We received a good amount of snow coverage last night. It wasn't until we got into the woods that I realized I could have easily skied on our morning walk. I decided to let Nico off-leash, one advantage of the snow is if he did take off it would be easy to track him. He did excellently, the e-collar has made a huge difference in his recall and loose-leash walking. We walked 2-miles with no issues and plenty of playing in the snow.
Well, the verdict is partially in, Nico doesn't mind the snow and cold. We went for our normal 40-minute walk this morning in 20-degree temperatures and blowing snow. When we got back he enjoyed running around the yard, digging and biting at the snow. He has also taken to eating all of the snow knocked off our boots in the front entry. Time will tell if his enthusiasm holds as the winter months wear on.
One item on our training/socialization to-do list for quite some time has been to go on a hike with another dog. This is mainly meant to work with Nico on settling down with another dog around. Thankfully our good friends Seth and Chester were up for helping Nico and me with this. We did a 6.9-mile hike in the Debar Mountain Wild Forest along the Kettle Trail. As expected, Nico was overly excited at the beginning of our walk but within a half-mile began to calm down and become comfortable with walking near Chester without directly interacting with him. I dressed him up with what I have always referred to as Khyber's "don't shoot me" jacket. It is a little big on Nico but is adjustable enough that we were able to make it work.
