Biker hounds

Kili and I added a new activity to our repertoire 2 summers ago - biking.

I hadn't had a bike in probably 10 years. I loved to bike as a kid, but I outgrew my bike when I was a teenager and didn't replace it because I had started to have a weird knee issue whenever I rode. My doctor tells me that a lot of women have irregularly shaped knee caps, so this might be the cause. When I ride a bike, if my knee doesn't straighten at the bottom of the cycle it starts to "lock". I'm not sure how else to describe it. It doesn't hurt but it is very uncomfortable and makes riding unpleasant. I would have to stop every couple of rounds and shake my knee to "loosen" it, and if I didn't it would get to a point where it couldn't get any tighter and would "crack". And then the whole thing would start again. As a result, I haven't really ridden a bike in quite a long time.

I finally bit the bullet and went down to the bike shop in town. I thought perhaps if I had a bike that was fitted to me properly, maybe my knees wouldn't be such a problem. Success! I do still feel a bit of it when I ride, especially on hills, but with the right sized bike adjusted so that my legs can totally straighten while I'm riding... I'm actually able to enjoy biking! I am so excited!

Kili and I love to go out to a big dog friendly park in Edmonton and hit the trails.

I also purchased a "Cycleash" attachment for the bike so that Kili and I can bike safely inside the city as well. She doesn't love this quite as much as she's always preferred to run at a varied pace, however she does seem to prefer jogging with the bike over jogging with me running. This may be the difference in pace since the bike is faster. Kenna also recently started joining me for jogs and bike rides, and she's really enjoying it. I am slowly trying to build endurance on both girls, though Kenna does seem to have more of a natural knack for distance. Here we are demonstrating our Cycleash attachment. In theory I can attach a second bar on the other side for a second dog, however I haven't been able to buy the arm attachment only, and anyway I'm not ready to have a dog on each side as I still check in on them a lot right now which sometimes results in the bike drifting a bit.

10 months - Edmonton Pet Expo

Kenna and Summit representing the breed.

January brings the Edmonton Pet Expo. While this is not the biggest, most wonderful pet expo experience out there (Pets in the Park in the summer is the best one in Edmonton, and Toronto has Woofstock which I miss dearly), it is still a pretty neat event. We have been going for the past 2 years with the local greyhound adoption group who has a booth. We hang out with our hounds and let people interact with them, and answer questions they might have about greyhound adoption. Last year I took Kili and Summit. This year I took Kenna and Summit, since Kili gets to have all the fun (she stayed home and recovered from an agility trial the day before).

Kili at last year's Pet Expo

Kenna is my Pat'n'Chat dog for SuperDogs, and she hasn't been in a large crowd of people since about the time of our last show in August, so this was good for her. She really enjoyed herself and thrilled people with her exuberance and kisses (remember, most of the other dogs are retired racers, so a little more contained and dignified!). Summit enjoyed himself, as he always does, in his more laid back way... namely laying or standing around hoping someone will come over and pet him (he was not disappointed).

Summit with his most adoring fan, my friend's little daughter.

We can't wait for next year!

Fall Photoshoot

The kids had a fall colours photoshoot back in October. My photographer got so many wonderful images of everyone, so I am having a number of them printed. I really love the ones of me with the dogs, since I have so few. I can't wait to get them so I can display them in my house! For now though, here are some of the digital proofs!

7 months - First Snow

Kenna got to experience her very first snowfall this Thanksgiving weekend. Gotta love Edmonton and its winters. Most likely this snow won't last very long as it is hovering just around freezing. I'm surprised it has lasted as long as it has! Usually these first snowfalls last a few hours, a day max, but this one is still here 3 days later.

Also love that I have two photos of the girls as puppies that are almost the exact same! Kili was only about 4 months old in her picture, Kenna is 7 in hers.

Kenna is not impressed with the cold, but she likes the white fluffy stuff!

And Kenna weighed in at 20.75 kg the day before her 7 month birthday, so she is on track to be the same size as Kili, who was 22 kg at that time.

Live life off leash

My dogs absolutely love going to this local dog friendly park. There are many kilometres of shared hiking trails. It is heavily used by dog owners (peak hours see easily 100 dogs there), mountain bikers, and walkers. There are ponds and fields, and the entire park is surrounded by the large North Saskatchewan river. The park is almost like a little peninsula jutting out with the river running around it on all sides except the entrance.

We visit this park several times a month. If I am off on a Monday we almost always go with our agility trainer and her 5 labs, and on the weekends we go early in the morning to avoid the rush. There is nothing that makes the dogs happier than getting to run and play freely, and this park is removed from traffic and large enough that at quieter times you are not constantly surrounded by other dogs and people.

If you have visited us before, you know that I do not necessarily encourage other hound owners to off leash their dogs. The majority of owners do not put in the time and training required to have a reasonably reliable recall (note that there is no such thing as a perfect recall), and as such probably shouldn't be letting their dogs off leash. For our purposes though, with hounds that have good recalls and in locations such as this where there is very low risk of anything bad happening, it is so nice to have dogs that can enjoy life off leash.