Dog walk

Al headed off for a weekend of sea kayaking today, so I came home at lunch time to let Dougal out. The poor pooch had pretty much spent all day home alone by the time I finished work though, so I didn't have the heart to shut him in again while I went for a run (I'm waiting until I can buy a proper running dog lead before running with him, as I fear he is too bouncy to run on the regular extendable lead without entangling us irreparably).

Instead, we had a lovely walk together. It must have been nearly four miles out along the back road but cutting back to the railway from the far side of Dollar. He did some heel work, which he clearly finds tiresome but has to learn so he won't get run over in the city, and had a good romp off the lead on the railway.* There some pools of water covered in dense green weed tempted him with their apparently firm surface and he fell through the weed into the water not once but twice - a very surprised pup.

I read somewhere once that walking uses a particular butt muscle not used in running, so it will be no great hardship to have to run and walk for the next few weeks. I can use the running to get fit and the walking to procure/maintain a perky posterior. A plan with no drawbacks.

Oh, and the big field at opposite us which was previous full of grass about the same height as me has been trimmed right down, so Dougal did mad big circular dashes all over it. He spotted a black lab that he thought was his friend Jake and was very disappointed when it wasn't. We were both knackered and hungry upon our return and, while having sated the hunger with pasta, I'm now even more knackered after dismantling the guest bed (which was too small for the mattress and held together with extra planks on a broken side) and getting the Ikea boxes for the new one in from the van. I'm leaving the remantling till tomorrow.

* This is a defunct railway track now used as a walk. I wouldn't let him run around in front of actual trains or anything.