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CorvusCorax

CorvusCorax

Deary me...
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Circumstances are dictating that I can no longer sit at home on my ass half the week :p :rolleyes:

At the mo, dogs are getting walked 30 mins morn, 60 mins evening and 40 mins in the middle if my ma is about.
Now obviously, with winter drawing in, I am facing a dilemma.
Tracking is going to be a weekend thing, boo hoo :mad:

So options are:

1) Suck it up, get up early and do 60-90 mins at the donkey-bum of dawn

2) Dress us all up like Christmas trees and do the night time walk in the dark
(Bear in mind, we live in the middle of nowhere and do need to go 3-400 metres on very fast road, but there is a verge and we always do pop up and sit when a car comes)

3) Beg financial advis...I mean da to come van shopping with me and drive to nearest villages, one a boring village with pavement, the other with a nice lit shore walk where I could bike them.

4) Buy three treadmills :p

What do you guys all do in the dark?

Bearing in mind option 2 will be the most likely, is it easy enough to walk in the dark with lights on etc? Do you trip up? Do the dogs get driven mad with all the nocturnal critters in the darkness?
I don't think it will be a big deal, I got caught late tonight and it was almost dark when I got back just now and it was quite pleasant!

And finally, your favourite bit, as I only have a hi-viz Sam Browne belt and one reflective jacket for dogs, can you all please recommend me....
- a REALLY powerful head torch - I mean you can't see your hand in front of your face when it is dark now
- jacket, waterproof
- dog coats
- blinking things - armbands? Even a blinking jacket or something?

Thanks in advance!
 
I walk mine in the dark but I can walk round fenced fields so i don't have to worry about them buggering off:rolleyes:. TBH they don't give a stuff its dark and just do their thing - the torch is to stop me falling down rabbit holes!!:eek::D:D

Can't remember what make my head torch is but I got it from a camping store - the good ones cost about 20-30 quid. I just use a normal torch as and when i need it but mostly just walk in the dark as I know where I am - and if the moon is out there is often enough light anyway.:D
 
Well I'll have two dogs on leads (there is FAR too much trouble they could get into :p) and while I normally walk them with both leads in one hand I do like to keep a hand free so head torch it must be - that's a great thought FH, thanks, OMG, could you imagine it suddenly going out and me up the back lane in the pitch dark - PANIC!!
 
I did walk around the fields at work last year, but we have had stuff being pinched recently:mad: so don't feel safe to do that any more:(

Think I'm going to have to suck it up and get up a bit earlier / deal with the madness of an underexercised spaniel... fortunately he adapts fairly quickly!
 
Even if you just take a tiny keyring torch or something, I would have a complete panic attack if I was plunged into darkness!!!!
 
Take it from one who used to do it every night CC, you do not need a torch for walking in the dark? When I rented an annexe flat on a farm I used to walk my two very very regularly around the fields in the pitch dark, it was amazing :):):)

Your night vision very quickly adapts and you become used to seeing in low light levels? T'was a bit scary the time I met a badger in the middle of the bridleway, but other than that I loved it :D I was lucky and had no need to go on any roads, but I do it now without thinking - step off the road when a car passes, you soon become accustomed to the tracks you are walking and it is very easy :)

And you see brilliant things at night - wildlife, shooting stars etc - which you never would see during the day :)
 
We walk in the pitch black of night sometimes, 12-1am time around the nature reserve, I do trust mine to be off they rarely wonder far, I do shat me self at the noises and trees and creaking and sheer blackness:o OH does not care cos he used to lamp in the dark with the lurchers in the middle of know where sometimes alone:eek:, we know the route so we dont take torches, if windy OH may take the lamp (has a satchel for it) obs very powerful, but because he says the wind is perfect (for you know what):rolleyes: thats why he takes the lamp, the dogs rarely hunt if the lamp is off, only the pointer and I actually leave him to meet us at the end of the track, the akita would be on leash however:D

If we walk the roads and through the park, its only really pitch black in the park, so flashy collars and still off lead till we get to the road, they actually stay closer in the dark than during the day.
 
It's more for the road bits I'm really worried about!
Like I say, it was pretty cool tonight but pretty hairy on the walk home.
However there are tree canopies up at the top which make it blacker than black.
I need to eat more carrots :p

I met a badger in the field once two, it came charging at me and my ex grunting, thought I was going to end up with a broken leg but it stopped a few feet away and then thought better of it :p
 
I'd do it on a moonlit night, certainly, but I do think you're mad to do it with no moon. :p I've already resigned myself to having to get up at the arsecrack of dawn, but then I've got an 'oss to do anyway.

I hear good things about Ruffwear hi-viz stuff. Also I've just bought a little LED flasher clip-on thingy from the local garage for a couple of quid, no brand name but I've seen them in lots of places, I noticed a neighbour using one on her dachshund last winter and in the dark it looked like an alien landing craft was coming in. :D

I really rate Fenix torches, great customer service and various attachments so I can use the same torches on a headband, bike, helmet etc. and just clip them on and off.
 
Winter months I get up early and take the Princessly One for about a 20 mins run rounds the lanes, I always carry a large Mag Lite, not because I need the light but because I figure it would make a pretty nifty weapon should I need it.

She then goes to work with OH and gets a 20 mins play/walk at lunch time. I take her running in the evening but it's on lead work through the village and we cover about 4 miles.

This is not as much as she gets during the summer months but I try to make up for it at the weekends.

I think we just have to do the best we can during the dark evenings and can always supplement walks with play time in the garden or home.

JDx
 
blackcob said:
I've already resigned myself to having to get up at the arsecrack of dawn
Click to expand...

Well if I knew it wasn't going to be censored, I wouldn't have written 'donkey-bum'!!!!!!
Cheers for the links.


No chance of either of us being able to take them to work due to the nature of our jobs.
Do you know, for the first time, I'm hankering to live back in civilisation again :p
 
I think we'll personally be doing the walk in the dark, hence my quest for a highviz waterproof coat :D think it will be just as dark in the morning given the time I'd have to get up to take her for a longer morning walk! The treadmill option is certainly the most appealing though!

Maybe use old ski jacket/gear for waterproof kit for yourself?

Will be watching this thread for handy dog jacket tips :D
 
Cos I do the horse after school, OH normally does the dog walking in the week and if on earlies, he'll be home about 5 so it's dark by the time he gets out again. He goes to the same place (woods, pitch black, hilarious if you don't know the routes!) with a torch. He sometimes does the crack of dawn walk-equally dark and horrible.
 
The treadmill idea sounds great to me. I'd been thinking about one ( - dreaming more like it). These look great, but the pony would have to go to pay for one.

http://www.fitfurlife.com/categories/fit-fur-life-models

I'm worried in case we get snowed in again this winter, as our mutt is bouncing off the walls if she doesn't get at least two hours exercise a day. After two weeks without walks we'd all be insane. We must remember to get an older one next time (pencils it in diary for twelve years time).

Don't forget to buy lots and lots of batteries for your headtorch.

Enjoy your walks.
 
Cheers guys!!!

There is a GSD breeder who has been selling treadmills for years and my friend gets his bitch competition fit with one (he has wee short legs and he can't run fast enough to get her gaiting properly) it is soooooo tempting!!!

Oh God, the snow was insane this year, eh? My calves were killing me and the dogs were miserable, lazy big get used to walk in my footprints! My mum actually took them to boarding kennels three days early (£££) before we went to America, just to get them the hell out.
 
Henry loved the snow, except when it balled up in his fur:( This year we will be ready though, vaseline and paw wax all the way!

Cue gratuitous snow pics, cos winter can be fun, really:D
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Is is just me that is dancing in anticipation of snow, then? :p

There's a bazillion Youtube vids of huskies on treadmills, if I had the money and space you betcha I'd have one.
 
I think B being bald underneath had a big effect on his snow hatred :o hence jumper :o hopefully he'll be a big boy this time round and enjoy himself a bit more. And of course, it messes up Miss Pretty's lovely perfect hair :p
 
Hulloo!

Hi Viz all round for you especially gloves if you need to wave (ahem) at cars. ;D (scary about the road bit), and head torch for when you need but i agree with whoever said trust your own night vision... I'm a thousand feet up wi nae neighbours and the night time walks are a cross between David Attenborough and Andy McNab depending on external noises! Sooo much fun (I did get terrified the night of the fog when all the frogs were doing what comes naturally...). I digress...

Beastie has a new collar for this winter found at Glamis game fair - it is either a solid orange glow almost an inch wide - or flashing on/off. BEST one I've had in 5 years. I think this is the same
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Nite-Ize-Da...r_1_4?ie=UTF8&s=kitchen&qid=1283627915&sr=8-4
 
Cheers! I think the topography around here is pretty similar to yours, mountains, conifers, bogs - I'll wave at you from the mountain top, eh?! :p just look west :D
We even get the frog orgies too!

Great idea about gloves!
 
CC - I must have missed it through the pages......but why can't you put them in the car boot and drive them to your off road bit of walking?

I take the dogs down to the yard every morning before work, they mooch around whilst I do the nags and then I walk them around the fields - same in the evenings, but then they are out shooting most weekends anyway and some days in the week when I get a day off work.
 
It would be a bit of a handling, it would only be 3-400 metres, and I need to rejig the car every time they go in and out of it, parcel shelf, coats, books, shoes etc all need to come out and then in, it's more of an office on wheels :o and a bit too long and low for them, hence need for small van type thing in the longer term!
I do not have access to any fields around here nor would I ever be allowed - I do get one neighbour's field for tracking very occasionally but nothing off lead and only because I beg and he likes us - this is sheep central and I don't want to risk them getting shot. It only takes one wrong move.
 
They do get driven in mine at weekends or in my ma's car mostly but every night, coming home, clearing the car, walking them, putting stuff back in...nope, sounds like too much effort for the sake of a quick walk/ditch-dive/manic run down the road :p
I was thinking more 'better ring my da' :p
 
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