Blue Trail out and back, Turkey Mountain

Date	Distance	Time	Elevation Gain	Average Moving Time	Year to Date Miles
3/25/2019	2.6 miles		504'		61.2

Map: Turkey Mountain Map
Parking: Parking lot off of Route 118
Directions: Blue trail to summit, and blue trail back down

Today is Krummholz's 6 month birthday! I feel so lucky to have such a great pup. I'm so excited about the adventures we will have together.

We hiked up Turkey Mountain today. We only saw one man going up. I stopped, asked Krummholz to sit. I called out hello to the man. Then I fed Krummholz as the man walked by. Ideally his default behavior when people or other dogs approach when hiking is to come to me and sit. Trek does this, and it makes him really easy to hike with.

We continued up to the summit, and off comes his head halter. It works well to hike up to the summit with the head halter, and hike down off leash. That way he gets training on both skills. We are more likely to see people heading up, and less likely heading down, as we finish hiking after sunset. Today we had a new distraction - a squirrel! Ack. He stopped. I called him. He didn't come. He didn't run away either. He just sat. But he looked way too interested in that squirrel. Chasing wildlife is bad. I was good - and didn't call him again. I slowly walked towards him. I showed him a treat, and he came. I guess squirrels are hard distractions. Harder than deer running! I kept him on a leash for a while until he chilled out. I had Glen help me with off leash restrained recall training on our hike. Krumm has nice basic recalls, but we need to gradually work on increasing distractions. So far he's been good about staying close by when hiking, and never running off to something. But as his confidence grows, he might begin to test his independence. His puppy recalls in his family manners class were super! He ignores all the other dogs in the room when recalled.

We are signed up for our next online class - focusing on recalls and loose leash walking. I can't wait! I think they will be introducing skills using methods I haven't tried and am not familiar with. We were very successful in our trick training class, and I thought the instruction was exceptional - even as an auditor. We are doing a non-auditing position in our upcoming class - because loose leash walking and recalls are so important for my making Krummholz my awesome hiking companion.