Mouse is very agile and sometimes it's hard to keep up with her. Bender is great off leash in the bush and never goes far, so I walked both the hounds while N could take photos. Bender just enjoyed trotting along with us at his own pace. When we take his leash off he looks with a look on his face that says 'really? are you sure? wow! awesome!"
Bender took the opportunity to sniff and pee on everything. Mouse likes to pee on stuff too, but Bender really takes it to an extreme.
Even though it was a fairly mild day, Barbie sought out water wherever possible. She took sips out of every puddle we walked past, and then she discovered a small stream near the trail. She tried to convince us we should follow the stream instead of walking on the rocky, hot trail.
After we climbed up the hill we had a rest. They all found a flat spot to lie on. Mouse, as usual, had to be as close as possible to her sister.
We came across some horses on the trail, they are not Mouse's favorite creatures. I heard their riders chatting to each other first, so we put Bender back on the leash. I took Mouse far off the trail and made her sit and wait for them to go by. She let them go past and was really good until they got further down the trail, then she barked at them a couple of times. Mouse always has to shout. We are still working on it.
Some of the trail was quite overgrown and I wondered what the horses thought of pushing through this kind of vegetation. The dogs didn't seem to mind. Of course everyone had to be checked over for ticks when we got home!
I hope we make it back to Bells for a couple more hikes before the weather gets too hot for it. The dogs were nicely exhausted afterwards and it's one of my favorite winter places.
