Placitas, NM Placitas is a beautiful place with lots of hidden trails.  As you hike along, the terrain changes and you enter new ecosystems.  This elevation is particulary vibrant with the Prickly Pear in bloom (red fruit that grows off of the cactus in the picture foreground), the yellow chamisa and the deep blue sky. When hiking with dogs, you have to pay close attention to your environment.  There are many plants that bite with thorns, needles and stickers.  There's also wildlife that does not like to be disturbed.  This includes rattlesnakes, tarantulas and many species that will not harm you, but deserve respectful space none the less.  Always carry tweezers, an emergency bite kit and plenty of water. This hike took us 5 hours to complete, with about an hour of break time.  After we hiked in as far as we could go (the path dead-ended), we allowed the dogs off-leash.  This is something that we typically do not do, because we don't want them to bother other hikers, but we hadn't seen anyone for hours and we had entered a mountainous terrain with more deciduous plants instead of cactus.  So we sat them down and did a touch of obedience exercises (to put them in the right frame of mind) and then released them to play.  We decided on a specific distance that they were allowed to roam away from us.  Each time they met that boundary we would call them back (and give them overwhelming praise for coming when called) so after a short amount of time, they understood the limits of their freedom.  It's important that dogs be allowed to play.  It's equally important that play has rules.   When given freedom the first thing they do is sprint around as fast as they can.  Right after that the top line of the agenda is to dig a hole so they can be cool in the soft dirt.  The picture above is of Hoshi and Jackson working hard on a hole.  The picture to the right is of Hoshi claiming her hole and Jackson catching his breath so he can engage her in another game of chase.  Hoshi and Jackson are very athletic and ran up and down the steep banks that surrounded us. Kita, to the right, loves to run and play just as much as the others, but she has weak knees.  So in the beginning she does her best to keep up, then she chooses to hang out around us, while intently watching the others.  She runs up and chases them (or is chased) whenever they are on flat ground.  Since she is limited in her movement, we make sure to engage her in games when she can't follow the others.  Oh, the joy of the "come" command. Back to the trail.  When walking together, we trade off who walks which dog(s) and who walks in front.  At this point we decided that I would walk in front with Rick walking the dogs (attached to his belt).  He's great at multi-tasking because at one point he called my name, I turned around to see why and he got this shot. 505-604-6367 2003 Southern Blvd. SE #102-85, Rio Rancho, NM 87144 answers@afreshperspectivedogtraining.com