No pictures today!
Given that yesterday was such a tough day, we agreed that it would be wise to take it more easy today. So I took Jochen for a 2-hour walk into the nearby forest. Along the way we found a tiny mountain stream in which he paddled happily and actually drank.
DRINKING
By way of explanation re the drinking, for some odd reason Jochen has never drunk much at training. This has given me sleepless nights because our USAR dogs work very hard and most of them lap up the water after an exercise. I always offer Jochen water but he looks at it as if it were poison. But then when we get home he dives for his water bowl as if saying, 'thank God I have water!'
I have followed a few suggestions re getting him to drink but none have been all that successful. The best is if I offer him water about five minutes later.
Anyway, back to our walk. I found a beautiful alpine field and 'camped' there for a while. I gave him a good brushing and then hid the kong for him as well as throwing it several times. It is the first time since our arrival that he has had an opportunity to run and stretch his legs. On a large part of our walks he is off-lead and free with Hyra, the black Labrador bitch, but he such an old sober-sides that does not play or run with her. She has tried to tempt him but he is not interested.
SOGN GIERI
I took Jochen for another walk in the early evening. We walked through the village exploring a little and found some delightful old houses. We then followed a sign to Sogn Gieri, a very old church. The walk took us through fields and eventually to a hillock, (yes, there are hills in Switzerland, not everything is at least 1,500 meters) and a charming walk through the forest to this church.
Unfortunately i
Given that yesterday was such a tough day, we agreed that it would be wise to take it more easy today. So I took Jochen for a 2-hour walk into the nearby forest. Along the way we found a tiny mountain stream in which he paddled happily and actually drank.
DRINKING
By way of explanation re the drinking, for some odd reason Jochen has never drunk much at training. This has given me sleepless nights because our USAR dogs work very hard and most of them lap up the water after an exercise. I always offer Jochen water but he looks at it as if it were poison. But then when we get home he dives for his water bowl as if saying, 'thank God I have water!'
I have followed a few suggestions re getting him to drink but none have been all that successful. The best is if I offer him water about five minutes later.
Anyway, back to our walk. I found a beautiful alpine field and 'camped' there for a while. I gave him a good brushing and then hid the kong for him as well as throwing it several times. It is the first time since our arrival that he has had an opportunity to run and stretch his legs. On a large part of our walks he is off-lead and free with Hyra, the black Labrador bitch, but he such an old sober-sides that does not play or run with her. She has tried to tempt him but he is not interested.
SOGN GIERI
I took Jochen for another walk in the early evening. We walked through the village exploring a little and found some delightful old houses. We then followed a sign to Sogn Gieri, a very old church. The walk took us through fields and eventually to a hillock, (yes, there are hills in Switzerland, not everything is at least 1,500 meters) and a charming walk through the forest to this church.
Unfortunately i