Biking

.
Today I took Dazzle to the park and went on the longer bike loop. We did 8 miles, mostly flat but he helped pull me up the small hills. I kept him at a slow trot off the side of the paved trail to keep his feet from getting bruised or abraded off. When we got to the main part of the trail, surrounded by farm fields, I let him off-leash for a bit. I wanted to be sure I wasn't pushing him too hard and wanted to give him the option to stop or slow down. Well, I got my answer when he ran happily through the tall grass at the edge of the field hopping like a bunny with a big Mali grin on his face. :-)
.
He did a great job staying with me and ignoring the joggers, walkers, bikers and people on roller blades. Plus the critters that I'm sure were out there including birds that let him get pretty close before they flew off. He even remained pretty calm when a suicidal squirrel didn't choose to run till we were almost on top of him! Dazzle watched him with intense interest, but didn't pull the bike too much and once past, I took him back off leash and he went right back to hopping through the grass.
.
We took a short detour at the end of the trail so he could swim in the river which he really loves. The water was ankle to elbow deep on him and he ran back and forth splashing and bouncing. Then as he was running, he went SPLOOSH into a deep part! I know he didn't expect it, but he got his feet back on the bottom on the other side, shook off and continued on like he meant to fall in a hole. LOL I couldn't help but laugh out loud!
.
When we were almost back to the car, I slowed to his walking pace to "cool" him down, though he wasn't even breathing hard!
.
He didn't sleep on the 10 minute ride home, and once home, he went to the back yard grabbed a ball and started running! Mike tossed it a few times for him before coming in. Dazzle came in a bit later and shoved the ball in my lap.
.
Oy! I'm so thankful that he is usually pretty good at "chilling out" even when he wants to run or play. Though sometimes he just pesters one of the other dogs till they play with him :-)