Our first woods walk

Today was the first "quiet" day we've had to actually get some training done. I also wanted to start a good routine with Page. We went through the same morning routine as yesterday, but today it ended with me leaving for my exercise class. I realized this morning, it would be the first time I've left Page at the house alone.

Page got a Kong with grain-free kibble and peanut butter. She's getting very good about going in her crate in the kitchen since that's where she eats. She only fussed a little as I left ... well as far as I know! The other dogs didn't rat her out. 

She was totally quiet when I came in 1.5 hours later. I ran upstairs to change clothes, which prompted her to bark. However, once I stopped moving around (to wait her out so she'd stop barking), she immediately became quiet so I could go into the kitchen and get her. After a potty break, it was into the SUV for errands and a woods walk!

Before heading to the park for the woods walk, I stopped back by church (where my fitness classes are) and introduced her to a few people there. Once again, she walked from the car all the way into the building and through the doors on her own. I'm really proud of her boldness to do this. Inside, she was adored, which she loved. 

Someone commented how mellow she was because they knew Goldens who were "hyper." I laughed and said they were seeing her in a rare down moment. I think she wanted to take a longer nap this morning, which was why she was mellow. On the way back through the parking lot, she got to meet two little girls and their dad. When she heard the kids playing on the playground, she wanted to detour to see all of them too! Just like Devon, she loves kids. Thank you Gayle and Lise!

After a couple of errands, we went to the park for her first woods walk. Surprisingly, she was hard to lose. She stayed right behind me almost the entire walk. I was able to get these videos only when I could get ahead of her by stepping over logs.

The more we walked, Page did finally venture to my side and gave me some distance. Twice I was able to step behind a couple of small trees and give her a few seconds to wonder where I was. I know she used her nose to find me, which is a great start for her tracking.

The best thing about these woods walks is the puppy learning proprioception. Page especially enjoyed playing on logs and walking on them. These two clips show what I hope is the start of a great dogwalk and teeter performance! All I did to encourage her is walk beside the long; I didn't say anything to her. She was even trotting along the log, she was so confident.

The temperatures had reached the upper 70s, and it was getting warm. After several weeks where we couldn't get out of the 50s and had cold rain, this was a big temperature change. In fact, it was 20 degrees warmer than the previous day before noon. I know humans and dogs have to get used to this warmer weather gradually, and I could tell Page was very hot and tired after 25 minutes, so I headed back toward the car.

I made my way to one of the paths, to see what Page would do when she hit a trail. On my first woods walk with Devon, she was on a trail and I stepped behind a tree. She took off and tracked me all the way back to the car, scaring me to death! Sure enough, Page got on the trail and took off like a shot racing ahead. She didn't even think about me being behind her; she was hot and tired and thirsty. Before she got out of sight, I called her back, and she came running. Three times this happened, including once where she was out of sight before I called her. I can see we'll have to work on this over the coming weeks!

Back in the car to the water bucket and air conditioning! But the woods walk did what I intended. Page was completely sacked by the time I got home. I carried her into her crate where she went back to sleep without a single whimper. Finally, I was able to get the kitchen and downstairs cleaned up! Now maybe I can make a dent in the 250 emails I have waiting for me...