As you may already know, Collies are a herding breed. They were bred to herd sheep for hours and hours. In order to do this they needed to have a great deal of energy. Sometimes I feel like Petal has endless energy. Endless. I see it as a pro, rather than a con, most of the time. Having an active dog keeps me active. If I didn’t have an active breed I wouldn’t do much in the form of exercise or exploring outside. It’s just not as enjoyable for me without a four-legged walking buddy.
On Tuesday Petal went on her first hike on an actual hiking trail. She had a blast, to the point where she had a moment where she just took off like bullet and ran around with uncontrollable excitement. I had to put her leash back on her. It was great to see her having so much fun.
The hiking trail itself was short but we ended up walking to a local ice cream place which made our walk/hike a total of 7.8 miles. We were pretty much dead afterwards and Petal allowed me to skip our daily walk on Wednesday so we could sleep in and be couch potatoes.
Another activity we like to do is play. We play indoors nearly everyday. Petal loves to run or hide or play keep away with a favorite toy. I was able to capture this silly video while we were playing inside several weeks ago. Petal was running up and down the hall, sometimes fetching her toy and sometimes running just for the sake of running. I grabbed my iPad Mini and started recording her (because she was being truly crazy and ridiculous). She comes running at me with great enthusiasm and slightly crazed look in her eye (the “omg! Must. Do. Zoomies!!!” look) and then suddenly she’s rebounding off my iPad Mini.
What the heck? I was laughing so hard.
Does your dog have endless energy? What do you do with your dog to burn some of that energy and stay sane?
Today we are participating in the Fit Dog Friday blog hop hosted by SlimDoggy, Peggy’s Pet Place and To Dog With Love.
Mr. N is also in the endless energy club. I’m jealous that Petal allows you to skip walks! Mr. N will stare at me and whine and stalk me until I decide that it’s easier to just take him even if I’m sick.
Sometimes I borrow my friend’s kids and let them run around together but Mr. N usually outlasts both of them. I take Mr. N out on errands all around town and the walking and socializing will usually take the edge off.
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Veruca and I are looking forward to our first trail hike of the season. There is still snow in the mountains but we might head out for a lowland hike on Sunday. Wonderful photos.
Mark S at DBDT recently posted…DBDT helps with an adoption at Rescue Farm
You sure had a nice place to hike. Thunder and Storm have a bit less energy than the youngster Freighter. They sure keep us busy.
2 Brown Dawgs recently posted…Training A Cold Blind On A Warm Spring Day
What a great way to spend the day with Petal. Beautiful outdoor hike followed by ice cream. I no longer have a large outdoor loving dog (passed several years ago). I do have a high energy dachshund who hates to go for walks. She does not like to leave our yard. I carry her several blocks and she runs as fast as her little legs will go back home. So we too play in the hall a lot. She gets her exercise just by being a doxie.
I’m glad Petal enjoyed her first hike so much! Barley is part border collie, so we are part of the endless energy club, too. We take an hour-long agility class once a week, an hour-long noseworks class once a week, and then walk almost 3 miles every day and she could still do more! Somehow, she can run around in agility and still be raring to go when we get to the park for our walk afterwards. In the summer, though, the heat wears her out more quickly, so I can take advantage of a few lazy moments throughout the day! I’m not sure where you and Petal are, but we’ve fallen in love with the books in the Doggin’ America and Bark in the Park series: http://www.hikewithyourdog.com/DogginAmericaGuideBooks.html and http://www.hikewithyourdog.com/AllGuideBooks.html We’ve gotten them for our area, my sister’s state, my parents’ state, and places we’re going to vacation and discovered some really awesome places we wouldn’t have known about otherwise!
Beth recently posted…Adventures with Barley
OMG, that video was amazing! That’s totally something Nailah would do to me.
We try to go on long walks every day and play some frisbee in the park.
Nailah Bone recently posted…FitDog Friday – Doggy Easter Egg Hunt
Welcome to the Hop…looks like Petal was hopping in that video. Sounds like a great hike you had – almost 8 miles – good job!
slimdoggy recently posted…How to Save on Your Dog’s Pet Food Budget
We can’t wait to join you for a hike in a couple of weeks! Maybe Petal and Huxley will wear each other out…maybe…
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