Nico
Nico conducting an olfactory survey of the neighborhood. It was a beautiful day in the Adirondacks. I went nordic skating on Lower Saranac Lake today with two friends. Covering long distance on the ice is tough on a dog so Nico stayed home. The ice ranged in thickness from 2.5 to 6 inches. Be careful if you decide to head out on the ice.
Shelly, Nico, and I went out on Lower Saranac Lake to go ice skating this afternoon. The ice was ranging from 3.5 to 5.5 inches thick so we decided to keep our trip short and close to shore. Nico had a blast running around the ice though.
Nico and I took a short walk down to Lower Saranac Lake at the end of the day. He had a blast running around the shore and out on the ice. Temperatures were in the mid-teens and Nico couldn't seem to care less.
I am grateful to work at Paul Smith's College Adirondack Watershed Institute for many reasons. One of them is having access to beautiful lakes and miles of trails right out my office door. Today Nico and I went for a quick skijoring run on my lunch break, it's a great way to drain some of that puppy energy.
If there were ever a day that we could all benefit from the distraction of a goofy dog today would be that day.
One of our favorite features of Nico's e-collar is the built-in headlights that can be turned on and off remotely. They not only help us keep track of him in the yard at night, but are also handy when walking through dark sections of our neighborhood.
Nico's giving me the ole side-eye for distracting him from watching the neighbors.
Denise Erenstone gifted Nico a skijoring harness yesterday, her and her husband are the ones that first cued me into skijoring many years ago when I worked for the Adirondack Mountain Club. I gave Khyber's setup to our friends Kendra and Seth to use with Chester. That harness was too big for Nico so he needed a new one. Today was his first real outing. Nico did excellently and is an enthusiastic puller. He is still a growing pup so we likely need to take it easy this winter, which will be hard because I love skiing and Nico loves pulling.
Shelly, Nico, and I headed to Lake Champlain this afternoon in search of a Pacific Loon, a rare bird for our area. Nico wasn't too thrilled with standing around in the cold looking at birds but he had a blast tearing it up through the snow on a short side adventure.
Happy New Year! Nico is looking forward to a year of fun, adventure, and meeting more people.
As Nico's front legs plant during a full-speed run and he pushes off with his front legs to start the transition to the powerful launch from his hind legs, the skin on his face continues its downward velocity as his skeletal system begins accelerating upwards. As a result, his entire face looks droops significantly. It is a split second in time that only a camera could catch. A funny one none the less.
My mom gave me a new camera bag for Christmas. It looks a lot like Nico's magic treat pouch. I'm fairly certain he thought it was an upgrade for being such a good boy and that it would be filled with a massive amount of treats. Haha.
Nico made a good effort today at seeing if his new jacket could act as a superhero cape and let him fly. Fortunately for everyone gravity still has an effect on him and his paws mostly stayed on the ground.
Nico had second Christmas today. He got a wonderful Ruffwear winter coat from his grandma. So far he hasn't shown signs of being overly sensitive to the cold but I'm sure he'll enjoy this once winter really sets in.
Nico went on his first skijoring outing today. His pulling skills were put to good use, although he was a little confused as to when he was allowed to pull. Now we need to upgrade him to a proper harness so it is a little more comfortable for him.
This ridiculously overpriced ball was not as big of a hit on Christmas morning as I would have hoped. Shelly, being as wise as she is, said that Nico would play with it if it were outside. Sure enough, he had a ball (pun intended) chasing after it in the yard today.
I think it is safe to say that Nico had a thoroughly enjoyable Christmas. It started last night when he got to open a gift early. This morning he played with all of his new toys for about five to six hours straight, moving from one to the next. By 1pm he was passed out on the couch for several hours, only to get up and start all over again. There are still some gifts from family members on their way, marooned in some postal service distribution center somewhere. I'm sure he will be just as excited for second Christmas. g
Incoming!!! Nico had a slow start to the whole idea of catching but is making up ground fast. He is fairly good at catching his daily vitamins before each meal. He also enjoys catching and gobbling up snowballs.
Nico appears to be synchronizing his ears and front legs. He came to work with me today so we could get a lunchtime walk in to put the new camera to the test. I'm thankful that we are moving toward longer days. The biggest challenge lately has been finding the time to capture photos when it is bright outside.
This evening I received my new Sony camera, which will likely result in me selling all of my Nikon gear. I'm sure to Nico it looks the same as the camera and lens that has been pointing at his face for the past 224 days. I am hopeful that it will allow me to capture even more action photos and sharper images of this fast-moving little dude.
It's a lot of fun watching Nico deftly maneuver through the forest at full speed. He frequently puts his jumping skills to good use. Here he is several feet off the ground, almost as if he is showing off as he jumps over a small shrub with plenty of clearance.
When you’re done chewing the underside of the couch cover sometimes you just need to shove your face in some pillows to take a nap.
Nico is like a pogo stick when playing in the yard, constantly bouncing and pouncing around.
Nico loves running through the woods during our lunchtime walks at Paul Smith's College Adirondack Watershed Institute. He put in an 11-hour day at the office today with no complaints. I made sure he got in a good 45-minute romp through the woods and snow in the middle of the day to tucker him out.
I look forward to longer hours of daylight. The window of opportunity to capture natural light photos of Nico is about 20 minutes each morning before I head off to work. Longer days and snow should make for more interesting photographs.
Nico is wishing for all the dog toys to show up under the Christmas tree.
Those eyes,😍.
Action shots are the most challenging to capture when photographing dogs. Nico's color and markings are particularly challenging for cameras. Typically, the autofocus systems want to grab onto the black-white contrast of his chest, when I want the focus to be on his eyes. There are ways of getting around this but they are challenging when working with a dog the doesn't stop moving. I recently parted ways with my Nikon Z7 because the autofocus was horrendous at tracking fast-moving subjects. For landscape work that camera is amazing, but for wildlife or dogs, it was nothing but frustration. After more than a decade of working with Nikon cameras, I've decided to sell all of my gear and make the switch to Sony. Hopefully, you'll see more and better action shots in the coming weeks. You can support my work and this page by joining Patreon >> Patreon.com/BrendanWiltse