Responsible Doggies and Owners and only 14 more sleeps until Lake Placid

I am a responsible dog owner. Hence my frustration when I can’t walk my dog any place I please. I have to say I am pretty fortunate in that I live in an area of Ottawa that has at least 4 off leash dog areas that are very lush, woodsy and pretty. But not everyone has that luxury and there really is not that many areas in town to take a good dog off leash.

I understand people who are afraid of dogs, or don’t trust dogs off leash, but I can essentially walk Abby around the block with no leash and she walks beside me. Now this did not come without a lot of work. My husband and I spent over a year with her on a long 50 foot lead, and countless hours of training, Agility and flyball etc to get her to where she is now. She is a dog that pretty much comes when called every time. Guinness followed suite as soon as we got him. He saw that mummy didn’t stray and figured out pretty quick that his owners are the ones with the “goods” whether they be treats, or in his case his Ball with Chuck-it Launcher. Case in point – I was at our Soccer pitch/park the other day (it’s not an off leash park but everyone brings their dogs there when there are no kids playing soccer and it’s empty most of the time anyways), and I was standing by the side of the road talking to a couple who stopped me to ask about my dogs. The lady was a former Wire Fox Terrier owner and we were gabbing about the breed, how great they are, how funny and fun they are etc. Then she looks at me and then the dogs who are off leash and just sitting on the grass and says “wow, your dogs are good, they just sit there and wait for you – my Beaner would have run off”. I proceeded to tell her my training details, that Abby used to bolt out of the house in jubilant freedom (short version). Fox Terriers are known to run off as I pointed out about Abby in her younger days, but if you spend enough time training them that YOU are the best thing in the world, and to leave You is just plain stupid, then you are Golden! The only time Guinness’ staying with us becomes questionable is in the Fall when the squirrels are busy collecting their winter food, but generally now all I have to do is bellow out a warning "GUINNESS'...and he hesitates (but he still takes off...LOL but always comes back)

The reason for this blog entry is this: Tim and I are heading to Lake Placid in a couple of weeks, and every time we take a trip with the dogs we have to do (well I do) a lot of research to find dog friendly places to take our dogs and general most places are not that friendly. In this particular case a beach, or hiking trails since it's summer and we will be in the mountains. See our dogs are better off leash – Abby in particular. She is generally a much nicer dog off leash as she feels less threatened, and she likes to poke around and dawdles. So imagine my excitement when I discovered that Mirror Lake and the beach in Lake Placid is DOG FRIENDLY – woot woot!!! See dog friendly beaches RARELY happen my friends. When we’ve been to Provincial campsites their “dog beach” is a scrap of crappy rocky ledge. Lake Placid hiking trails are also going to be great for our dogs. They love hiking off leash. And being the responsible owners that we are we bring baggies for poop, and also put them on their leash should they get out of hand, or little kids or unfriendly dogs barrel our way.

I guess I am writing this because I am also really excited about our trip. And I know the dogs will have a great time because of the dog friendliness of the place - since "mummy and daddy" will be happier too. Our friend Jason is doing the Ironman on July 26th and we will be there to cheer him on. He loves our dogs and was more then happy to have them come for the week leading up to his big event. There will be hiking, and eating, and running, and playing and drinking and yoga up top of Whiteface mountain. Only 14 more sleeps.