Playtime in between storms

This week I have been watching a friend's dog, Cara, for the week while her owner is on vacation. Unfortunately, it has also been raining so we haven't been able to get out much for walks or playtime.  Earlier this week I had to get a little creative as I could tell Hope and Cara needed to get their "ya-ya's" out.  Who needs expensive dog toys when a cheap 89 cent empty plastic bottle will do?

Nick came back home after puppy class last night, so today we were a houseful of black dogs. It was perfect weather for a nice long walk and playtime at the school yard near my house. Nick was so cute carrying the dog toy I brought along almost all the way to the school. Hope used to do the same thing as a puppy too... :-) Since my yard is so small, I use the school yard a lot to let the dogs play; its great as its fully fenced, so its safe for the dogs to be off leash. Hope helped me close the gates with the "push" command she learned in Advanced Training...

We actually went out for a couple of walks today as it was such great weather to be out and about.  I was amazed to walk by the ponds nearby out on the trails that were nearly full, a month or so ago, the ponds were practically bone dry.  I think all the water run-off from the neighborhoods drain into the ponds in these wetlands.  (L to R: Hope, Nick, Cara)

A different angle...

A little reminder...

It's a good thing CCI graduations roll around every 3 months...

Just when I start to lose my motivation and feel some of the negative emotions that inevitably comes with the puppy raising journey (frustration, anger, disappointment, etc., you can fill in the blanks...), attending a CCI graduation always seems to renew my spirits about puppy raising and what it is all about...the graduates who are at the receiving end of what we are doing. It also makes me realize how many special people and dogs have entered my life since I began this journey. And yesterday was no exception...

Nick and I drove down to Santa Rosa with our co-raisers and some good friends who raised Nick's half-sister Orsa who was graduating. Our local CCI Chapter, the GRC (Gold Rush Champions), rocked...we had several dogs raised in our area that graduated yesterday and we will have several new graduates who live in the Sacramento area. As always, the graduations are so emotional and the speeches were wonderful...another tear-jerking ceremony.  

This is a picture of Nick and his half-sister Orsa before the ceremony. Orsa is from Niobe's (Nick's mom) second litter. She graduated as a Skilled Companion for a 7-year old autistic boy. Before he received his CCI dog, he had opened a lemonade stand to earn money for a dog. During the ceremony he gave the money (which he was carrying in a plastic bag) to CCI...it was such a special moment. He now says he is going to sell orange juice to help pay for Orsa's food...how sweet is that?

After the ceremony, we had another "Winnie Round-Up" at CCI. Our co-raisers have an RV that they park in the back parking lot at CCI, and we hang out (with adult beverages and snacks, of course) to support our friends who have the hard part of turning in their puppy that day. 

Nick poses for a picture at CCI, such a handsome boy - all 65 lbs of him!

I just needed another reminder of what it is all about and graduation reminded me of that...

A field trip for Nick

I had the day off from work today for President's Day, so I took Nick on a field trip to Lee's Feed in Shingle Springs with some friends.  It's a great place for training.  Here are a few pictures from our field trip....

Nick practicing an "under" in a tight space and not sniffing the bags of dog food...

Nick in the "bird room"....


Unfortunately, this time around there were no baby chicks at the store like the last time we were here. But we did go into the "bird room" and Nick got to see some bunnies, guinea pigs, and walked by some aquariums.  

After we got back, we did another "Dog Pyramid" picture at my house.  I'm getting my carpets cleaned tomorrow so had moved all my dog crates into the spare bedroom. Nick was so funny as he has no hesitation about jumping in the top crate, he learned that one in Oceanside I guess. That's Gerrit and Idelle in the bottom crate, this is a CalPERS puppy picture I guess since all three dogs are CalPERS "employees"... :-)

Another hike

Yesterday there was another break in between storms, so I decided to take the dogs to the Salmon Falls Recreation area for another hike.  Our destination was the "Magic Bridge", a HUGE stone bridge over the American River, its cool because during the summer it disappears under water when the water level is high (well, maybe not this year as we are in a drought).

I parked at the end of the "Sweetwater Trail" a great single-track trail that is a pretty hike through the trees and parallels the American River.  Since it has just rained, the trail was pretty muddy, but I knew it would be pretty and it didn't disappoint...everything was a flourescent green.  It was so funny as we had to cross a few "creeks" that covered the trail, the first one we came to (which I think is at the beginning of the video) Nick put his brakes on and wouldn't cross it and finally ended up hurdling over it to get across...by the end of the hike, he just was walking through all the water we had to cross.  At least he's turning into a good trail dog now.  

"Trail Dogs" on the Sweetwater Trail (Hope is on the left, Nick on the right):

I can't remember exactly, but it is probably about a 2-mile hike out to the bridge and the trail opens up into a huge meadow that leads to the bridge.  Nick and Hope at the meadow, you can see the bridge in the background:

When I was out here before, you actually had to hoist yourself up to get on the bridge, yesterday, there was a ramp (of dirt) that made it easier to get on it and there was even a ladder...funny.  You can see this in the video below. It's amazing to me that this bridge has been around so long especially when it is under water a good part of the year, the walls are so tall that the dogs can't even reach the top of the walls...in the pictures below where they are looking over the edge, they are actually standing on a mound of dirt that has built up near the sides, so I had them do an "up" there so they could at least reach the top and see over the edge.

Nick and Hope on the bridge:

Nick and Hope survey the area from the bridge:

The only sour note to the day was the ticks, I made sure Hope stayed on the trail and kept Nick on leash as he kept wanting to go off the trail.  I felt bad for Nick as a couple had attached to his belly and I couldn't get them off until I got home as I couldn't pick them off with my finger.  As soon as we got home, I used my tick remover tool to get them out of his belly, poor guy, its so disgusting! Ick! Both dogs got a bath and I did several more tick checks at night to make sure I didn't find any more.  The hard part is they are difficult to see on a black dog.  I even removed all the blankets from my SUV and washed those as well, so hopefully we don't find anymore. YUCK!  

And, finally, a little video of our hike...

Happy Valentine's Day!

Nick says "Happy Valentine's Day"...

Holidays can be so exhausting!

The more things change, the more things stay the same...

All my life I have been a lousy test-taker, say the word "test" and my stomach immediately gets tied up in knots. On Sunday, Hope and I were scheduled to do our evaluation for Lend a Heart, a pet therapy organization based in Sacramento. I had found out about the organization from a gal who Hope and I do a couple of reading programs with. So last month after attending an Orientation, today was the day for us to test.

You would think that I would have nothing to be worried about, Hope is solid on her obedience and is an experienced therapy dog now. But I still worry, I still get stressed, I still have anxiety. I had the last appointment in the evening and had all day to get nervous! Well, we passed the test and after all was said and done, it wasn't so bad after all. The other cool thing is that Hope's mom, Toddy, is joining the organization, so I'm hoping we will get to do a few things together.

I was originally scheduled to take my Delta re-test next week as my registration expires in June, but they did everything last night. So not only did I pass the Lend A Heart evaluation, I also got my Delta test done too and don't have to go back next week. Now I have to fill out all the paperwork for both organizations.

Once I get the Health form filled out from my vet, I can begin my visits for LAH. I will be on "probation" for four months and must complete 6 visits to become a registered team with the organization. Each visit is evaluated by a Team Leader, so its possible that some teams have to repeat their probation if there are things to work on.

I'm looking forward to figuring out the best places for Hope and I to visit. I will probably sign up for a reading program and am going to do a couple of "shadow" (ie, without Hope) visits over the next few weeks to check out the various facilities. Tomorrow I am going to Sacramento County Mental Health for a shadow visit, one of the ladies who was testing thought it might be a good fit for Hope because she is so interactive and attentive to the person she is visiting with. Last week I did a shadow visit at a Rehab Center in Roseville, it was mostly older people, I think Hope will do well in that facility too.

Hope is going to have one busy calendar this week. We have the reading program tomorrow, a visit at Sutter Rehab on Thursday, and maybe a hospital visit as well. I'm just glad that we passed. Busy girl that Hope, but she loves it...and I'm so proud of her.

Between Storms

Yesterday, I took Hope for another hike at Cronan Ranch. I ended up going a little later as I was waiting to see how the weather was panning out for the day as we were between storms. When it looked like it was going to be clear, I packed up my rain gear (just in case), and we headed out.

We took a trail that had great views of the river, right where we were going.  I also explored trails I hadn't been on before thinking they might end up at a different place where we could access the river for Hope to swim.  But, we came up empty.  The one trail I found had a great swimming hole where the water was really calm, but I could see some green stuff (like algae) in some spots. Hope just got done with puke-fest a few weeks ago, the last thing I needed was for her to get sick again. When I looked at my GPS, we had already hiked about 5 miles by the time we hiked back up the looong hill and she hadn't even had a chance to go swimming yet.

We ended up finding another trail that connected to the same swimming spot I've been taking her (and Nick) to.  But, boy, what a difference a week makes.  I don't know if its because we just had rain or if it was because we went a little later in the day or what...but the river was raging compared to last week.  The huge calm eddy that she had been swimming in last week only had a small area of calm water near the edge, the rest of the water was moving pretty fast.  I was surprised that even the area where it didn't look so fast was actually really moving as Hope got into that area for a bit when she lost the stick she was chasing and and it started taking her downstream.  I still let her swim but mostly kept her near the edge of the water.  I didn't really want to find out the hard way whether she was a strong enough swimmer to handle the fast moving water...

It was so nice and sunny that we ended up sitting next to the river for another 20 minutes or so while I ate a snack and Hope just chilled next to me for a rest.  By the time we got back to the car, I was surprised that we had hiked about 7.5 miles.  Another good hike...and so nice to be outside.

The parking lot below Hope is where we started our hike...

American River below is where we are headed...

A close-up shot of the river down below...

Almost there...

And, finally a little video of our fun day!...

Another hike at Cronan Ranch

Well, I guess one of the benefits of the nice weather we've been having is the opportunity to go hiking.  Last week seemed to go on FOREVER, we moved into a new building into dinky little cubicles (which wouldn't be so bad if I didn't have Nick (and also Hope on one day) to share it with.  The building is a warehouse/service center and has NO windows, so all week I barely even knew if it was night or day.  So where am I going with all this?...

I neeed SUNSHINE! After making sure I got my chores done (well, the essential ones anyway), today was all about taking the dogs to do something fun - OUTSIDE!  I took them to Cronan Ranch again, my new favorite place to hike as it has wide trails (which means less chance of the dogs getting ticks if we stay on the trails and also means, no geocaching!), is relatively uncrowded, and is close to the S.Fork of the American River which gives the dogs a chance to swim.

This also happened to be the first time I took Nick on a long hike, and to be honest, I wasn't sure how he was going to do because when I walk him after work during the week, he is just dragging by the end of an hour and its a flat walk. To my surprise, he did great and seemed to enjoy himself.  We hiked a little over 5 miles, up and down hills, and stopped at the river to swim.  Well, Hope swam, he just stayed at the edge of the water waiting for Hope.  He had no interest in going in the water at all.  Oh well...

Here are a couple of videos...Nick is wearing a blue collar, Hope has a red/orange collar.  We passed several horses a couple of times and for safety, I put both dogs on leash and Nick just stared at them, I wish I knew what was going through his head.  He was also very interested in the horse poop which was everywhere, so we worked on that too. Yuck!

Posing by the S.Fork of the American river about halfway through the hike...

Nick had no interest in getting in the water despite the fact that Hope got in and swam...oh well. That's Nick at the edge of the water near the end of the video, waiting for Hope to get the stick :-)

Here is Hope and Nick near the end of one of the trails, it was funny as I had them both do a jump to get on the rock and this is how they ended up! Nick is standing, Hope is laying down...

All in all, a great hike and a great day! Two tired doggies at the end of a 5 mile hike! Poor Hope, her right leg is still bald from last weekend's ordeal...