Vacation

It's fall, the weather is nice, the woods are wonderful and there will be no school nor work for either of us the coming week. Elbereth will get her share of hiking and playing.

A day of sun and fun

Instead of hiking in the woods today, Elbereth, Tom and I rode in the car for 30-40 minutes to reach a "dog field" near Sem Gjestegård in Asker. It's a fairly large fenced field that borders on Semsvannet (Sem lake) where dogs are allowed to run loose.

The weather turned beatiful after the foggy morning and we enjoyed running and playing dogs for more than two hours. Elbereth was thrilled. She hardly ever paused, but once in a while the dog pack ran down to the lake to drink and then she went in for a quick swim before entering the race again.
Dogs and owners came and went while we stayed there, and there seemed to be a majority of young dogs Elbereth's age or a few months older. It was perfect - we humans enjoyed it as much as the dogs. We will go back soon - maybe even give up our traditional Sunday hike tomorrow to go there again.

It was a grey, foggy morning...

The woman and the young dog left the sleeping house quietly. After 20 metres they encountered the oldest cat, who didn't budge when the dog went up to him. The dog realized there would be no hunt and went willingly with the woman towards the road with all the exciting smells.

The couple proceeded towards the forest and managed to pass all the houses without meeting a single moving car. The woman sighed with relief as they entered the woods. The dog was let loose and they started the climb towards higher ground.

Suddenly the woman became aware of a small black and white head appearing over a rock ahead. She spun around and realized that the dog hadn't seen anything yet. The leash was put on again and they proceeded towards the strange cat who was not happy to see the dog. As the cat ran, the dog tried to follow, but soon behaved well again and heeded the woman's commands. The woman sent a friendly thought to her husband and their dog trainer who had been working hard the last couple of weeks trying to get better manners into the young dog.

The rest of the walk was uneventful. The light was growing, but they didn't rest at the highest point to admire the view as they usually did. The pile of horse manure was passed without trouble this morning, it had obviously become to old to be tasty and the dog preferred a snack from the woman's hand instead. Back on the road it was still too early for people to be moving around in their cars, so the woman and the dog trained sitting and staying and then walking heel for a few steps before going indoors to eat breakfast and wake the rest of the family.

Weekend hiking

Elbereth proved to us earlier this week that she can't be trusted to run free when we go for a hike in the woods. She ran off to meet some other dogs and didn't heed our calling at all. One might wonder what she uses her big ears for - she's got very selective hearing, that's for sure. We've learned our lesson and now she has to pull a long line in the woods.

We've had two wonderful hikes this weekend and made some unsuccessful attempts at making her follow a track. At other times she is more than happy to put her nose to the ground and follow the scent of another dog long passing, but when one of her humans go into hiding, she runs around with her head held high sniffing the air - and of course she find us anyway.

On Saturday we climbed over rocky ground and dead branches,
around wet marshes and through bracken. We rested on this hill top.

Today we managed to get Sebastian to come along and we went for a long walk to this lovely lake.

The September sun warmed the air today and Elbereth enjoyed
the water and chased the dragonflies that hunted over the lake.

Hot dogs were definitely not the right Sunday snack for Elbereth - although we humans
enjoyed them. Here she makes sure one of the pieces she was given is well buried.