...

Well, at this point, it certainly FEELS like it. In early October, much of the woods was still green. Half the treetops weren't lying on the ground either. It was a wonderful weekend, just before Chandler's 6th birthday on the 12th. To celebrate, I invited some of my friends and their English Shepherds to join Chandler and me on a hike at the reservoir.

Near the entrance to the trails is a large flat rock. It presented a wonderful opportunity for a photo, provided we could get all the dogs to cooperate. They humored us, although they all obviously wanted to run. However, adding a young puppy into the mix made it a bit more difficult, so it ended up being a very quick photo shoot. The results ended up looking like this:

(Right to left; yes, it's backward, it makes more sense that way.)
Elvira : I'm a puppy and I don't have to pose!
Sadie : Why does SHE get to play while we sit?
Helo : I'm posing so well!
Chandler : Hey, where is Elvira going?
Bridget : Ignore the puppy...just pose for the camera...

Obviously, posing did not last long. Maybe we'll be able to get a more ordered group photo next year when Elvira knows the meaning of the word "stay". Very quickly, the scene ended up looking more like this:

This is Sadie, isn't she pretty?

Of course, this didn't last long either, because the dogs quickly found a large mud puddle. Bridget and Helo are not into mud puddles. However, Sadie and Chandler adore mud puddles, and it turns out that Elvira is impressionable. We were all laughing hysterically while the dogs splashed about getting filthy, but it turned out that some careful negotiations were occurring.

Elvira: Hey, I want in on this puddle fun!
Sadie: Hmmmm...I'm still deciding if Chandler can stay.
Chandler: What?!? I was deciding if you could stay!

Chandler: Puppies are not allowed within the mud puddle
unless they are accompanied by an adult.
Elvira: But Sadie is right over there!

Sadie: Mud is good for your complexion!

Elvira manages to look cute even when mud splattered.
It's a puppy thing.

We eventually moved away from the mud hole, and the dogs all had a great time sniffing along the sides of the trail. Of course, Chandler eventually HAD to start a game of chase. I really wish I could be a normal dog owner and not worry when the dogs are playing. Unfortunately Chandler is Mr. Dangerprone Dog, and I'm always worried that he'll impale himself (again) or strain his hip muscles (again). I always feel like I should apologize to my friends for being a nervous wreak whenever Chan accelerates, and for breaking things up if they get a bit too wild. Fortunately, I had been keeping up with Chan's exercises, so he held up fine for this outing.

Helo: This is an unauthorized chase. Stop now!
Chandler: Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!
Sadie, Elvira, & Bridget: Get him! Get him!

It turned out that Sadie and Chandler were having a great time together. I swear they were flirting. Bridget decided that she was going to play fun police and chaperone.

Bridget: Ok you two, stop that rushing about right now!

We finally made it to the reservoir, which is the main event as far as Chandler is concerned. I'd brought his retrieving buoy, and he had a good time fetching it out of the water.

I adore water!

Sadie fetched some sticks out of the reservoir; it turns out that she is a water dog too. However, not everyone was thrilled with water sports.

Bridget: Get wet? I'll wade a little, but my tail really looks best dry, thank you.

Helo: Well, if you insist I might wade, but really, this swimming stuff isn't for me.

After swimming, the dogs continued their shenanigans as we followed the trail along the lakeside.

Elvira: Look at me! I'm an antelope!

Elvira: Hey Bridget, do you wanna play?

Elvira: Hey! Let me in on this wrestling match!

Overall, it was a great outing. I hope to arrange more group hikes in the future. Unfortunately they will have to wait until my pneumonia clears out, which means the next hike could be through snow, at this rate.

Mudhole Negotiations

I'm very overdue for an update. I've been working on a post about the hike we took with friends the weekend before Chandler's birthday. Unfortunately, I just worked over 60 hours this week, and am exhausted. Writing will have to wait until I feel more coherent.

Instead I offer a slideshow of some photos I took during the hike. The mud puddle incident was hilarious, but it wasn't until I looked at the photos that I realized how much communication was passing between the dogs.

The players:

Chandler- adult male ghost tri that looks like a black and white
Sadie- one year old female tricolor
Elvira- black and white female puppy

Last weekend.

In July I discovered a wonderful new place to hike with Chandler. It is a local reservoir that is very popular with the local dog walkers. It has wide shaded trails, a meandering stream, both deciduous and coniferous trees, a mowed meadow (cuts down on the ticks), and the reservoir itself. It is practically the perfect spot to take Chandler during the hot summer months, as both the shade and available water help keep him cool. Frankly it was too good not to share, so last weekend I invited my friend Laurie to come hiking with us. I will admit to some ulterior motives; if Laurie liked the reservoir as much as I did, I could probably convince her to make the drive up to central Connecticut more often! Laurie brought along her male English Shepherd, Helo and her new puppy, Elvira. The purpose of the hike was to let me meet Elvira, and give her a good socialization experience.

Here is a photo of all three of us on the trail, this is a great hiking area!

The shade and available water were also good for Helo, who doesn't like the heat. Helo is somewhat my (and Chandler's) fault. Laurie probably would never have known about English Shepherds if she hadn't run into Chandler and I at the Connecticut Pet Expo two years ago. She expressed surprise that Chandler was not a Border Collie, survived my "the good, the bad, and the downright ugly facts about English Shepherds" lecture, and adopted Helo from a breeder within a few months. Helo is a retired stud dog, but I think he likes his new life.

...and he's sporting such a trendy summer haircut!

Helo actually has a LOT of grandpuppies and great grandpuppies out there in the English Shepherd gene pool. Sometimes I feel like I accidentally gave Laurie an entire second family that day she met Chandler and I. Elvira is one of Helo's grandpuppies, and is from a farm in New York state. She's also related to Chandler through his grandfather, who is one of Elvira's great-grandfathers. Chandler and I both approve. :)

I think it is entirely unfair that puppies are adorable without even working at it.

Elvira is a happy little girl who is probably going to grow up into a little spitfire. Even at only 10 weeks of age very little about the hike frightened her. She's curious and has good self confidence.

She's got some ZOOM in her too.

Chandler is one of those dogs that is safe around puppies, which makes him perfect for socialization outings. However, he is less interested in younger pups so Elvira spent some time trailing after him. I think she was a bit confused by some of Chandler's usual antics.

Really, I was just going easy on her for the Hide and Seek game...

We finally got to the reservoir, and Chandler was overjoyed to see all the water. I swear the dog must think he is part Labrador Retriever. He also looks so much smaller when he is wet. I never realize how much fur he really has until it is all flattened down with water.

Oh come on Auntie Laurie, please throw another biscuit out into the water.
Pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaassssssssssseeeeeeeeeeeeeee?

Helo isn't quite the water fanatic that Chandler is. He prefers to wade genteelly through the shallows.

Helo doesn't know what he's missing.

Elvira isn't so sure about water yet either, but she's still a tiny pup. Laurie says she's fallen in a few times and had to swim to shore.

Really kid...water is soooooooooo much fun!

Both Helo and Elvira spent some time watching Chandler fetch his training dummy from the water, but didn't decide to join in. Chan is a very strong and focused swimmer when it comes to water fetch. He manages to kick up a minor wake as he beelines toward his goal.

I even accelerate well in water!

However, he's a bit more leisurely about bringing it back. Hopefully Elivira will give him some competition someday, as Helo seems to be happy in the shallows.

I love to play water fetch!

It was a really fun outing. I loved being able to meet Laurie's new pup, and the dogs had a great time. Hopefully they'll be able to come back soon.

This is the highly artistic granddaughter/ grandfather photo.