Still running, but not as much as I would like. Weather, work, blah blah blah. Early spring seems to be when there are a lot of long runs. I haven't had a repeat performance (yet) of last year's chasing the dogs 1/2 mile down the road as they ran the creek bottom through 4 different neighbor's backyards and saw the rabbit cross the road just before the dogs got there. That was kind of crazy. I did have one run the other day though that ended with the dogs circling around the neighbor's garage. So glad I have good neighbor's. I try not to let that happen, but sometimes the rabbit goes where the rabbit wants to go.
Yesterday we went out for about 3 hours, maybe a little more. It was kind of slow at first. After a couple brief runs of no consequence, I decided to head toward the back of the farm. The dogs were getting kind of bored and that is always trouble at least when it comes to the beagle I rescued from the dog pound. The dogs were fairly far ahead when I heard the pound dog start barking. I knew it wasn't rabbit because my other dog was not barking. Since I'm just in this for fun, I don't get real picky about Miss pound doggie barking at other stuff unless it's deer. That is expressly forbidden. When I got to the woods, it was as I thought. She was tracking squirrel and I started laughing because she followed the track right up a downed top of an aspen tree as far as she could go. She's about 8 feet up in the air in the picture. This is not the first time she has done this either. Silly girl.
We moved on and finally got a good running rabbit back in a spot we call the "swampy area". It was REALLY we back there and hard for the dogs to track with so much standing water. They did good though and didn't start losing it until the third or fourth circle. When that point came, I rounded them up and we headed back to the house. About 1/2 way there they got another rabbit up and running. That was good running rabbit too and it gave me a chance to make a couple out and back loops through the adjacent field looking for sheds. Didn't find any. Finally headed home as the sun was getting low in the sky. The dogs were a muddy mess and really tired. The tired part is a very good thing.