Quiet day

Today we walked up on the fire trail behind UC Berkeley. We hiked up the hill and had our break with some nice young people in the Air Force ROTC from UC Berkeley. Murphy and Blue soaked up the petting while Turnpike and Relay stayed on my lap. Wednesday afternoon group hike has space for two more well-mannered small dogs.

Farewell Luna

Luna's last walk was yesterday afternoon. We will all miss her in our groups and her lively, take-no-prisoners attitude. Yesterday Relay and Turnpike walked on the retractable lead, a splitter is between them. Luna walked on my favorite hot pink lead, and Murphy walked on his own because he's the perfect dog. I could wax poetic about Murphy.

Monday groups are back down to just three, so we're looking for three more dogs to join this group and flesh it out. Do you think your dog can compete with Murphy's love-ability? Do you live in Oakland or Piedmont? Visit us on the web to learn more about who Little Paws Big Adventures is and how you can join in the fun: www.LPBA.net

Luna's Back!

Yay! Luna is back with Little Paws Big Adventures for the next three group walks while her mom, artisan Nina Dillof, is off on an adventure of her own. Luna and Scout were leashed together on our romp today. Luna kept Scout near their pack leader, Karin Cornwall, and Scout kept Luna moving at a brisk jog.

Luna is perpetually overweight. Her mom is diligent about portioning Luna's food, but Luna remains a stout little girl. Luna likes being a part of a pack but is very protective of her human, in this case, pack leader Karin Cornwall. She barks at most people on the trail. To curtail this behavior, Karin calls her name and jogs past any new people on the trail. Thank goodness she adores Karin, she keeps her eyes locked on Karin and just ignores the other people on the trail.

Scout moves too fast for decent pictures of her adorable face. Scout is working on greeting new dogs without talking and keeping her enthusiasm, which can be daunting, in check.

Blue did a great job of keeping up with the group today. Blue has a much heavier coat than the rest of the pack, so I make sure to walk her on shady trails when it's hot out. Today we walked in Redwood Park on one of the "ridge" trails, I can't remember which.

Parker found a ball today and kept me playing fetch with him for most of the walk until it fell down a steep slope and into some brambles.

Pace kept a keen eye on the trail ahead and bounded back to the pack for romps with Scout and occasional "cookies". We had several small obedience break on the trail today as Scout and Luna adjust to walking in our pack.

Ladybug Mania

For reasons unbeknownst to me, the ladybugs are out in droves, flying all over everything, in great pulsing masses on all the dead thistles and cow parsnip. The dogs don't notice. Yesterday afternoon we had Murphy, Relay, Blue and Turnpike out at the fire trail above UC Berkeley. The fire trail is a great place to hike because bicycles and horses are not allowed. This limits the amount of people on the trails as well as the amount of triggers for crazy-acting behavior for the little ones who walk with us.

Relay and Turnpike are on leash. Their leashes get tangled often, but I've found that as long as no legs are tangled the two of them seem to untangle themselves relatively quickly without my intercession.

Wed afternoon group has two spaces open that we'd love to fill with sweet-tempered small dogs. To learn more about us please visit our website: www.LPBA.net

oops!

Of course on Scout's first day walking with Little Paws Big Adventures, I leave my camera-phone in the car. Scout had a great time walking. I'm looking forward to the day she can run amok off leash and create havoc with Turnpike and Pace. Already Scout and Turnpike were playing and wrestling and getting all tangled up in each other's leashes. They seem to be best buddies. Tue/Thurs afternoons are now full! Hip Hip Hooray! It's been a long time coming. We're still accepting small dogs into our Mon/Wed/Fri afternoon groups and have plenty of space to open up new morning group hikes on Tue/Thurs.

Here's a pic of Relay, Turnpike and Scout after our hike this afternoon. The passenger airbag is always turned off so that the smallest dogs, who ride up front, will be safe.

This afternoon

Pikey, Murphy, Relay and I walked on the Dunn Trail to the Graham trail at Redwood Park today. These three love to play and romp together. Relay is on leash as his recall isn't in place, and Pikey is on leash because she doesn't have her microchip or any sort of manners at all. But we love her just the same. This group has room for three more small dogs. To learn more about Karin Cornwall and Little Paws Big Adventures, please visit our website at: www.LPBA.net

october

October finds all of us here at Little Paws Big Adventures quite hot and dusty. We're looking forward to the rains and the mud and all of the many layers of fur and rubber, fog hanging on tree branches and wet pinecones.

We have space for three to four small dogs in each of our afternoon trail groups, Mon-Fri as well as lots of space for individual neighborhood walks. To learn more about our services, and the neighborhoods we work in, please visit our website: www.LPBA.net

Catching up

Well here I am. It's been quite a while since my last post, but I've got pictures of everyone here over the past few weeks. Gizmo is a 17yr old poodle chihuahua mix. He's a temporary walking client for the month of September. His dad, Pete has been keeping me well fed, with ground lamb and different kinds of fruit grown by one of his friends. Blue absolutely loves the ocean and turns into a puppy as soon as she enters the water. Parker found a ball to play fetch with and chased blue around in the surf. Pace is back with us, walking tuesdays and thursdays. He's so much fun and does well moderating play between other dogs.
Relay had us quite scared when he took off off leash on one of his walks. So he's back on leash and on street walks. Here he is walking with Pace around his neighborhood.

Little Paws Big Adventures has a few open spaces in our group walks Monday through Friday. Please visit us on the web to learn more: www.LPBA.net

August at a glance

Well it's still hot, so we here at Little Paws' Big Adventures, are taking lots of water breaks and making sure to walk in the shade. We're seeking out trails with year round running water that the little dogs can splash and play in. Murphy enjoys chewing sticks and pine cones when we take breaks on our hikes. Relay loves standing on my lap, with his head just under my chin. Blue stakes out the shadiest spot available and plops down with a smile on her face. Parker is ever up for a game of fetch, and will run ahead on the trail and flop in the middle of the trail waiting for the rest of us to catch up.

Catching up

Well, a lot has happened since I last posted. Relay has become a regular Mon, Wed hiking buddy with Murphy and Blue. We've had lots of interested little dogs contact us about joining our play groups. Here are some pictures from the past few weeks. Murphy is a love as always. Blue loves her newest companion, Relay. And relay is psyched to be out with other canines. He loves to play and run about.

Little Paws' Big Adventures has about 3 spots available in every afternoon hiking group, Mon - Friday. To learn more about us, visit us on the web at www.LPBA.net

Welcome Relay!

We have a new friend! Relay has joined Little Paws Big Adventures. Relay's getting twice daily neighborhood walks while he recovers from kennel cough and his stitches heal from his recent neutering surgery. In a couple of weeks he'll join Murphy and Blue in their afternoon hiking group. Relay is an Italian Greyhound.




In other new news, Parker, Blue, and I found a new quiet trail that has water running on it year round. We're very excited about this new shady trail. We didn't meet any other people, dogs, bikes, horses, or anything larger than a lizard on our hike yesterday. And the trail is good cardio workout for me.

Are you coming?

You can clearly see this question in Murphy's face as we descended the hill on our hike this afternoon. Bandit, Murphy, and I went to a remote trail near Redwood Park, that's actually in Chabot Park in Oakland today for our walk. It's a quiet trail; no one else was on it, so Bandit got to be muzzle-free. The trail is quite steep so we all got a good workout. The up side of all the smoke in the air these days is that the whole day is spent in a kind of "magic-hour" twilight. Life seems so miraculous in this quality of light... The sticky monkey flowers are blooming and the rattle snake grass is dried. All in all it was a good day.

We have room in our Wednesday walking group for 4 more small dogs. Bandit and Murphy would love the company of more playmates. To learn more about Little Paws Big Adventures services visit: www.LPBA.com

Blue, Murphy, Bandit, and I went to the Albany Bulb this afternoon. The clouds were coming in so low over the bay and making beautiful patterns on the water. Murphy and Blue chased each other around the beach. Bandit stayed on leash because he's got no recall.
We have room for three more small well-behaved dogs in our Friday afternoon hiking group. Want to join us? Learn more about who we are at www.LPBA.net.

on the Job

Blue decided to drive Parker and me to the trail today. We had a nice long hike at Bridgeview Trail with lots of splashing and playing in the creek.

Yesterday Afternoon

Yesterday afternoon, Murphy, Bandit and I went to the Bridgeview trail where it was quite quiet. On our water break, Bandit got to lose his muzzle for a few minutes so that he could drink out of the squirt botttle. Murphy is a love as usual.

Friday with Blue and Murphy

On Friday Blue, Murphy and I went to the Bridgeview trail. Bridgeview is great because it's shady and there's a creek for the "kids" to splash in, play in, explore and drink from. Murphy and Blue loved exploring the stream and its rivulets. Blue and Murphy love to cool off in clean running water, although neither of them are swimmers.

We have room for four more dogs in most of our walking groups. Do you have a little dog you think would love to run and explore in the great outdoors? Find out more about who we are at www.LPBA.net

Farewell Bonner

The lizards are out and brave. They're out sunning themselves on rocks, eating big meals and then scurrying, sometimes rather slowly, back to safety when the dogs round the bend. And all those caterpillars that were all over the trails have metamorphosed into butterflies. There are literally butterflies everywhere, speckled little ones all the way up to big yellow swallowtails.

Today was Bonner's last walk. His folks are in a hard spot. At day care he doesn't get any exercise; with me, he has to stay in his crate when he's not on his walk to prevent him from tearing apart the house. I think he'll grow out of that destroying everything phase, but in the meantime, he's back to doggy daycare. We are all going to miss Bonner. His trail manners improved really quickly. He totally sticks with me as his pack leader and plays well with all the dogs in my groups. Bonner's always welcome back!

The trail was more or less empty today, so I let Bandit hike without his muzzle for the hot parts of the trail. Murphy found some fresh horse poop, and everyone got a little nature's own "greenies" today. I discourage the dogs from eating horse poop because the horses may have infections.

We still have a few open spots on our walks each weekday that we'd love to fill up with friendly, well mannered small dogs. Little Paws Big Adventures serves neighborhoods bordering Freeway 13 / Highway 13 in Oakland and South Berkeley. Visit our website to learn more: www.LPBA.net

Pace and Parker walk together!

Pace joined us at Pt. Isabel today. Pace is about 5 years old; we have no idea what breed he is, some suggest part monkey. Pace's a great example of what Parker would look like if he were a healthy weight.

Yes it's true, Parker is overweight. Despite the endless games of fetch and limited amounts of treats, Parker still has quite a lot of excess fat, especially around his neck. His dad and I are working on an exercise and diet regimen to get him down to a healthy weight.

Overweight dogs have a lot more health problems. In the summer months, they get tired far more easily, and even when it's not so hot, they tend to tire more quickly than their healthy compadres. Getting out everyday for a long hike, with lots of water breaks in the shade, can help get dogs feeling happier and more energetic.

Buckeyes in bloom

The buckeye trees are just starting to open up their blooms and the scent of leptospermum japonicum is in the air. Bonner, Parker and I walked at the Bridgeview Trail today. There are large redwoods that tower over the trail and shade it from the summer sun. In the middle of our hike, we scamper down the hillside to play, drink, and run around in Sausal Creek. On the way back to the car, I started to teach Bonner "touch" which is a great command to get him engaged in interacting with me and to teach him tricks.