DieselCam: Field Test #1

I awoke this morning with the makings of a good sinus attack coming on. So I opted to call in, take some drugs, and sleep it off.  When I got back up a little later in the morning, I was surprised to see that it was 45° outside, and partly sunny.  I called Mikey, and asked him how the weather was and asked if I should take the big, sleeping beast out for a walk. He thought the fresh air would do us both good. 

Considering that when this week first started out, we still had snow on the ground, and now with this sudden warm front moving in,  and the rain this morning, the neighborhood was an absolute mud pit.  Living on dirt roads has a few advantages, but the mud, lack of a decent snow plow, and the enormous potholes, are a few things that really make it not so much fun. And definitely makes taking your mutt for a walk more of a challenge. 

Well, I thought it would be fun to see how well walking Diesel in his boots would be.  A few years ago, Mikey and I bought Diesel some boots after we had gone out on Lake St. Clair while it was frozen. The top layer of the lake was an icy slush and we didn't realize until it was too late, that while Diesel had been running and chasing the four-wheelers and snowmobiles, his little paws were getting sliced open.  

So here I get the great idea, its muddy, lets put the dog in his boots so I don't have to clean up an awful mess when we get home. It was hard to get a decent, picture, but this is Diesel in his boots. It wasn't too bad to get them on him, once he put two and two together and realized that we were going for a walk, he was patient enough. Only doing one lap around the living room between getting each one on. Once we were on the road, it was even muddier that I thought it would be!  I decided to take the small route that has quite a bit of paved surfaces to try and limit the amount of dirt I would be cleaning later.  Of course the boots don't fit all that great, and so I had to stop probably six times to pull them back up and secure them.  And in the process, getting mud all over my hoodie and jeans. But we kept on trucking.

I also made the fun decision to test out my new collar cam.  I purchased the Dogtek Eyenimal Digital Videocam for Pets about a week ago, and today is the first day the weather has cooperated enough to want to use it. Having only really used it the one time, its going to take some time to get right.  It's not one of those things you can just clip to your pets collar and away you go.  My first mistake was attaching it to the wrong part of Diesel's collar.  I forgot that the weight of the clasp on the leash was going to rotate the collar, so the first 10 mins of our walk is at a 90° angle, and it eventually rotates all the way to the back of his neck and is staring straight at the sky.  And only then did I notice that. I moved the camera, and started again, only now it was facing the ground. Another adjustment. Better. It eventually rotated a bit more, less than a 45° angle and stayed like that for the rest of the walk. The other problem was that his neck fur was constantly obstructing the view. And with every step he would take, the camera would bounce in and out of his fur, also forcing the camera to have to auto-focus every few seconds.  Needless to say, it wasn't a great first walk.  The footage was hard to watch, and if you get motion sick easy, it's best not viewed at all.  

Because I know some of you may be curious about how it turned out, I did cut a one minute section off of our final 7 minutes of recording time and posted it to YouTube.  You can check it out below.  Any suggestions you might have to help stabilize it would be appreciated.  I am thinking I may buy a harness for him, and attach it to the front of that. Not really sure yet. 

Sunny & Breezy!

First, Diesel and I would like to thank the Rochester Patch website for featuring our blog occasionally.  I have been granted access to blog for the site, but I haven't yet decided if I should move over there or stay here.  I sort of like the control I have here, though it could open me up to a larger audience.

Today, Diesel and I had the most perfect weather for walking.  Partly cloudy with a fantastic breeze. Okay, maybe more windy than breezy, but it still felt great!  Temperatures were in the 70's which made it perfect for some shorts and a t-shirt.  Usually I don't go for walks much before 6 o'clock, but today I had an appointment at 7 I couldn't miss.  This meant getting out on the road at 5 and having to deal with the traffic. Yuck.  Thankfully the worst of it was crossing Auburn to get to the CRT after that we stayed on the trail for most of our walk.

View of downtown Auburn Hills facing West

After walking down the CRT, we cut through beautiful downtown Auburn Hills.  I love the way the streets are lined with the old fashioned light poles and flowers hang from baskets and are planted in stone gardens along the street. Add in the brick accents on the street and the new building fronts, downtown Auburn Hills is starting to look exceptionally nice.

Once we got back on the trail we continued west while enjoying the seclusion from the road.  We passed quite a few people and made some new friends as they stopped to pet Diesel.  He sure is a handsome dog and are frequently told so!


Unfortunate for us, I remembered to take a peek at the time and realized we had only a half hour to make it home and had already walked for an hour.  We got to stepping and raced home without taking too many unnecessary stops.  We were forced to take a short-cut and follow Auburn road home, but that wasn't to horrible as the traffic has started to mellow out by then.  Our complete walk took us an hour and a half and was almost 4 and half miles round trip.

Our walk today (image provided by Gmaps Pedometer)

And one last thing, I recently created a twitter account for the Diesel Stomping blog so that we can live tweet any pictures or events that may be happening while we are walking but before I have a chance to write.  Tweets will appear on the right-hand side of this page, or you can follow us by clicking here.

A New Leash for Diesel

Two posts today.  I wanted to share some additional walking goodies with you as well as just a recap of our walk.

Diesel is a very well behaved dog, often being complemented by those struggling to restrain their excited puppies about how he doesn't even seem to notice other dogs.  Diesel did go through some pretty extensive training before Mikey and I had the privilege to adopt him from Mike's brother.  In the past we had a long 6 foot leather leash that I used to take him for walks, it was nice, and looked quite sharp, however it was just too long for us.  Diesel is used to walking right next to me.  Last year, when our walks started becoming more frequent, I figured out that if I looped the leash around itself I could wear it around my waist.  This worked out quite nice, free hands, and it shortened up the leash a bit.  The only downfall is that when we would come to a stop, it had a tendency to drop to the ground and I would have to fumble with it all over again.

Well a few months ago as the nicer weather was starting to peek out, I stopped into PetSmart with Diesel and a cashier noticed how I hand to fuss with his leash while paying for his dog food and recommend a new one.  This leash has an adjustable loop on the "handle" end and a easy snap closure.  Originally intended to allow you to easily secure a pet to a tree or post, the cashier and I immediately saw its potential as my replacement  It has been a great addition to our walks this summer.  I don't know who makes this particular model, but if anyone has a dog that doesn't pull so much when they walk (or maybe they do and you need the extra footing) I recommend checking your local pet store for one.  They were no more expensive than any other nylon leash, but were limited in their colors and styles.  I chose the simple black.  Also, after adjusting it to fit around my waist, the length of the leash is probably only 4 and half feet long.  Perfect for us, and would meet any leash law requirements.