The Walk

After sitting inside in an office, I couldn't wait to get outside and enjoy the beautiful day! I decided that Parson and Monte and I would go on a nice l-o-n-g walk. On went the harnesses with leashes. 

We were all excited to get started!!! Things were going smoothly until the first motorcycle zoomed past. Uh-Oh!!! Suddenly Monte pricked up his ears and lunged forward pulling and barking and trying to chase that cycle! I quickly knew that "cycles/scooters"  were on his hit list! 

Well, motorcycle chasing or not we were forging ahead to our destination of the "river walkway" which is about a 1.5 mile hike from my house.  

We encountered 4 more motorcycles on the way to the walkway destination. This gave us lots of times to "practice" ignoring them. He will learn!

Once we got to the walkway I thought "YES,  now we can relax a little bit"! We were a little tired so we took a breather on a park bench. After a little rest in the shade we started our walk towards the river piers. We encountered some little boys on skateboards and Monte did great! An older man jogging. NO barking!

Awesome :)! 

Then came the big challenge!!!!

We rounded the corner and running at us at full speed was a wet golden retriever-- no leash-- no owners in sight!! All three of us froze. I held the leashes tightly and moved the dogs to the side and waited. The golden retriever headed right at us and as he/she got to us THANKFULLY he/she rolled on his/her side in a submissive position! My heart was pounding! Of course Monte and Parson started barking and pulling. I looked up and there came retriever number 2! A few yards behind #2 retriever were the owners "carrying" the leashes. Grrr!!! :-/

I began to pull back on the little dogs and yelled to the owners to "please leash their dogs". Now I had four dogs nose to nose barking and pulling and tangling and rolling...I wasn't sure how they all felt about each other. The owners were walking swiftly towards us ...but certainly not running or calling the retrievers off! Grrr again! :-/ !!!

I told the lady that Monte was my foster dog and I had no idea how he would react as I had only had him a couple days and I obviously didn't know her dogs. I then told  her that her dogs were "supposed to be leashed on a public trail"! She said they had never "acted like this before". I'm not sure what that meant but I know that she should have had them leashed. 

She said no more --I don't think the man said anything --and they quickly leashed their dogs and walked away as fast as they could. That unexpected dog encounter definitely got my heart pounding a little and I would much rather deal with a cycle driving past then a loose dog at full speed. In the end I'm  very thankful "all" the dogs were friendly and hopefully it ended with a lesson learned! 

After the big scary dog encounter we finally made it to the pier and Monte admired the docked boats. 

Then he smartly found a "shady spot" by a garbage can :). 

I found out he not only barks at motorcycles he also barks at speedboats!!! The speedboat is out of sight but he is still giving his warning bark! I wonder what his history is with these 2 types of vehicles?!? Guess it's a mystery we will probably never solve!

Here Monte is looking adorable and enjoying the cool wind and listening to the waves splashing.  I love when he perks up his floppy ears!

We spy a family of geese with their fuzzy babies floating nearby -- aren't they cute!

On the walk home we did encounter 4 more motorcycles!!!  He did seem to get a little better at not barking as much (or maybe he was just getting tired) by the end. He is fine with regular bikes, fine with cars and trucks. Just has a grudge against those pesky motorcycles!

We were all very happy to get back home after our 3 mile walking adventure and we quickly put our feet and paws up to rest! Home sweet home :)