A Great Hike

 Three other members of the Northern Virginia Collie Club and I went for a hike on Veterans Day at Balls Bluff Battlefield Regional Park.  It was a chilly day, but once we started on the wooded path, the trees blocked the wind, making it much more pleasant.
  Balls Bluff is the site of a Civil War battlefield and our country's smallest national cemetery.  Each of the graves had an American flag on it from a daybreak ceremony honoring veterans.  Perhaps the dogs sensed the importance of the day, too.  They behaved nicely as we stopped to pay our respects.
  I should probably put that another way.  Because Chloe is always good and while Frazier has all the energy of his not quite six months, he listens to his owner.  It was Treasure who stopped pulling on her lead long enough for me to pause at the cemetery.
  When we planned the hike, I couldn't decide which dog to take along.  Whenever I do an activity, I try to choose a dog that has not had a big block of solitary time with me.  I thought the older dogs would have found the hilly, wooded paths a bit stressful on their joints so they weren't considered for this trip.  Gemma and Gibson have shows in a couple of weeks, Jackson had just had a morning out with me, which left me the choice of Bijou, Ref or Treasure.  I don't know why I chose Treasure, but she was the lucky one.
  As soon as I opened her kennel door, she bolted out the door and started running around the building.  I let her make a couple of rounds, to burn off some energy, but when I called her to me, it seemed to make her go faster!  She'd race around, only stopping at Ref's or Gemma and Bijou's kennels to bark at them.  When she saw me coming, she'd twist around and race in the opposite direction.  I'm not sure how long she spent running, but I was ready to leave her behind and take another dog!  Treasure either ran out of energy or recognized by the tone of my voice that I had had enough of her antics.  She stopped abruptly and let me put the leash and collar on her.
  On the hike, Treasure pulled constantly on the leash.  My upper arm and shoulder were quite sore that night!  I've not experienced such a headstrong determination in Treasure before.  It was one of the few times that she's interacted with dogs from outside our kennel.  Plus, the woods had lots of great scents that needed to be explored.  We saw a young buck run through the woods, which made all the dogs want to give chase!
  I don't have pictures to share as the battery on my phone suddenly started to go.  I didn't want to take a chance on using up the battery on pictures, then needing my phone later.  It was a very pretty day, though.  Most of the leaves were off the trees but still had color.  The path was very colorful with all the reds and yellows!