Frozen dog tales

I took Bravo walking by Bush Lake this morning. We met some other dogs (more about them later) and I let him off leash to socialize. After the other dogs left, he proved why I shouldn't let him off leash - he decided to go wade in the lake. He was surprised when the water crunched. I don't think he really liked breaking through the film of ice, because he came back to me right away. (Yes, the lake was frozen again - it was 16 this morning.)

And the interesting thing about frozen dog hair - at least when it's long like Bravo's - is that it acts kind of like velcro. It picks up all sorts of leaves, twigs, etc. I stopped several times to pull leaves off his frozen feathers, and he'd just pick up more.

About the other dogs - a German short-hair puppy and an older Golden. The puppy was really full of energy, and kind of annoyed Bravo. He'd picked up an old broken tennis ball earlier in the walk, and when we first met the other dogs, he dropped it as he usually does. But later, after the puppy had played with it a while and then dropped it, Bravo got it again. The puppy came up to try to get the ball back and Bravo snarled at her just a little. That's unusual for Bravo - he's so submissive - but I guess he'd decided the puppy needed to be put in her place.

Here's the photo I took just before all this happened - I was interested to see the slabs of ice piled up at the edge of the lake.


Have a great weekend!