Winter Walks

When you own a border collie, which is a high energy working dog, you don't get breaks from taking walks in the winter. Our Izzy is not bothered by low temperatures or snow and if she doesn't get worked enough, she finds her own, less desirable, jobs in the house. As we bundle up to take her for two daily walks a day (a minimum of 40 minutes a day) we always dread the walk. However, by the time we are finished, we always feel good!

This morning was wonderful. Izzy and I walked Alexander to his dog sitting job and then continued on. We stopped and talked with neighbors and found out one neighbor who was huffing and puffing hasn't shoveled in a while. His snow blower pooped out on him this morning. However, even while breathing heavily with a bright red face that didn't look very healthy, he did his own driveway and then continued working on a neighbor's driveway. I saw a lot of that on my walk - neighbors snow blowing or shoveling their neighbor's driveway. What a nice thing to come home to after a long day at work.

Izzy and I continued walking until we wrapped around the neighborhood and picked Alexander up to finish our walk home together. I felt good getting some fresh air (as fresh as you can get with lots of snow blower fumes in the air) and seeing so many people out doing nice things for their neighbors.

As the kids and I worked together to shovel our own driveway, I felt energized and found the work enjoyable!

You wouldn't think this was a high energy dog when we were shoveling today. She found a spot on the driveway and refused to move. We had to shovel around her .