The city is covered in ice!

The city of Albany itself has been hit pretty hard by snow, ice, rain, and hail for the past couple of weeks. And while Koda is very much enjoying the weather (I've had shepherds that have loved the snow before, but he just seems as if his mother was a snowman!), it has been increasingly difficult to find ways to get him outside.

I love just our daily walks around the city during the week, but literally every sidewalk is a sheet of ice, or has never been shoveled, or is in some other way dangerous as all heck.

Soooooo... off to the Pine Bush it is! It's only a 15 minute drive from my house, and while it adds a lot more steps to the process of going on a walk, it is so worth it because I have one happy puppy when we go!

Shoving his face into the snow is a huge favorite ^

Heheh.

Also, I adore watching him jump off trail because he likes walking on the high snow banks, and 1 out of 3 times, he falls through, gets this surprised look on his face, and keeps on going! It's adorable.

I love watching his feet as he glides over the snow. I flounder like a fish if I go off trail without snowshoes, but his weight is distributed so perfectly and his paws spread out just so that he is completely comfortable! (the wonders of nature never cease to amaze!)

Well, this was just a quick update on what we are doing to battle the elements here in NY and still enjoy an active lifestyle with the new pup!

Nap Time!

Snow Love!

So, the city of Albany is a huge mess after the snow storm. It is difficult to even get your car out or park it anywhere. We, of course, are taking the snow-opportunity to go skiing (Bromley this week... what a workout!).

Koda, however, is enjoying the backyard more than ever. He loves to just bully through the snow and shove his face into it.

Today, I brought him out to Albany's Washington Park, which is just a huge innundation of snow, and his favorite: insanely tall snow banks.

So I leave you with some pictures of the little man doing what he loves... having a good time!!

On a training side note: he is listening better and my patience is increasing! I am trying to only use positive reinforcement and we are currently working on his worst offence: pulling on the leash at the end of a walk, agrgh!

Crazy January!!

It seems that August and January are always my most busy months. I feel badly that I cannot get Koda out into the forests more, but it is so cold and difficult in this month, I wouldn't have been trying to push it too far anyway.

Chris and I climbed Wright Mountain in the Adirondacks last Monday (Chris' Birthday!) and it actually seemed more than do-able for Koda! The trail was packed down really well and it wasn't a very difficult winter trail. We climbed Wright in the summertime as well, and would also bring Koda then. However, 7 miles is still too long to risk him tiring out deep in the Adirondacks.

So! For now we are sticking to the city of Albany, do around 3 miles when we do our treks. I, myself, need better winter boots for the city, it's keeping me from staying out much longer.

Koda and I love going down to Buckingham Pond and exploring the pond itself and the surrounding neighborhoods. It's perfect dog-walking territory. He loves watching people ice-skate on the pond and absolutely wants to join in. We get lots of squirrel sightings, as well :D

As you can see, he is getting much bigger!! It really blows my mind. He leaves full-sized dog paw prints in the snow. He just had his 4 month birthday a few days ago... time flies!

Brief Hiatus!

Chris and I will be skiing Whiteface Mountain this weekend and hiking Wright Mountain (both of these are Adirondack High Peaks!) this weekend.

Unfortunately for Koda, he is still too young to come on trips such as these (not that I think he will be much up for downhill skiing even when he is older!), so he will be enjoying the new dump of snow we've gotten in Albany with my dad.

He really, truly loves the snow. He immediately buries his face in it and chooses to slosh his way through the tallest snowbanks rather than walk on the sidewalk. I cannot wait to bring him cross-country skiing or snowshoeing with me in the future!

Yeahhhhh, Whiteface!

We love the High Peaks region so much. It is going to refresh our souls to be up there for the weekend!

Slides!

It turns out that Koda loves the slides! Well, in fact, he seems to love everything at the playground that he can get into: crawling tubes, that twisty circle, nooks and crannies, haha.

I have been taking him on walks around Albany, and there are a lot of parks within a couple mile radius of where we live, so we've been hitting them up. I want to get him used to doing weird things other than just walking on the sidewalk, so we wander around quite a bit. One experiment quickly showed that he loves the slides most of all:



There is not much more to update you on. Koda will be starting obedience classes soon and hopefully exploring the world outside of Albany a little bit more! Until then, he is mostly enjoying his walks and playing ball in the backyard (a very good fetcher already, he is) and Chris and I are enjoying hitting the slopes whenever we can (so far, we've gone to Whiteface, Gore, Killington, Windham, Stratton and McCauley!).



A chunk of the Taconic Crest trail: Hopkins Forest!

So, January 2nd. Not my best of best days! We had just gotten back from a Philly New Years run and were a little worse for wear. Didn't eat or sleep the best and wore myself out!

However, keeping my promise to Koda, I made sure we got our butts out of the house to take him for a weekend hike. We chose a simple little chunk of trail in the Taconics that we had done before. We actually had taken this trail to the Snow Hole, which I highly recommend as a super easy day hike to a pretty awesome natural wonder. But I only had about 3 miles in me this day, so we didn't make it that far.

It was a nice, warm day and the snow was melting all around us. It wasn't too muddy at this point yet and neither cold enough to get icy, so the best of both worlds!

Koda saw we were not at full energy, even though he was, but we all still had fun.

The first bit of the trail we did doesn't have the best landscape views, but the forest is beautiful. However, if you get in a few miles, there are overlooks (which we didn't make it to this day, whoops! I am sure Koda didn't mind!).

We met several dogs and other hikers enjoying the day and weather, it is really beautiful to get out and meet other people who love what you love!

Koda's First Christmas!

This post is a little late, but I have been fully enjoying the holiday season... went to Philly for New Years, have been relaxing with family and friends, and of course, enjoying the heck out of our puppy!

Koda was offically 3 months old a few days before Christmas, and he is growing fast. He is really lengthening out. He got his rabies shot and weighed in at 13.5 pounds, big boy! He really loved going over to Grandma's to see the whole family, even though he was rambunctious, he just loves people and cannot give enough kisses. When he is in a calmer state, there are more kisses than bites, now, and I appreciate that!

He got some new toys and treats for Christmas, though my dad spoils him and he does not lack for toys!

He loves anything that squeaks, especially his tennis ball circle thing you can see in the picture above! The Kong ball is another favorite. Really, anything he can fetch is a favorite to him. He is not hard to please.

He played hard for two days and Chris and I took him on long walks both days in the hopes of keeping him calm when company arrived (which didn't work, but the walk was good for all of us, anyway!). Koda even got a tiny piece of ham at Christmas dinner.

Then, the inevitable:

The crash. :D