High Shoals Falls and McGalliard Falls

Buster and I went to South Mountain Park in Connelly Springs, NC to visit High Shoals Falls. We made a brief stop at McGalliard Falls in Valdese, NC. We then headed home, stopping along the way at Circus Hall of Cream in Hickory, NC for dinner.

South Mountain Park
We drove all the way through the park to the main (and last) parking area on the left that leads to several trails. 

Overlook from the parking lot. So beautiful

We took the scenic (and easy) Hemlock Nature trail. There were lots of learning stations along the trail where you could read about plants, fish, animal tracks, etc. The Hemlock Nature Trail is .3 mi and leads directly into the High Shoals Fall Loop (2.7 mi total). This trail is marked strenuous, but for the most part is fairly easy until you get across the long narrow bridge over the creek. Once over the bridge it's nothing but stairs, some natural rocks and some wooden, but all steep. We got to the viewing deck at the top right as my hams/quads started burning like crazy. You can take more stairs up to the top of the waterfall and loop back around, but we didn't do that. We went back the way we came, which was much easier than going up!

Biggest cut tree we'd ever seen

 

High Shoals Falls

High Shoals Falls

One of the many cascades along the way to the main falls

McGalliard Falls
These falls are located at McGalliard Falls Park, but for some reason when you google McGalliard Falls it shows a map of the Valdese Rec Center. If I hadn't had my Kevin Adams book I wouldn't have found my way to these falls. I can't find an exact street number but they are located on Falls Rd in Valdese, NC. "Falls, 1100, 1162 Falls Rd, Valdese, NC 28690, United States" shows you the park in Google Maps.
I walked to the left then behind the picnic shelter to an overlook of the falls and mill. 

View from the overlook

 Then you have to go the opposite way along the trails, over the creek, and down behind the mill to get to the base of the falls. It was a nice pit stop and great place to have a picnic.
 

McGalliard Falls

Circus Hall of Cream
Weird name, but good food. This local restaurant is drive-thru or walk-up only. There is only outdoor seating, but it was a beautiful, breezy day and Buster can't go inside anyway. The bathrooms are around the back and Buster had to go in with me because I couldn't leave him in the hot car. 

Buster's first time in a public restroom.

I got their footlong combo with fries and a soft serve vanilla shake. (Buster had dry dog food I brought with us. He was disappointed.) Great food and I would go there again if I were in Hickory! Their hours are M-F 10-9p. Sat 10-4p. Closed Sundays.

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Do Go Chasing Waterfalls

Buster and I love hiking to waterfalls. We are so lucky to live in a state with 1000+ waterfalls. 
Highly recommend this book for planning waterfall hikes. A new edition will be available Summer 2016.

Fall Creek Falls
The roads to this waterfall in Mayodan had me crossing in and out of NC and Virginia. There's not a parking lot or well-defined trail to this little gem. I parked on the side of the road and hoped nobody would tow my car. This link has a lot of great info about getting to the Falls. 

Fall Creek Falls. At the top of the falls on the bottom R

Lower Cascades (Hanging Rock Park)
This is my favorite waterfall we've been to so far. Hope you like stairs because there's about 40 flights of em! The waterfall flows into a shallow pool and then there's a much less impressive cascade. So you could wade in the pool out to the rocks like that couple on the right.

Lower Cascades

 

Hope you like stairs!

We also visited the other waterfalls in the Park: Upper Cascades, Window Falls. They're less impressive.
Hiking to the peak of Hanging Rock is worth it. It's a moderately difficult trail, uphill all the way there.

It started raining when we got to the top. We took shelter under the trees popping out of the rock.

Tory's Falls/Den
This is a short hike with a lot of history. Torys hid out here during the Revolutionary War. The waterfall was not impressive. It might be worth seeing in the winter after a lot of rain/snow. I've seen other photographs of the falls that are more impressive, but I don't know how they got to that vantage point. We were on top of a cliff at the end of the trail.

See the waterfalls? No? Because it was more of a trickle.

We enjoyed the cave though. I don't know how several men lived in that tiny cave, though. 

Tory's Den

To enjoy Tory's Falls you should go after a big rainfall. Other hikers have seen a much more impressive fall. The last three photos on this page are from Tory's Falls/Den.

Stone Mountain State Park
Stone Mountain Falls are usually crowded. There's also a lot of stairs, but benches along the way to rest.
I enjoyed Widows Creek Falls a lot more. Less crowded and prettier. No hike at all. Just park and walk.

Stone Mountain Falls on L, Widows Creek Falls top R, Yadkin River bottom R

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Advanced Obedience Week 5 & 6

Ongoing series of posts about what to expect in a Petsmart Advanced Obedience Class:
Week 1 & 2
Week 3 & 4

For weeks 5 & 6 we continued to work on long distance stays. I was able to put Buster in a down-stay at the back of Petsmart, walk to the front door, around the edge of the store and all the way back to him. People passed him while he was waiting on me, there were plenty of distractions, but he stayed put.

We worked on heeling with distractions, including next to another dog, with people squeaking toys, bending down to talk to him, and doing wild motions like jumping up and down. And he continued to heel every time.

We worked on "heel up". He is sitting in front of me I say "heel up" and he walks around my right side, comes from behind me to sit politely to my left so we can heel. 

We didn't have a graduation ceremony since Buster and the other dog had already taken this class before, but I did ask for a diploma.

I taught him to make his eyes green in pictures. Smart dog.

 We will be taking the Therapy Dog class at Petsmart in the next few weeks. Very excited.

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Advanced Obedience: Week 3 & 4

This is a continued post chronicling Buster's Advanced Obedience class at Petsmart. Weeks 1 and 2 are here. There was a 2 week interval between week 3 and 4 due to the holidays.
Week 5 & 6

Week 3: We worked on 

• long-distance, out of site stays again. 
• heeling side by side with another dog
• leave it using high value treats
• come when called with distractions (yummy food on the floor) 
• bow

Buster did excellent with all of this. The Shiba Inu in class with us was very jealous when it was Buster's turn to be called to come through the "valley of yummy treats" (which he had to ignore. The Shiba let out a scream to express her displeasure at not coming with Buster, which scared him but he came to me anyway after giving the Shiba a 'what the heck' look. Very cute. 

Week 4: We worked on

• heeling side by side with another dog, with distractions (next to the aquariums)
• come when called with distractions (yummy food on the floor) 
• back up
• "heel up" dog starts on opposite side he heels, then goes behind you and sits down on the side he heels

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Lost and Found

While at my parent's house tonight, Buster was outside in the fenced in backyard. My mom opened the gate to bring the trash can in and Buster bolted. He's never done this before. My mom came and got me, my dad joined in and my neighbor and we walked through the neighborhood, I drove around, we called and called for him and nothing.

Why would you ever leave this amazing yard?

As my dad and I were driving around again, my mom calls. She says "I was outside and the fence was open. I turned around and he was sitting in the backyard like nothing had happened." Clearly he hadn't been in the yard for the past 30 minutes, but the little punk knew exactly where to come home. He was just in time for his dinner, got some special treats and lots of love, play, and attention. Why would any dog want to leave that?!

Our New Years kiss last night at a party

The thing I was most upset about was that I had just bought a Whistle GPS Monitor. The kit had been missing a part and I had waited 20 days to get a new rubber collar attachment and when that came the Whistle wouldn't work. I was frustrated with the situation, the lack of communication around the holidays and my nearing the end of my 30-day money back guarantee. So I returned the Whistle. If he had it on, we could have tracked him immediately.

Below you can see the spike in Buster's activity as he did some unsupervised exploring:

Buster's Activity with his non-GPS Whistle.

 So what can you do to protect your dog? 

1. The first thing I purchased is a QR Code Slide-On Dog ID Tag from dogIDs.com (I don't get money for this review). I chose the collar slide because it had less chance of having the code rubbed off by a collar tag and the slide is more noticeable.

 

QR Code Slide-On Dog ID Tag

Your QR Code brings up a detailed personal profile for your dog, where you can list basic contact information and even health concerns/special diet. But the part I liked best is that you'll get an email notification if anyone scans the dog's code and if they have GPS enabled on their smartphone, you'll receive a GPS location map of where the scan occurred. The downside is someone has to actually find your dog and scan it. This doesn't help if your dog is stuck somewhere and can't get to a person for help, as happened with my friend's Jack Russell Terrier.
(If you prefer a regular dog tag with a QR Code, they have those too for the same price: https://www.dogids.com/product/round-qr-code-dog-tag/)

      2. GPS Monitor: As I talked about above, Whistle has a GPS/Activity Monitor. You are required to sign up for GPS service (you can't just use it as an activity monitor like the previous version). It's $9.95/mo for month-to-month payment, 7.95/mo for a years service (which works out to $94.50), and 6.95/mo for 2 years service. So you're looking at almost a $200 up-front cost if you do the year's service plan because the Whistle is $79, although if you order directly from their site they often have specials.  I wish I could tell you how well it worked, but I never got to experience that. I love my Whistle Activity Monitor, so I know that feature is great. It allows different caretakers to have separate profiles linked with the dog's profile and syncs with the person's smartphone to show who spent time with the dog, as you can see in the picture of Buster's activity, above.
App available on iOS and Android.

Pod 2: This corkscrew sized tracker seems pretty cool. It uses AT&T and T-Mobile 2G cell phone service to monitor your dog's whereabouts. The first year of GPS service is free and the next year is $49, which is one of the cheaper prices. It also monitors activity & sleep, which is a fun feature. 

Pod 2

This one uses AA batteries which last up to 6 days, so hope you have rechargable batteries. App available on iOS and Android.
 $199, which ends up being comparable to the Whistle GPS once you've bought their GPS service. 

DogTelligent Collar As of right now, this is a pre-order. It replaces your dog's regular collar. It has an optional GPS service, which is nice if you decide you just want the activity monitor. There's a built-in ultrasound, vibration and speakers to talk to your dog, train him/her, and deter barking.It allows you to keep track of your dog's vet info, including storing photos of vet records. $120 preorder, $179.95 regular price. "Exact pricing for the service is yet to be determined but estimated at $4.95/mo." That'd be the lowest price yet. You can see some of the app screens for different features here.
Their IndieGoGo page is more informative than their website. Battery life is 7-14 days and is rechargable with their charger. The collar is aluminum and it looks like your dog would still need to wear a regular collar since there seems to be no place to attach tags or any leash but their special magnet one.

Nuzzle This is a pre-order as well, but this one promises no service fees for the GPS. It comes on its own collar, but is detachable so it can be placed on your existing collar. Monitors activity and location, comes with charger, attachement and base station. Battery life is 5 days. $189, but never any GPS service fee.
Their IndieGoGo page is more informative than their website. App available on iOS and Android.


I haven't decided what I'm going to do about a GPS tracker. I like the no service fees of the Nuzzle, but I hate to be a guinea pig on a new product. Will update once I decide.

Do you have an activity monitor or GPS on your pet? Tell me about it in the comments.

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Therapy Dog Training

As I stated in my previous post: "I decided to get back into blogging because I couldn't find any blogs about the journey to become a therapy dog. Buster and I are about to begin that journey." So here is the plan for the journey to make Buster a therapy dog. 

(*Note: I often say "we" and "us". It's a habit of speaking for both myself and Buster that's just stuck.)
 
Buster and I tried Agility training. It was fun and we might have kept up with it if PTA school hadn't got in the way. It just wasn't possible to have anything scheduled outside of school. Upon reflection, I don't know if Buster truly enjoyed it.

 This is Buster's best run during agility.

As I get close to graduation and have seen therapy dog visits during my last clinic in a nursing home, I've decided to pursue therapy dog training. I kept saying I'd do it "when he gets older and slows down" but why not now?

Thankfully I was crazy about getting certificates when we took obedience classes the first time around in 2013/2014 and he got Canine Good Citizen certified.

AKC CGC certified

 I think we've decided to get certified with Love on a Leash which has a local chapter (Winston Salem, NC). I went to a therapy dog event with my godson where he read to a dog at a library and they recommended LoaL. It helps that their requirements are more lenient than Therapy Dog's International. ;-)

On  12/2/15 Buster joined me at my clinical at a nursing home for a visit. He was well behaved in the therapy room so I took him on a tour to visit some patients. He did very well and showed no fear. He tolerated people coming at him from all directions, including behind, and tolerated patients grabbing at his face. Two patients patted their laps, asking my 60 lb dog to sit in their lap. Luckily he knows not to get in laps. I was so pleased with his visit and his good behavior. I contacted his old trainer as soon as I got home and said "Let's fast track this!"

Here are our steps to becoming a therapy dog:

1. Beginner Obedience
2. Intermediate Obedience
3. Advanced Obedience
4. Canine Good Citizen test
5. Therapy Dog Class
6. Therapy Dog test

We have completed steps #1-4 already, but I decided to have Buster re-take his Advanced Obedience class to refresh his obedience with distractions in busy places and around other dogs. Because we took all our obedience classes through Petsmart, we can retake any of the classes again for free. We had to miss the first class last night due to a prior commitment, but we will be there for the other 5 weeks and finish 1/17/16. Had I gotten Buster as a puppy (he was 2 when I adopted him) we would have taken a puppy obedience class before beginner obedience. Buster came to me already knowing 'sit' and 'shake'.

For #5 & #6, if Petsmart offers the therapy dog class we'll take it there because I love our trainer (Dulcey Trimble at Petsmart on Lawndale in Greensboro, NC) otherwise we'll go to the Winston Salem Dog Training Club. They are the home of a Therapy Dog International Chapter so they might require you become TDI certified. We'll find out!

So Buster and I are looking forward to him following in his mom's footsteps and being a therapist. Hopefully we'll be both certified/licensed therapists with jobs by Spring 2016!

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