What a fun weekend we had! Saturday was our disc dog club’s annual picnic that is held at Ft. Desoto which has a dog beach. We always have a good time at this event and I look forward to it every year. Our eldest dogs are not “dog beach friendly” and Tali and Jam only somewhat enjoy themselves there so while it’s fun for me the dogs would probably be just as happy going for a hike or something. Well with the addition of Groovy that has changed. She LOVES the beach. Someone suggested that of course she should – it fits her name. Works for me!
When we arrived it was just about lunch time so we sat and ate with everyone. Groovy was quite comfortable in the group of people – more so than I expected her to be and than she has been. Even with 2.5 year old Kiera around there were no woofs or anything. Kiera did get a little warning when she got into Groovy’s space too much for too long but in all honesty Groovy did awesome with her compared to her last few kid outings and was more curious about her than fearful. After lunch we walked down to the dog beach. I left Groovy’s short leash attached to her in case she went running off or something. We set our stuff down, walked towards the water and Groovy walked right in and started swimming around as though she had been at the beach 10 times before. Jack and I looked at each other in amazement. The more interesting thing is that Groovy would swim up to complete strangers to say hello (men included). Again, Jack and I exchanged looks of amazement – especially when she proceeded to do this on land as well. What dog was this? We didn’t know but we didn’t care and certainly hoped to take this “new” dog home with us. Tali came with us on this outing as well and swam more than she normally does. I think she’d love the dog beach if it were only dogs she knew – it’s all the strange dogs that kind of wig her out but it’s good for her to experience. The day was so much fun. Here are some links to a slideshow of pics and a video. Folks will think I was deluded when speaking about Groovy’s aversion to men when they see this because she is so confident and friendly in the video. The difference was amazing. Needless to say we’ll be going back to the dog beach soon!
When we arrived it was just about lunch time so we sat and ate with everyone. Groovy was quite comfortable in the group of people – more so than I expected her to be and than she has been. Even with 2.5 year old Kiera around there were no woofs or anything. Kiera did get a little warning when she got into Groovy’s space too much for too long but in all honesty Groovy did awesome with her compared to her last few kid outings and was more curious about her than fearful. After lunch we walked down to the dog beach. I left Groovy’s short leash attached to her in case she went running off or something. We set our stuff down, walked towards the water and Groovy walked right in and started swimming around as though she had been at the beach 10 times before. Jack and I looked at each other in amazement. The more interesting thing is that Groovy would swim up to complete strangers to say hello (men included). Again, Jack and I exchanged looks of amazement – especially when she proceeded to do this on land as well. What dog was this? We didn’t know but we didn’t care and certainly hoped to take this “new” dog home with us. Tali came with us on this outing as well and swam more than she normally does. I think she’d love the dog beach if it were only dogs she knew – it’s all the strange dogs that kind of wig her out but it’s good for her to experience. The day was so much fun. Here are some links to a slideshow of pics and a video. Folks will think I was deluded when speaking about Groovy’s aversion to men when they see this because she is so confident and friendly in the video. The difference was amazing. Needless to say we’ll be going back to the dog beach soon!
Pics:
Video of the social swimming butterfly:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BjzEE21bNwo
On Sunday Tali and I attended a 5 hour small group lesson with Wendy Pape. The group consisted of us, Sarah, Gary, Bev, Sally and Kathryn. It was a good time. We all learned a lot and ran our butts off. It was even not too bad of weather for the first few hours as the rain kept things cooler than normal for a while. Tali did very well on some very difficult courses. I didn’t do too badly either! Wendy was able to help us with our 10th pole popping issue and showed me I could be places I wouldn’t have thought I could be. I was also glad to see that 2 or 3 times when I wanted to handle something differently than most it was actually the way Wendy would handle it. Good to know my brain can still function well as it relates to difficult handling. Haven’t been on tough courses in a long while since Mickie has retired and Tali is still at the beginning levels in most venues (Not that any venue has courses as difficult as the ones that Wendy makes up!). Hopefully by the end of this trial season coming up Tali will be at the upper levels but we’ll see how it goes this year!
Ear update? I untaped them for the trip to the beach – one advantage of using this method! By Sunday we had 1 rose ear and 1 “regular” ear. As of last night we have 1 ear taped and 1 ear not. We’ll see what happens!
On Sunday Tali and I attended a 5 hour small group lesson with Wendy Pape. The group consisted of us, Sarah, Gary, Bev, Sally and Kathryn. It was a good time. We all learned a lot and ran our butts off. It was even not too bad of weather for the first few hours as the rain kept things cooler than normal for a while. Tali did very well on some very difficult courses. I didn’t do too badly either! Wendy was able to help us with our 10th pole popping issue and showed me I could be places I wouldn’t have thought I could be. I was also glad to see that 2 or 3 times when I wanted to handle something differently than most it was actually the way Wendy would handle it. Good to know my brain can still function well as it relates to difficult handling. Haven’t been on tough courses in a long while since Mickie has retired and Tali is still at the beginning levels in most venues (Not that any venue has courses as difficult as the ones that Wendy makes up!). Hopefully by the end of this trial season coming up Tali will be at the upper levels but we’ll see how it goes this year!
Ear update? I untaped them for the trip to the beach – one advantage of using this method! By Sunday we had 1 rose ear and 1 “regular” ear. As of last night we have 1 ear taped and 1 ear not. We’ll see what happens!
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