Leader of the Pack

The Adventure Pack

What a nice change in the weather!  It sprinkled on us just a little bit during the hike today, but it wasn't bad.  Rucksack has come to be much more independently minded and spent his off-leash time exploring alongside the trail with Toskey following behind him instead of the other way around.  Usually, Toskey has been the more adventurous one and Rucksack would just follow his packmates.  There was a lot of sniffing early on today.  Usually, just one or two of the pack members will stop to sniff a spot here or there along the trail (aside from Benny, whose nose is almost always to the ground)) but today Coco, Mogul, Toskey, and Rucksack all stopped in unison to sniff the same places several times as we were making our ascent toward the First Flatrion.  At least one of the times, I think they were checking out a scent mark freshly left by a dog hiking a short way ahead of us - I noticed him stopping regularly to mark the trail.

The Play Pack

One of the regulars from the Valmont dog park visited Foothills today and brought an array of squeaky tennis balls with her.  Coco had a great time playing fetch with them and racing alongside the ball-bearer's dog, Lincoln.  Mogul hung out a good distance away and pounced for the ball whenever it came near him.  I went over and kicked it around for him for a while and he had fun diving to snatch it up but trying to get Mogul to actually fetch has been a losing battle.  Benny had no hope of getting the longer throws before Coco but when she was off chasing a ball I picked up another ball nearby and bounced it for Benny.  I wonder when his coordination will develop a little more finely - right now his strategy seems to be to swing around with his mouth wide open and just hope that the ball ends up in it.