Yesterday we took the dogs hiking at a beautiful place along the Snake River, about an hour from Boise. The river on one side and these massive cliffs on the other side where falcons nest and ravens soar. See the ravens? You can hear them as you walk along the cliffs.
That blue sky was just so perfect!
The rocks at the base of the cliffs are inhabited by rock chucks, a kind of marmot. They have this piercing whistle that really drives the dogs crazy! They can't get all the way up to where the rock chucks are but they hear them and know it must be some kind of animal.
Both dogs really had a fantastic time climbing rocks and peeking into hiding holes.
Neat moss covered rocks.
Giant squishy feet!
A piece of a tiny jawbone.
Indi stopped to listen when she noticed the pigeons cooing in the cliffs.
Today I was reading through a list of blogs written about aging in agility, here is a link if you wanted to go read. http://dogagilityblogevents.wordpress.com/aging/
It made me nostalgic and a little sad, thinking about Rye. I had to go watch some of his old agility runs on youtube. My goodness he was fast! Not always but sometimes! He was also nervous and that made him do things like run out of the ring to go find my husband on more than one occasion. A definite sign of stress. He had his moments of greatness though. Here is a favorite run.
Now we've gone so long without practicing that he can't weave 6 poles!
He sleeps very soundly. So soundly that I came home the other night from going out to eat at IHOP with sausages for the dogs, walked through the house to find him lying on his bed in the back room sleeping. I walked right up to him and held the sausage under his nose to wake him up. I wish I had my video camera! Quite adorable.
Even on our regular hikes he walks on the trail behind me more often than he goes out into the sagebrush.
I was starting to worry about him, his heart mainly. I took him to work for blood work and to have the vet listen to his heart. His murmur has not changed at all so that is great! He has no obvious arthritis, just less range of motion in his front wrists than normal. And his blood work came back completely normal. Very very happy.
So I guess he's just getting old. He'll be 13 in February.
I bought him a new toy, and Indi can't touch it. It stays in it's spot until we go to the park where Indi fetches her ball (over and over and over) and Rye plays with the Weiner Bear.
The Weiner Bear, body of a weiner dog and face of a bear...
Give me my Weiner Bear
An older video of Rye playing with a Kong frisbee. Definitely see a difference in energy! This was almost two years ago. Now he still does his adorable happy dance with a toy but for like 5 seconds and then he lays down with it.
Last weekend we took the dogs on a short vacation to Stanley, Idaho. We stayed in a hotel and hiked around Stanley Lake. Rye never once walked behind me on the trail. What is up with that? Is he bored of his home foothills that he has walked probably hundreds of times? Was he just invigorated by the new smells? Whatever the reasons, I was happy to see him having so much fun!
A weekend spent with family in the mountains was quite nice. A nearby wildfire made for smoky air though. We have been breathing smoke in Boise for a few months now so it was nothing new.
Yesterday morning I took Indi on a hike up the hill across the street. First stop, the overturned boat we had to pass by. She was very cautious of it but when I climbed up on it, she did too and then was fine.
Early morning light showed how smoky the air was.
Indi is a little cautious in the woods. Where Amber was queen of the jungle, perfectly comfortable in the wild, Indi is clingy and worries a little about sounds and does not wander very far. She is getting better and seems to enjoy it more and more the more I take her out so I hope she keeps getting better. When she seems worried about something I can almost always fix it by throwing a stick or a pinecone for her to go get.
She likes the walk back better than the walk in and gets very excited.
I don't want to stress her out but I also want her to enjoy hiking with us! It is part of our life. Do any of my readers have advice for us?
Also, she is much happier to be out hiking when Rye is with us. I had to leave him home the first time due to all the stickers he always gets on this hillside. It is a giant pain for both of us to brush them out once we're home. I have had to cut his tail feathering off a few times because of the burrs.
Of course anything involving water makes her feel comfortable. This was this morning at "Fish Lake".
After retrieving her stick a few times we hiked around the rocks a little bit.
