Autumn is Officially Here

Wet, windy and cold here in Newcastle today. It's going to be a LONG winter!

Anorak and wellies on for today's walk (for me not Ellie!). I have purchased yet another lead for Ellie, it's a Gencon all in One and it works! Unlike other figure of 8 leads, it is flat and wont ride up onto the dog's eyes. Ellie wasn't impressed at first, but, I gave her a 2 hour 'on lead' walk yesterday which helped her to get used to it. Popped it on today and she was just fine. 

Weetslade was relatively deserted today because of the dreadful weather, bar one or 2 brave souls.

I have learned to use the '2 ball trick' to keep Ellie focused. I have a ball launcher and a few (hard) balls. I use two at a time, throwing one, which Ellie retrieves, she then drops it at your feet as you throw the second ball. She is so focused on the game that she lets virtually anything (humans, dogs,  bikes) go by without running off after them. The only problem I tend to have is getting her back on lead, as she just loves to play!

It's hard to get motivated to take the dog out when the weather is so bad, but, when you've done it it always lifts your spirits. There was an excellent program on BBC2 last night on the subject entitled 'Walking With Dogs', it had some quite moving stories about how dogs are a benefit to us. Ellie enjoyed it very much too:

Ellie's Autumn highlights:

"I love this game"

:

"Toasty Warm"