Sierra's Pool Party in Grass Valley

Yesterday, we were invited up to Grass Valley for a dog swim party at Sierra's house in Grass Valley. We had 11 dogs in all and they ran and swam, and ran some more, all afternoon! They had a blast! And we humans had a great time watching the dogs play and visiting with each other, it was a great afternoon.

On the way to Grass Valley, we stopped at a BBQ place that is called "The Drooling Dog BBQ", what a perfect fit for Nick. Of course we had to stop and get a photo of him by the sign! Shoot, if I were paying attention I would have sat him next to the sign so that the arrow was pointing at him. Maybe we'll have to come back to re-shoot the photo!

Here is Nick living up to his name, The Drooling Dog...


From there, we drove to Sierra's place and the dogs played and swam all afternoon while the rest of us humans enjoyed watching the dogs play and having a great visit.

Here's a video of the dogs playing....

As usual, I deleted so many of my blurry photos of Sierra running around the pool. Until I saw her in person again yesterday, I forget how fast that girl is...I borrowed this shot from one of my friends.

And...after they were tired out, the group shot on the waterfall...photo courtesy of one of my friends as the rest of us were wrangling the dogs to get them settled on the waterfall, such a cool picture of all the dogs!

What a great afternoon!

Kayak dog!

I've been really wanting to take Hope out paddling with me at Lake Natoma. A while back, I put her in the cockpit of my boat, but it was too small for me to paddle with her in the boat. So ever since then, I've been contemplating getting another kayak that she could fit in.

Today, I went to Paddlefest at Lake Natoma with a friend to try out some kayaks. We tried out several boats that could Hope could fit in and I found a sit-on kayak that I liked where Hope could fit in either the front or back.

After we got back, my friend had a great idea to put Hope's dog bed on the back of the kayak I already have, strap it in, and let Hope try it out. We first had her practice jumping up on the boat while it was on dry land and we held it steady. After she got comfortable with that, we had her jump on the boat and rocked it back and forth a little to get her used to the motion of it moving. Then the real test, we put the boat in the water and had her jump on it several times. Then the next test was having my friend get in the boat, then paddle with her on the back.

Surprisingly, she did GREAT! I was totally expecting her to panic or be nervous, but she seemed comfortable after a few tries. We are going to take her out to Lake Natoma and try the same thing as a final test, next time with me in the boat. I stayed out of the boat today so I could encourage her and give her treats.

So now the dilemma is, do I get the new boat or do I use my current boat? Hmmmmm....what to do, what to do....

Tight-Rope Walker?

Hope says that Nick is a crazy boy....she wasn't about to walk about on that bridge at the school playground, but Nick said, "No problemo!" Good boy Nick!

Hope flunks Dock Diving School

It was a BDC at Lake Natoma today!  

Hope and I met her buddy Maggie, who we met through pet therapy and who also likes to hike and geocache, at Lake Natoma's Negro Bar today after work.  The intent was to have Maggie show Hope how to jump off the dock...well, Hope was having none of that and did her usual run back down the dock and go in from dry land!  She earned a D-minus for her first lesson, it would have been a "F" had she not jumped in off the side -- once.  She's just "HOPE-less"!...

Maggie, on the other hand, is an awesome jumper, just like our buddy Mason.  We also met another black lab who was going out with his owner on a kayak. That's what I want to do with Hope! Here's a video of Maggie showing us her stuff...pretty cool!

When we got to the dock, there was a guy sitting on the dock so we let the girls swim off the ramp/gravel area.  Hope kept sniffing around the gravel and when I looked, there was a dead baby rattlesnake right under her nose! Holy $#@%....good thing it was dead!  The guy on the dock told us a dog had just been taken off to the vet as it had gotten bitten by a rattler about an hour before we arrived.  Ok, that's now 4 rattlesnakes I've seen this year, and this is getting a little scary! Maggie has had a rattlesnake vaccine, maybe we ought to start thinking about it for Hope...YIKES...

Hope poses for a picture...

Hope and Maggie pose for a picture

Maggie brings the ball in...

I was disappointed these action shots came out blurry, hard to get those dogs in focus!

Hey Maggie, where'd you go?.... ;-)

A great way to end the day...I just wish we didn't have to worry so much about the rattlesnakes...

Hope and Nick have a new friend

And that friend's name is Hollie, a 10-month old, Aussie/Husky mix who was adopted from the Sacramento SPCA by a friend of mine.  Hollie is currently learning how to walk nicely on leash, how to have nice table manners (inside joke - her owner will understand), and play nice with other dogs.

Here she is trying to teach Hope how to move her ears up and down.  Hope says she'd rather wag her tail than move her ears up and down. :-)

Here is a video when Nick and I met Hollie and Skipper at the Dog Park in Roseville the day before Skipper was turned in for Advanced Training at CCI.  Good luck in Advanced Training Skippy...

Take me out to the ballgame...

Today was "Bark in the Park" at the Sacramento River Cats game.  We took Nick and his best buddy Gerrit to the game.  It was a fun day of greasy baseball food, good friends, and baseball. We bought tickets for the lawn area, but halfway through the game we went and sat with our fellow puppy raising friends who have season tickets as there were some empty seats near them in the shade as the dogs were getting hot - well, and so were we!

Here's a picture of Nick and Gerrit that Gerrit's puppy raiser took of the boys...I didn't think to bring my camera!

Hope at Folsom Lake

Poor Hope, all her friends have left, she is now on her own for a little bit as Toddy went home on Monday and Nick is with our co-raisers.  I can tell she is lonely... :-(

This morning, I took her to our new secret swimming location I found last week when I took Hope and Toddy out to the lake.  Its a great place as its secluded away from the hiking trail, its all rock (ie, no stepping on uneven ground, loose gravel, dirt, etc), and there are plenty of sticks to choose from for retrieving.

The water was more like the ocean this morning, very choppy, but Hope did not seem to mind at all!

Toddy and Hope at the Lake

Poor Toddy and Hope were stuck at home for a long time on Saturday while I attended the CCI graduation, so I decided to pay them back with a hike and swim at Folsom Lake last Sunday. We headed over to Beal's Point and had a nice walk on some of the bike and hiking trails.

I stopped at a couple of different places and let Hope and Toddy swim and chase sticks.  Our second stop was great since it was all rock, and mom and daughter had a ton of sticks to choose from for retrieving. They had a lot of fun.

Here is a picture of Hope and Toddy....

It's so funny to see how many similarities Hope has with Toddy, one of them is the way they bend their feet when they lay down...

And a video, of course!....(Toddy is in the blue collar, Hope has a red/orange collar)

May graduation

Last Saturday was another CCI graduation in Santa Rosa.  I went to graduation with a couple of good friends, one of whom was turning in her dog and got to see others whose dogs they raised graduate.  Always a mixed set of emotions -- it's extremely hard turning in a pup, but thrilling to have one you raised be placed with a graduate.  Throughout the day, the thought that Nick is going to be matriculating in August kept creeping into my mind -- its already starting to hit. 

Nick's brother, Najee, and his puppy raiser's from the SW region was also in Santa Rosa for the weekend, so it was a lot of fun to see them again.  The boys got to play together at the CCI play yard before graduation too.  They are so funny as they are so alike!

Najee and Nick pose for a picture...

Najee and Nick take time to smell the roses, or in this case, to smell the plant! :-)

Graduation also brought a wonderful surprise for me! I was able to see and visit with Rolie, my 2nd puppy who graduated about 3 years ago.  It was wonderful to hear how she was doing, she looked great and was very happy.  She seemed to remember me too which made me feel good - I guess they really don't forget!

It was a nice graduation and as always, a good reminder for us puppy raisers to realize why we do what we do, especially for me after seeing Rolie!

On the way home, I dropped off Nick at our co-raisers, so the BDC is down to two....