From long line to no line

From long line to no line

Want to hike your dog off-leash, but have too many worries to do so? I used to be the same. Some people can unclip the leash without too much thought or anxiety, but after one of my dogs disappeared for three hours, that wasn’t me. But about a year later, Oz wiggled...
Don’t ignore the sniff, listen to it

Don’t ignore the sniff, listen to it

Sniffing. Not aways very important to us, but vital to dogs. In fact, “the area of the canine brain that is devoted to analyzing scent is 40 times greater than that of the human.”* Dogs seek information through sniffing, but they also give it—if you’re willing to...
Sh*t happens

Sh*t happens

I am still in the process of shedding my need to be Oz’s superwoman, who can shelter him from everything in the world that might ever upset him. I am letting go of my overly-vigilant self who gave me literal stress pains. I am letting go of my invisible Oz-sized...
My dog reacted to something (and it’s fine)

My dog reacted to something (and it’s fine)

As much as I once thought I would like to be, I am not superwoman. For a time, as much as I would have liked to have been able to see every possible trigger and protected my dog from it, I could not. And yet, many months ago, someone told me that I should and as a...
What if?

What if?

To me, off-leash hiking used to be full of what ifs. There were the “normal” ones, like what if my dog runs off after a deer and doesn’t come back? What if he gets hurt? What if we run into a coyote? A bobcat? A mountain lion? What if something happens to him while...