Walking, Walking, Walking!

I've been walking so much the past week or so that my poor feet are blistered and hurty, not to mention my shin splints are screaming bloody murder. I've re-embarked (for the third time) on daily dog walks. This time with a twist - I get up an extra 45 minutes early, so we can get our walk in before the day gets too hot. So far it's worked pretty well - particularly considering that I'm by no means eager to start the day or hop out of my nice, comfortable bed.

I've been trying to take only one dog at a time. Each dog, by itself, is a rather pleasant walking experience. But when I start adding them together... well, that's when the stress comes in and it's no longer enjoyable. There are exceptions. For instance, my two larger dogs walk fairly well together, and the two little boys do decently as well. Not great - but usually tolerable. I try to do at least two miles each morning. And now my fiance has told me he'd like to start walking with me in the evenings as well! So it looks like the dogs will be plenty well exercised without me feeling guilty all the time.

The other day, I took the boys over to the middle school, where there are acres of fields to play in, far away from anyone, and set them free inside a baseball diamond. Normally, Popper is quite good off leash, but Merlin totally schooled him in obedience! Merlin could be 300ft away, I'd call him, and he'd come tearing across the field to me (and get a cookie). Popper just didn't care. In his defense, he is half beagle, and I'm pretty sure all sorts of wildlife crawls over that area. He was tracking the entire time, and a hound on a mission - they tend to have selective hearing to the extreme. I've never encountered such a blatant disregard to my calls before with Popper, and I hope I won't ever again. But it's yet another lesson, I suppose, in owning a hound. Even half a hound.

I need to get new insoles for my sneakers (or new shoes altogether) to walk this much. I'm already feeling the shin splint pain intensify, and I have an agility trial coming up that I would be VERY disappointed if I couldn't do!