Beautiful Evening at the Top of the Laurel Mountains

I was dying to get up the mountain this evening. Fearing it was too warm and perhaps not much water to keep the dogs cool, I decided to just take a ride and took pup along–no “big dogs.” I was thrilled (and sad that I didn’t bring any other dogs) to find a wonderful breeze, shaded canopy, and some water in puddles.

It turned out to be a fabulous evening. It was a great opportunity to just let pup do her thing without the influence of an older dog. I must admit, I am very impressed with her. Seriously. She did very well and keeping far enough ahead, but looking back to keep an eye on me. She responded practically perfect to whistle commands to turn and come.

She was a beauty to watch trotting gallantly down the trail with her head held high, she would catch a scent and immediately turn and follow the scent into the brush and worked it with boldness, curiousness, and style; quickly dismissing it when either I would whistle, or get ahead of her on the trail, or she decided the scent no longer held her interest.

She was very alert and curious and noticed birds overhead. These were new trails to her and I liked very much that on the way back the maze of different trails we took, she stayed ahead of me and was taking the right trails back. Nice. She was back-tracking. I like that in a dog–one that is intelligent enough to use their nose to back track if separated from the hunter/handler.

It was a perfect evening and a very nice outing with pup. Back at the truck, I opened the door and she jumped right up in and up on the seat. She settled right in to her spot looking out the passenger window.  We checked out a few other spots and made the trip back down the mountain to home.

Nope, she is not as tired as I thought she would be. She is terrorizing Scott as he is trying to go to sleep and she wants to play. 🙂