Snow Time = Play Time, Apparently

The thing with having an Akita in your home is that she doesn't understand why you don't want to play in the snow too.

Panda's been a bit of a challenge for us, but she's making great strides.  When we first brought her home, we didn't want her bounding about in the yard (big and fenced in which would make any dog happy) for two reasons.  The first was that she had just been spayed, so she had fresh stitches and we didn't want her to hurt herself.  The other was that the snow banks were so high that there was less than a foot of said fence remaining.  And since Panda is a dog bred to climb through snow, she could have easily walked or jumped right over the fence.

So we've been keeping her on her leash and walking with her in the snow.  Except that because unlike her, we sink in the snow, we stayed on the path that Dave made with the snow blower and she could only go up to six feet off the path (as long as the leash). 

She really didn't like this idea. 

Dave got a long lead and we started using that, but still she had limited mobility and couldn't run through the snow like she wanted.  Feeling bad for her lack of romping, on Saturday, after taking her on a walk, we came back home and I decided to do a test.  The snow has been melting, exposing more of the fence (maybe about half).  We came back in to yard and I took off her leash and replaced it with the long lead.  And then I just let her go.  I figured the lead was long enough that if she started to go somewhere, I could catch the end and lead her back into the yard.

Panda loved it.  For the first time she was exploring areas of the yard previously off limits.  On our walks we've noticed that Panda loves to dig in the snow (and eat it, but that's another story).  Left to her own devices in the back yard (with a little help from the holes where my boot fell in), she was in digging heaven.  Please excuse my finger in the following video--it was sunny out and I couldn't actually see what I was doing.

I did this little test without telling Dave.  He was out Jeeping and I actually was calling him before I started this video but I had to hang up since this activity had to be captured.

The next day I decided to let her off again.  Panda was so excited, since she knew what she'd be able to do.  Again, Dave was out, so I took another video.

But wait, there's more.

It was great, except that when I thought she was going up to the door, ready to go back inside, she took a left turn instead of a right.  Up a bigger snowbank, walked right over the fence, onto a snowbank in the neighbors yard and started to go down the steps into their backyard.  Oops.  I caught the end of the lead just in time and successfully got her back into our yard.  When Dave came home, he took a little off the top of the "Snowbank to Freedom."

You know what happens when you let a dog run around outside?  They get really tired.  Or play dead--I can't tell which.

She's actually sleeping like that--it's not a random stretch.  She lays like that for 20 minutes or more.  Sometimes I ask her if she's still alive.  Dave says she's just hoping we'll come over there and rub her belly.