Blue: Taking a trip out.

This week we broke our own golden rule, not to plan ahead. Well I say broke it, is not exactly true, let me explain.

At the beginning of the week I suggested to Sue, we took Blue out on Saturday morning for a walk somewhere a little more exciting for him. The place I had in mind was Queen Elizabeth Country Park set in Hampshire. A place we have visited in the past, and had many an enjoyable walk.

Before we share our walk, a little more on events this week;

Blue has now decided that pain relief tablets are no longer digestible, no matter how they are masked wrapped, disguised they are off the menu. Consulting with the Vet it has been agreed, Blue can go without them. We need to make sure he does not suffer pain, but Blue does not hide pain very well. To this end we feel we could tell if he was suffering in a detrimental way. The tablets he was taking remain in the cupboard, and we would find a way if needed to re-introduce them to him.

Blue remains active and walks have increased in length, but only marginally. He rests well, and is now accustomed to coming into our bedroom and sleeping on his bed, most nights without a murmur, occasionally an excursion in the wee small hours, if you get my drift.

Wednesday was swim night. Two things were different, first and foremost for this occasion the camera was left at home. We already own a huge amount of pictures of Blue swimming, more would never be enough, but for all the right reasons, tonight was camera free.

The second and greatest challenge, Blue would go swimming without a buoyancy aid/jacket. We all agreed it was best that Blue wore a walking harness with a tethered line, which would not impede his swim, but would aid a rescue should one be required. I gallantly suggested "if he got in trouble Sue and Carol could rescue him first and I would help if they struggled", women first, as they say in the movies. I think they got the joke.

Blue did not need rescuing and was in and out of the pool chasing his trusty ball, having a shower and blow dry at the end. Cautiously he only had 12 minutes, but he was content.

Friday night came and we looked at the weather forecast, cold and dry, ideal walking conditions, tomorrow was on, we were going to go to the Park in Hampshire.

Queen Elizabeth Country Park

As you may of guessed already, from the picture at the top of this blog, we went to the park.

Located just over an hour from our home in Berkshire, it would be far enough to travel, but not much more than Blue has travelled recently, certainly less than our recent journey to Milford on Sea.

We set out at about 10:00am and entered the postcode, obtained from their website, into the satnav.

11:15 we were parked up in the "Juniper" Car Park all day cost of £3 a bargain, as there is no other cost to go walking to your hearts content.

As always Blue had been impeccable on the journey, not a murmur just popping up each time the indicator was activated, if the car remains in motion he settles back down, if it stops, he begins to get excited and looking at where we have arrived at.

We obtained a map from the gift shop, and decided our route. We agreed it would be a gentle walk of about an hour. In fact it lasted one hour and twelve minutes. Sue has always kept a log of the duration of Blue's walks since his spinal surgery when he was a pup.

As we began our walk we passed some children playing with their parents and were overheard saying "Wow, look a German Shepherd" said with excitement and glee, and followed it up with "He's huge"
This made both me and Sue smile, as we have heard many times throughout Blue's life.

Blue makes an impact wherever he goes, not always for the right reasons, today was no different. The previous comments were not said direct to us, but as one person said what a beautiful dog, Blue replied with his customary bark, defending us. Strange sometimes what goes through his mind.

The walk was great, and ended up with a picnic on a bench, alfresco, we had a great time, good fun, good exercise and our own great company.