Don't hate me but it's been in the 50's and 60's for the past few days and will continue to do so on into the weekend. Today I had Cody out for an off leash jaunt on a trail near my work during my lunch hour and I was wearing shorts and a t-shirt. So nice and warm in the bright afternoon sun, ahh. Cody's such a good boy on the trail, doesn't bother the cows, prairie dogs, bikes or runners. I even called him off of a coyote at close range once on this trail. It wasn't always so though, I've had my share of frustration with him on this trail and lots and lots of training and bashing my head against the wall.
Poor guy, 2 miles of run/walk this morning then 2 miles off leash on the trail at lunch, he's out cold now. He would much rather sprint and play games that involve chasing or sniff the same spot for 1/2 an hour, he's never been into endurance training. But it's good for him and I'm determined to keep him fit and feisty on into his golden years.
I've been thinking that the upcoming DOCNA trial next weekend may be his last. There's not another DOCNA trial until the end of May and I'm not sure yet if I'm going to go because it requires travel and I'm trying to cut down on agility expenditures what with the economy being in the crapper and all. I think the next one after that is August and who knows what state he'll be in. I thought I might make a nice retirement cake for him and bring it to the trial but then I thought what if I change my mind? He looks fabulous, if you could see him you'd wonder why the heck am I even thinking about retiring him. But he's old and he can't tell me if something's sore nor would he until it gets really bad. I'd rather stop running him while he's still full of himself rather than wait for something to go wrong and he can't enjoy his other activities. If he gets laid up who will tell Lola and Strummer to behave or bark at the deer in the yard or tell off the UPS woman or give what for to the vacuum cleaner. He's a busy guy and I know I don't have time to take on his tasks if he gets injured. Nothing to do but keep an eye on him and see how he goes.
I retired jake and had a cake and made an announcement and everything, and he went into such a sulk at trials where I didn't run him that I started running him again a couple of runs every time, and that seemed to satisfy him. But I didn't have another cake later :-). You could try it for a while and if you decide that you like having him retired, you could enter him for one more run as a retirement run and do the official thing then.
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