A sunny afternoon at Willard's Woods

Today was a beautiful sunny day, so I decided to get off my butt and take the dogs to Willard's Woods for some exercise. I'm dogsitting Cara for the weekend, so it's a little crazy with three dogs, but still do-able, especially since Cara always sticks close. I was a little nervous since we haven't been to WW in probably a month or month and a half, just because of the weather. Last time,they ran off into the woods and it took about 20 minutes for them to come back, so I wanted to avoid a repeat performance of that!

We got there about 2pm and there were probably about 8 cars in the parking lot, so busy, but not crazy. I kept Shelby on leash at the entrance because I'm still wary about her response to small white dogs. The first dogs we met were big dogs, so I let them all off leash and they were having a great time. I had brought my new Yaktraxs, but decided not to put them on because it didn't seem that bad. I actually could have used them, since the trails in the woods kind of icy. Luckily the snow provided some natural traction.

We had a really nice walk. We ran into a lot of friendly dogs and people, including some children. The only negative thing that happened was on our way back to the car. We were passing over the bridge and I saw a little white dog, like a bichon or something, chasing a tennis ball. So right away I called Shelby over and put her on leash. It was a good thing, because as soon as Shelby saw the other dog, she growled. I corrected her and tried to walk on by. The other dog was off leash, and even though Shelby growled, still came over for a sniff. What's up with that? Then it started growling back. Good thing Shelby was leashed or there would have been an incident. I was a little annoyed that the owners didn't react that quickly to remove their dog. I was trying to control Shelby and the other dog kept running around her and growling. I was a little disappointed that even when the other dog ran away, Shelby still was interested and would have run back over if she hadn't been on leash. But I was able to get her attention back and we headed home. Overall, a nice time.