Getting back to the origins of this blog--comparing big city to small town living, I want to take a moment to compare the risks of letting your dog play off lead.
In the big city there are cars. Lots of cars and it seemed to me that often food was sold near busy streets, (food trucks, hot dog carts and just lots of food being dropped). All that food attracts my dogs, which makes the possibility of dog-car interaction likely. My dogs never got run over but over 14 years there was the occasional cringe moment when a dog ran across Halsted or Webster in search of food. Or a rat.
In the mountains we have much less food laying about (the bears, coyotes etc clean that up at night). We do have much more wildlife to chase but less roads to chase it across. However, after an epic winter snow we got water. Lots of water. My dogs love to play in water, but right now that isn't always a good idea.
scary water to avoid (this is some same water as above just a mile lower down trail)
and sneaky water that looks safe but is flowing pretty fast (ie paddle sideways for eddies not straight up against current--although I love her using the tree to try to help)
