View of the Farmington Valley

Jim explains the scenery to Emma

Happy hikers

A New Adventure: Hike up Talcott Mountain

We took another fun hike this past weekend to introduce the puppies to yet another type of terrain and experience a new adventure. This time, our walk took us just a few minutes drive from our house, to the Talcott Mountain State Park where the Heublein Tower is located. http://www.ct.gov/dep/cwp/view.asp?A=2716&Q=325272 This is a tall tower, about 5 stories tall, that was built by a local entrepreneur many decades ago, and has become the most visible landmark in the Farmington Valley in Connecticut. When you get up close to it, it is much larger than it appears on a daily basis when you see it in the sunlight from below. It’s a really amazing structure, with a great view of the valley.

Heublein Tower

This is only the second time that we both took the walk together, and it’s only about a 35 minute walk up the hill, part of it being a little bit of a breather, even for the puppies. But once you’re on top, it’s pretty flat and easy to negotiate, with some lookouts along the way to the tower. There are no railings to hold you back from the edge, so you need to use your own discretion about how close you go. With two fun-loving puppies, we kept them pretty close to us on their leashes for the walk. We didn’t want to take any chances with one of them running a little too close to the edge. We did see a helicopter landing pad at the base of the mountain, so it’s obvious that this is not a place to be careless.

It was really a perfect day for the walk, especially since we started out early in the morning before the majority of people got on the trial. We passed only a couple of joggers on our way up, but on the way back there were lots of walkers. And the day was heating up a little too, while we had a perfect temperature for a nice leisurely climb.

Emma, the little mountain goat!

Will and Emma both loved the trail, even though they were both a little winded on the steepest part. They explored the new terrain, which was for the most part a well kept trail, but along the side part way, we came to a sheer rock wall which we had to stop and explore. Of course, Emma was the little mountain goat and climbed easily with her short, strong legs. Will, ever the gangly teenager, even did the climb easily, but not quite as sure-footed as Emma. He just wanted to play in the new environment. We call him the ‘playboy’ because he just wants to romp and jump and bound along light-heartedly. Emma gets pretty impatient with him at times, and her snapping at him does slow him down a bit, but not usually for long. He’ll be back after a while to entice her to play again. They are really such different personalities, and it’s been an adventure for us getting to know them both, and trying to understand what makes each of them tick.

Will, wondering what's next

I'm ready to play!

A day at the WAG Park

Little Daisy, the 'jug' (pug and Jack Russell mix)

Will is fascinated by Daisy

Are you for real?

Jazz, the happiest dog in the world!

Running free!

Jazz joins the chase!

Trip to Burlington

We spent a week in our hometown of Burlington, Ontario, Canada last week, our first week long visit since the puppies were just new to our home. It was a fun week of visiting family and doing some projects around our townhouse. The puppies got a chance to visit with a lot of their friends and even met some new dog friends at the WAG Park in Burlington. It was their first visit to a proper dog park where they could run free off-leash in a totally enclosed area with other dogs. They had a fantastic time, running and playing with about six or so other dogs at any given time. We met my sister, Lori there, with her springer spaniel, Jazz. They all had fun running together and even Emma didn’t have to worry about Will barking at her. He seemed to have so many other dogs to run with that he didn’t seem to bother Emma as much. It was a real treat for all of us. For some reason, Will has to bark and bark at Emma, and at other dogs sometimes. It seems like he wants to get them to play, but it really disturbs Emma, and she just fights back by biting and snapping at him, or by staying close to me and ignoring or hiding from him. The is consistent behavior and we don’t really know how to correct it. So it was a really nice treat to see that he could play without barking.

They met all kinds of other dog, but their favorite (and ours too), was a little puppy called Daisy. It was one of the cutest dogs I’ve seen in a long time, a cross between a pug and a Jack Russell terrier, known as a ‘jug’. We’d never heard of this, but it seems like a common cross-breed these days, trying to breed out the respiratory problems that the pug has. Will was just fascinated with her, and wanted to play. It was almost as if he thought it was his toy puppy. He was quite gentle with her and it was cute to see.