Herding and hiking

Buck and I have had a busy week already. We drove out to Wasilla to his herding class on Wednesday. It went real well- the instructor worked with him the first time with him on a lead walking next to her. Then, the next time she let him in the ring, she let him move around on his own and showed him what she wanted. He's still getting used to it, but his instincts are good. Here are four real short clips (about 30 seconds each). My video camera wouldn't charge fast enough so I was stuck with my regular camera. I couldn't get too close to the fence because it distracts him from paying attention to what she's getting him to do.

Buck herding 1

Buck herding 2

Buck herding 3

Buck herding 4

Today we went on a hike in Chugach for about two hours. The snow was super deep in some places. I actually went into it all the way to my hip a couple times. It was kind of packed from other hikers and skiers, but not totally. It was our first hike in real powder and man, it was a heck of a work out-like hiking uphill on sand. We are both completely beat. Buck did a great job not going too far ahead and coming back right when I told him to. It's only about his third time off-leash, too. We went with a group I joined and a bunch of the other folks brought their dogs, too, but Buck stayed close to me except for a couple quick romps. He'd even walk behind me some of the time. Other times he'd whine at me- trying to get me to hurry up I think, though he was panting pretty hard. I think he'd go as fast as he could until he collapsed. He's not too great at setting a good pace. Heh! Anyway, here are a few pictures from that and there are more on the Flickr link to the right.

(Click the words to view them large)
This gives an idea of why it's called the Anchorage bowl.


This was at about 8:30 pm. Sunset wasn't until around 9:30.


Buck didn't want to hold still for a good pose in front of the mountains, so this is about the best shot I got.