When you come to a Colorado mountain town one of the first things you notice is dogs.  Dogs on the trails, dogs waiting on the sidewalk outside shops, dogs lying under tables at open air cafes, and dogs hanging out the window of every other car going down the road.  Big dogs, little dogs, pure breeds and mutts.  

And for the most part, they’re all cool.  They’re cool with people and they’re cool with each other.  As a dog lover, it warms my heart.  As a dog owner it creates anxiety because our dogs aren’t anywhere near that laid back.  Our dogs are city dogs.  They’ve spent the previous 15 months cooped up in a mid-rise apartment building, riding elevators, walking on leash and pooping next to curbs.  Prior to that they lived in an urban house with a postage stamp sized yard hearing traffic, sirens and helicopters night and day.  They’re great with us but needless to say, they can be a little anxious with others.

But they’re trying. The transition to becoming laid-back, small-town mountain dogs has been going slowly.  Both of them love the outdoors.  We’ve taken them on hikes on the local trails (we’re still working on getting Sami to keep his shoes on) and we even let them off leash when no one else is around.  We took them to a training class to get familiar with being around other pooches and to pick up a few training pointers from a professional for ourselves.  With the help of plenty of dog treats, we’ve managed to take them on walks downtown but they’re still a little too excitable to be completely trusted with unfamiliar dogs.

Yesterday was their big test.  Our friends who have a place about 15 minutes up the road invited us for a nice COVID-safe outdoor activity, a hike on their ranch.  They have dogs and they invited us to bring ours for a doggy meet and greet and socialization club.  We were somewhat hesitant about our guys but figured it was time to take the next step.  So we loaded Sami and Shadow into the car and headed up the road to visit our friends and their three ladies, Faith, Birdie and Girlfriend.

The introductions went fairly well and shortly after some initial growling and raised hackles it was tail wagging and butt sniffing all around.  Our two and their three plus us four humans went on a winter stroll around our friends’ high-country ranch on a crisp, sunny December morning.

The ranch house

The South Arkansas river

Heading out

Girlfriend and Shadow checking out something interesting down by the creek.

Conference

Out of the woods

Sami enjoying the wide-open spaces

On the trail of something

Up the snowy road

Hey, where we going?

Oh boy, more snow!

Girlfriend living life on the edge

Heading up the hill

Faith on the look out

Shadow right behind

Is it? Can it be? Deer poop!?

The three ladies

Mt. Shavano just over the ridge

Shadow and Birdie hot on the trail

C’mon Sami!

Faith and Girlfriend on alert

Birdie and Shadow tracking

Shadow keeping an eye on things

Heading back down the hill

Three amigos

Happy dogs

Horses!

Shavano panorama

The South Arkansas winding through the trees

Almost home

Mad fence climbing skills

Another shot of the river

Back at the house

It was a great day! It was fun seeing our city dogs getting along with others of their kind and enjoying the sights and smells of the country.