Winter Fun!

Winter time fun and games! More snow fell last night, and we played in it this morning.

Shyla adores playing in the snow. She bounds around at a million miles per hour, making me laugh out loud.

She's gained so much muscle in the time she's been with us that she is a rippling Labrador now!

Magically, the clouds lifted during our time in the forest.

I've been spending time teaching Shyla about my bike but we haven't really gone for a ride because she's a little too young for faster riding. However, snowbiking is another story. When the snow isn't packed, I average about 3 mph on the level. That's not any faster than normal hiking so I let Shyla do a short ride with me today.

Of course, from the photos, you can't tell the difference. I just happened to be on a crazy looking bike with 4" wide tires rolling along next to her instead of hiking. She seemed pretty stoked about it!

When she first arrived in our family, she was not comfortable even standing next to a bike. So, like everything else, I took it slow and steady. First, I gave her treats for standing next to the stationary bike. Then, I had her touch the bike with her nose. Later, she and I "took my bike for a walk" while I fed Shyla treats. After that, I started straddling the bike and feeding Shyla treats. In the past week, we made a huge breakthrough when she was willing to accept treats from me as I rode the bike. That's key in training a dog to run next to your mountain bike. If she'll take treats as you ride, you can start training behaviors like "heeling" next to the bike.

I didn't ask much from Shyla today in terms of training. We just mosied along, and she played in the snow. I wanted her to see how much fun the crazy 2-wheeled contraption could be. I stopped to take lots of photos of her zooming in circles around me.

And, when she stopped running, she was covered in snow!

Happy, happy, happy!

This girl and I are going to have so many adventures together. She's an amazing athlete, and she's incredibly trainable. I can visualize us riding high in the Rocky Mountains together next summer. The snow will be replaced by wildflowers, and we'll feel the soft kiss of the sun on our shoulders. She'll swim in high mountain lakes, and we'll hug on top of mountain passes. Ah, the life that we have ahead of us...