Let's go for a walk!

A couple weekends back we had a skip-weekend for Doogie's Good Manners class. The weather was nice, so we decided to take advantage of the found time and nice weather, and took the pootch for his first trail-walk. The Akron/Cleveland area has soooo many wonderful hiking trails - it's just too bad we live so far from all of them now. Heck, if we're gonna be out all day - we're going to need sustenance! We stopped at a grocery store Brett used to frequent years ago, and Brett had their deli dept fix us up some sandwiches...


He even picked up a little lunch for Doogie. Hey - if he's gonna be out for a long walk, he's going to need energy!


Y'know, before having a dog, I never realized just how many people take their dogs for walks. But when you DO have a dog, you become very aware of it because dogs LOOOOVE to stop and greet each other, and people, and trees, and the grass...you get the idea. This was a GREAT chance to take Doogie out for some socializing AND to work on his focus. Brief stops and visits were ok, but for the walk we were also practicing his loose leash walking (not too much tugging!), and not getting too distracted by too many things. (Oh, who'm I kidding - there was lots of distractions - but that's ok!)


The tow patch has plenty of wonderful sites.... There's even a boardwalk that crosses over a marsh.


Looks kinda yucky, doesn't it?


But hey, even in all that muck, there's plenty of beauty!


Never having been on a boardwalk, Doogie seemed only the slightest bit cautious at first - this was something new...


...and it looked like he'd be on it for awhile! After his first few initial steps, and seeing all the activity, and that we were fine with it, Doogie realized the boardwalk was nothing to be concerned with.


Sometimes when we'd need to stop and check things out (well, when DOOOGIE needed to stop and check things out), Brett would keep walking, knowing we'd catch up to him. Here's one of those times where he got ahead of us, and then decided to stop and get pics...


Uh hey Brett? Doogie's really chugging along now...


We're good to go! You might wanna get out of the way!


BUMP! Hey - I warned ya...


As I said, there's plenty of sites to see, and fun things to stop and sniff. But not drink - no no, don't drink the water - the last thing we need is a puppy with a bad case of Beaver Fever!


And then there's some things that the dog just doesn't appreciate as much as the humans - like these cute turtles all lined up on a log. They were enjoying the nice weather just like we were.


The tow path goes along sections of the old canal system from Lake Erie...so in addition to cool nature sites, there's some man-made things to stop and check out.


This old rotting stump was really cool - depending on where you stood, you could look right through it.


After our walk, we stopped at Szalay's Market, which is right off the path and is VERY popular this time of year.


The owners of this place must be making a killing - the market (which is just off the path) has become a very popular stop for fresh produce during the summer. They also sell decorative stuff, flowers, etc. And it seems now they had two stands set up - one for freshly cooked corn, and one for ice cream. What I didn't get a good picture of was the huuuuge old flatbed cart that has a MOUNTAIN of beautiful, freshly picked corn. People were always surrounding it, loading up their bags of corn, and as we left, there was a new trailer coming in with a fresh batch.


Here's a view of Szalay's from part of the parking lot.


It's even popular with all the bikers.


And finally we were on our way home. Doogie had such a fun, exhausting day that he slept REAL well alllllll afternoon and evening. Hopefully we'll get him out for a few more of these walks before the weather turns too bad.