Ouch, Was That the Wall?

We all knew it would happen eventually, and today, it finally did.  Dingo and I have gone over the edge.  He's bored of me and I'm looking for things to help pass the time.

We spent about 1.5 hrs at the park today tossing the ball...Jake is usually interested in me enough to go get each ball that I toss.  But not today.  Today, we hit the wall.  We've played catch/toss for so many days in a row, that Jake doesn't feel like playing any more.  So today, we played toss...with a twist.  Here's the new process:

1. MO/PO toss the ball
2. Jake does not go get the ball
3. If we're lucky, another dog goes to get the ball
4. If we're not so lucky, MO/PO go get the ball 

Fortunately, Jake and I didn't get cabin fever earlier in the week.  KaNina will be back tomorrow to take dingo out for some much needed Jake/CoCo interaction...not a moment too soon.

Happy Force of July!

...the title of this post only makes sense if you, like I, have put in LOTS of Spike-TV-time this week.  I'm sorry.

What an awesome day!  This is the kind of day that dogs live for.  The sun was shining, temps were in the mid 70's, and there was a light breeze coming from the northwest.  The cloudcover tumbled across their shepherds gentle coax like monarchs in late summer.  ...I have clearly missed my calling!

Since its been extra soggy for the recall-able past, going to the park is a bit of an adventure.  Be sure to dress properly!

Dingo got a lot of exercise today.  I'm happy to report that MO& PO's confidence among large numbers of unknown dingos and dingets is growing by the day.  There were quite a few pups at the dog spa today - but nothinglike the carnage that found us on 7/3; unlike that day, there was a much more favorable owner:dog ratio.  I think that this tends to keep the dogs in-check.  Even after an hour of catch in the lake and fields, Jake was still read to go.  Ah, to be young.

To boot or to swell, that is the question

Buzzz…..Buzzzz….SWAT! That began our memorable journey today at the ROCK (aka malaria central).

Our adventures took place on a somewhat sunny morning.  Wait …. What?!?!? Did I just mention the word sunshine? I did indeedy! The three of us (yes, MO FINALLY had a vacation day) were in high spirits as we took off for the park.

But wait!  I’m getting a little ahead of myself.  As MO tends to “throw on” errands to otherwise seemingly fun trips, we had to make a stop before the park.  “But it’s in Weston too!” MO said.  So off we went.

WELL…..40 minutes after the “oh-so-easy errand” …. We finally arrived at the Park amidst whimpers and cries from the Dingo (my interpretation of those were “GUYS, it’s just AROUND the corner! Can we get there ALREADY!!).  Anywhoo …. PO and MO (and their trusty GPS device) continued to run into the same sign every time – ROAD CLOSED.   After much frustration (and realizing that we are just MADE to be on the show The Amazing Race)….the Park was in sight.

Ahem …. PO decides to go down a new trail today.  So harmless and inviting...at first glance:

Okay, fine….all is well and good….MO and Dingo love adventure and new things.  Well….new things we found.  I would call them Larry, Mo and Curly … although there were more than three so …. Let’s add Ringo, John, George….the list can go on (enter your favorite name here).  MOSQUITOS unite!  There must have been a political rally or something for “Mosquitos attack everyone who takes a step into their area”.   To save the gory details (and I mean gory), we trotted out of that area as soon as we could (noting “oh look …. Still swamp water….SUPER!”).

So, that adventure being over (somewhat for the moment with a few battle wounds to show for it)….we soon saw THE LAKE.  Ah, dog’s love at first sight. 

Young Jacob showed his appreciation by running up to the Lake, and then deciding to boot up his entire breakfast onto the rocky shore. OH Jacob.

Then, out of the corner of her eye (or maybe it was the galloping sound of feet), MO saw a blur of fur and next thing we know, there’s what seems like 50 dogs.  OK, slight exaggeration … but STILL.  It was ridiculous. 

Young Dingo couldn’t hold onto his tennis ball because there were ball stealers ALL over the place, PO had to fend off hungry dogs from eating Young Jacob's thrown-up leftovers (at the same time as he was trying to clean it up) and MO was trying to keep an eye on Dingo and the madhouse scene.  Here ... we pause for a moment and give PO a LOT of credit for this scene.  His task was far from pretty. SIGH.  Young Jacob started to look fed up (I mean, all the poor dog wanted was to go swimming after his tennis ball) and MO agreed.  It was time to move on.

ON TO THE trails and field!  Happy days are here again! Tennis balls were thrown, dogs were met, everything was hunky dory.

Alas, even though MO was covered from head to toe – a skeeter decided that since her hand was uncovered, he was going to have some fun.  Needless to say, MO’s hand started swelling, PO kept swatting his back and young Jacob had the biggest smile on his face.  It was time to head back home to the Center of the Universe.

Dingo decided (similar to the day before) to take off one LAST time …. This time after a pack of running dogs through the woods.  SIGH.  Again, our attempts at getting his attention were on deaf puppy ears.  He was having too much fun. Finally he decided he had enough and we could NOW go home.  Thanks Dingo!   A happy and tired puppy at the end of the day.  Really, what more can you ask for in life?  Simple things are often the best things in life. 

Em-You-Dee-Dee-Why

The weather sucks again today.  Here's what I was greeted by when I stepped outside this morning.  Another beautiful day!  However, Jake and I refuse to be defeated...ok, more Jake than I.  We took a look at the weather map and spotted our window of opportunity.  By weather.com's calculation, we could arrive at The Rock as early as 11a and be mostly in the clear.  Onward we trekked. 

The park was rather quiet, so Jake and I nearly had the whole place to ourselves.  There was this one random, seemingly owner-less, dog that was thumping about.  J-Dog avoided him altogether.

I threw the ball in the lake for Jake a bunch of times, then we mudded through the fields, and finally headed over to the ol' bunny slope.  Along the way we heard a Baskin-Robbins Pack, you know...31 different dogs.  Sure enough, one of the younger dogs came darting towards us.  Jake was cool and so was the other dog...until...they saw a bird hopping around on the forest floor about 15' away.  They both took-off toward the defenseless chew toy.  Fortunately, when I called to Jake, he stopped.  But not Cameron!  Camoron chased after the bird, caught it, and then played keep away from the dog walker.  The DW didn't really stand a chance, his knees were buckling under the weight of the 31 dog leashes wrapped around his neck.  The whole pack ended up chasing Camoron through the muddy forest.  Jake and I lost sight of him after about 1 minute of watching.  Finally, we spent about 10 minutes on the bunny slope.  Could you imagine running up this thing for exercise?

 On our way back to the car, another bird (or maybe it was a chipmunk) caught dingo's eye.  This time, there was no holding him back with a single verbal command.  Jake darted and ignored me but didn't catch his prey.  Eventually he came over to me but it wasn't before some other guy with a dog (on a leash) said to me, "that's why I keep this one on a leash...he's unpredictable."  I don't think he was trying to make a point, but being less interesting to Jake than the phantom bird was a bit of shot to my pride.  Now, Jake is asleep.  What a life!?

Thunder Dog

Growing up, we had dogs.  First was Sheena, the Chesapeake Bay Retriever who was affectionately named after Sheena Easton. Next came Cookie, the German Shepherd.  To the best of my knowledge, both Sheena and Cookie were terrified of thunder.  Surprisingly, young Jacob doesn't seem to care mind it at all.  We had t-storms roll through here for a solid portion of the day and he slept right through them!

Today was the official midway point of my vacation.  Unfortunately for both me and dingo, it also signified MID-TERM day.  ahhh!  The mid-term is over, but the damage has been done...Jake and I have lost precious bonding hours that can never be recaptured.  He has a habit of huffing and puffing when he's trying to be noticed which provided me with just the right amount of comic relief to get through the take-home exam (glorious).  Please direct all sympathy to me...Jake got to go out on an extended playgroup with his gf's.  While he was here, he spent most of his time on his gigantic Nantucket dog bed:

The BIG Day

This morning was 'it': the day that dingo and PO went to Cat Rock Ski Resort (and dog spa) without any help from MO or KaNina.  Lots of stars had to align; I was mostly worried about these:

1. I needed to be more interesting to Jake than anything around us (squirrels included)
2. I needed to have a calm, cool, and collected energy about me (even if I was uber-nervous)


3. Jake needed to listen to all of my verbal commands


4. furthest out of my control...I needed all of the other dogs/owners to have THEIR stuff together

Once we got there, it didn't take long for things to get interesting.  We crossed over the first bridge and ran into a dog walker with 8 dogs.  I didn't flinch and neither did Jake.  He checked in with me and I allowed him to go say, 'hi' to the other pack.  He was awesome.  Everything was cool (they were starting to play with one another)...BUT...there was a little yipper that started to squabbel with another one of the dogs in the pack and some others joined in the brief chaos.  I whistled to Jake and he came bounding over to me.  Success!  'at a boy!  Unfortunately, we're out of treats so I could only give him some well deserved pats on his noggen. That was the last we saw of them, which was fine with me, but you could hear them every once in a while from the other side of the park when they would get out of control.  We're lucky to have KaNina because they refuse to take more than 5 dogs on normal playgroups.

> wait a tick...some guy just dedicated The Night that the Lights went out in Georgia to his wife.  Like, whoa.

Anyhow, we ran into CoCo (et al) at the resevoir.  It was cool to see the young lovebirds frollick and play.  I don't know what Jake is doing in this picture...but whatever. 

Jake's terrified of most things the first time he encounters them but he eventually warms to them (vacuum excluded).  Here he is making his case for the purchase of a new house on a lake.

...when I signed up for the YouTube channel, I had to scroll through the list to find my year of birth - I don't remember having to do this in the past.

Is it lunch time yet? 

One Happy Pup

Can a guy get some sunshine!?  This is what I saw when I stepped outside this morning, at 10a (yeah, 10...jeolous?).  And why wouldn't it be raining?  After all, this has been the coldest and wettest June on record!  Global warming, what?  lol

I was pretty stoked for Jacob when the rain started to disappate because playgroup with KaNina is never the same when it rains.  When dingo came home, I learned of a new norm that is tearing at the very fiber of our good society: byciclists that poo in the woods.  Really?  Really.  Really!?  Reeeeally?  Reeeeeally.

Surprising?  Yes.

Understandable?  I'll give you the benefit of the doubt. 

Perhaps I'm out of line, but, if I'm required to carry a poo-bag to pick-up after an animal, couldn't you do the same?  By the way, where do you keep the TP?

Anyhow, dingo had a great time at playgroup (I can tell because he slept for the next 2 hours).  Once he woke up, we hopped in the car and headed over to the estate for some additional excercise.    It rained a bit, but we didn't mind.