Walking in a Winter Wonderland

The days are short now. By the time C and I are both home in the evenings, it’s too dark to go to the dog park. This isn’t an issue for June, who needs some exercise, but, as a Beagle, will happily sleep through the entire winter. For Larry, though…

Actually, he’s handling the transition from almost daily dog park to dog park 2-3 times a week fairly well. These last few weeks we’ve been lucky that we’ve had some chilly but mostly dry days to go. When it’s raining outside, not only don’t we want to go to the park, he doesn’t either.

On really rainy days, Larry actually seems good at recognizing he doesn’t want to be out and about and spends the day sleeping. However, as we get further and further from his last dog park outing, you can see the crazy come out. And of course, it always likes to come out right at bed time.

This is because they’ve been napping ever since eating, but right before bed, we make them wake up and go outside to do their business. And then, they’re awake. June would go back to sleep, but Larry has all this energy and suddenly there’s wrestling.

Of course, they both still want to be on the bed with us, so often there’s wrestling on top of one of us- at which point they get kicked out of the room.

The last two winters, we walked June and Smokey almost every day, regardless of weather. I think we need to suck it up and be willing to go out in the rain again. And I think we do need to go buy Larry a poncho or some other coat that will keep him from getting soaked through.

We were spoiled by the lovely summer and the dog park. Walks won’t let Larry run, but they will let him sniff and get some kind of exercise (an us too, horror of horrors). And Junebug enjoys a good walk, and a good sniff.

The dogs need this. We need this. Now we just have to get off of our duffs and do it.