Challenge 18: Off leash hiking with the dog

January 30, 2010

I am doing something right now that I haven't done in ages. I am awake but still in bed. I gave myself permission to sleep in as long as I wanted (after I let the dog and cat out at 8am of course). 9:30 rolled around and after stretching out a bit under the covers, I grabbed my laptop and decided to do my morning internet check-up from bed. I rarely allow myself the luxury to stay in bed because I feel there is always a million things that need to get done, starting with the dog's walk. So it's just me and Coach, lazing around, still in bed.

And speaking of Coach, he was riled up yesterday. I had to be out of the house for about 7 hours for work, and Vaughn is out of town, so when I came home the house looked liked it had been attacked. Papers everywhere, the umbrella chewed up, things that had been under the bed dragged into different rooms, a chewed up empty bottle of Advil, and a very excited puppy dog. So we went to the dog park and I let him run off some steam and play with the other dogs, one of whom was a husky that was a perfect playmate. The right blend of running and rough-housing.

The challenge yesterday was to roller skate with Coach. This was a challenge because I was scared to do it. What if I fell? What if he pulled too much and I didn't know how to slow down? What if he pulled too much and I lost my grip on his leash and he took off? What if I ran into him? What if the ground is too uneven? And on and on. I realized that those fears would never go away so I decided to just go for it. Just try it and see what happened. So I put the doggy backpack on him, packed him with a pair of my shoes in case i got stuck out there, and set out for an outing. The ground was pretty rough, but skateable. And I only fell once and it was so minor it barely even counts. But I did it and I did our entire 2 mile loop around Bushrod park. I started to see my neighborhood in a whole new way..."that would be a good skating surface," "oh I never want to skate here..." The DMV parking lot right up the street seemed like a perfectly smooth skating surface so I might go again today.

Tonight I am looking forward to Nickel's birthday party. Lots of friends, lots of fun, and Vaughn is coming, which is always such a treat since he's on tour for a lot of hangouts. Yesterday I was trying to think about what the challenge should be for today and I kept coming back to off-leash hiking with the dog. Also something that scares me. What if he doesn't come back? What if I lose him? What if he bothers other people? We've done it once before with a pack of 12 other danes, and Vaughn was there, but I've never done it alone. So there it is.

Challenge 18: Off-leash hiking with the dog, by myself.

18 down. 347 to go.