Hope goes kayaking!

After our successful experiment of getting Hope on my kayak in my pool, it was time to move to the real world and try it out on Lake Natoma. I met two of my friends at Willow Creek (our usual put-in location) and Hope had no issues getting on the back of the boat like she did in the pool.

However, transferring the kayak to the lake made a HUGE difference, it was not like the pool at all! I have to admit I was a bit nervous, but when she was sitting on the back deck of the kayak, I kept thinking to myself that the boat seemed a little "tippy". After paddling around in the calm water for a few minutes, I definitely could tell it wasn't feeling very stable with her back there, especially when she would shift her weight around. One of my friends then tried it out and agreed it was not very stable with her back there. Now what?

Well, we "stuffed" her in the cockpit and that was much better! So we got her in my boat and ventured out to the main part of the lake and started paddling towards Negro Bar. Boy, was the paddling ever hard with that extra 50 lbs in the boat, I had to paddle a lot harder! At one point, knowing I would need to paddle back, I told my friends that I was going to turn around and go back to Willow Creek as I was tired. We stopped at a little island and one of my friends volunteered to take Hope back in her boat to give me a little reprieve. Phew...I felt like I was Speed Racer on the way back without Hope in my boat. Who would have thought that extra weight would have made that much difference?

Hope did a great job staying in the boat with all of us, but I'm not sure if she really enjoyed it all that much. So the verdict is not really in as to whether I will take her out again or not. I think she would probably have more fun if we take it easy, stop along the way to let her swim, then paddle. The other difficulty is I will not be able to take her out alone, it takes at least one other person as I have to get in the boat first and the other person has to help her in the boat. So we'll see...at this point, I'm just happy she behaved herself and we got a chance to try it.

Hope and I paddle at Willow Creek (love the little heading sticking out!)

Hope was happy to paddle with her Auntie Jill too...

Cindy helps me out by paddling back to Willow Creek...that's Hope's little black head sticking out...

The Drooling Dog - redux

Boy, its sure nice to have friends who can use Photoshop! Here's a picture of Nick in front of the Drooling Dog sign that is more appropriate; notice which way the arrow points now!

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....

Dog Day Afternoon

When I got home from work today, it was HOT (about 95 degrees). I decided it was too hot to take the dogs for a walk, so figured I would let the BDC (Black Dog Club) get their yah-yah's out by the pool. Well, Hope did, Nick and Toddy had no desire to swim, but I think they still had fun. Nick was happy to steal the stick from Hope, and Toddy was happy to chase Nick to get the stick or a toy.

The pool temperature was perfect for the hot afternoon...I was actually IN the pool when I took this video :-) That Nick, he's such a THIEF!

Black Dog Club Weekend

It was actually a nice, relaxing weekend to finally stay home and just do a whole lot of nothing, but go on a few walks and let the dogs play...

Mother and daughter...Toddy and Hope...

Hope, Nick, and Toddy...

Profiles...Toddy, Hope, and Nick

On Sunday, Nick and I went on a field trip to the El Dorado Town Center shopping center with a friend and her pup, Gerrit.  After some training and lunch, we took them to a nearby school to play.  Here is a picture of the boys taken by Gerrit's puppy raiser.

We also went to the school a few times to let the dogs run...

Stick Thief

Hope's mom Toddy is staying with us for several days while her family is on vacation. It was such a nice day today that we took a couple of walks and I let the dogs swim...well, Hope swam and Nick mostly stood at the edge of the pool and waited for Hope to get the stick so he could steal it! Poor Hope, but she didn't seem to mind...

And that is not just any stick, that is the famous Molly-stick :-)

Family reunion weekend

Our trip to Southern California was also a family reunion in many respects...

My main purpose for the weekend was to attend our monthly HOPE AACR meeting in Costa Mesa.  We stayed in a hotel the first two nights to attend the drill on Saturday and the HOPE meeting on Sunday.  Here is a picture of Hope and Nick at the hotel in their tent:

And, kicking back on their bed...

But, here is where they really slept ;-)

After the drill was over, we went over to meet up with Nick's brother Najee at his puppy raiser's house for some playtime and dinner.  The boys had a great time playing with eachother, it was so cute they would just run back and forth, over and over, with the same toy in their mouth.

Najee and Nick posing for a family picture:

Najee's puppy raiser also has Titian, her first CCI puppy who was released from CCI.  From left to right (Titian, Najee, Nick, Hope):

And finally, a little video of the dogs playing that night...

On Sunday, we had a reunion of our HOPE family, it was fun meeting up with several of the teams who Hope and I went through the certification training with last year.  I wasn't at a very good angle for this picture as I wanted to be near Hope as she is afraid of Oz, that big black furry Newfie.  She finally approached him on this trip, before she would just back up or try to hide behind me.  That's her little black head to the right of Oz... :-)

After the meeting, we drove to Oceanside to meet up with my friend who is raising a puppy named Kane, who is Hope's nephew.  Kane's dad, Pryde, has the same mom as Hope. Najee and Titian also came for a visit as well so the dogs had a blast playing and swimming.

From left to right: Titian, Najee, Nick, Hope and Kane

And a little video of Hope swimming...

Dogs at play...

What a fun and relaxing weekend.  Well, except for the looong drive!  We let Hope and Nick get their yah-yah's out with Kane before we left.  Nick was able to retrieve whatever toys he wanted out of the toy box :-)

What a disaster!

Well, sort of....Hope and Nick made their acting debut last weekend in Irvine playing the role of evacuees for a diaster drill that was run an organization called SCART (Surf City Animal Response Team). I found out about the drill last month from some HOPE members who are also part of this organization. They were asking for therapy dogs to play the roles of the evacuee dogs. I was able to get permission to bring Nick too, even though he is not a therapy dog.  

The scenario was that there was a wildfire where I lost my home and needed to evacuate my dogs. There was an emergency animal shelter set up and Hope and Nick were processed through the shelter as part of the drill. They went through "intake" where I filled out paperwork for them to get into the shelter, had their picture taken, had my picture taken (for identification purposes), and given an unique ID number that was put on their collars. I was given a bracelet that contained their ID numbers. They were then taken to a makeshift dog kennel and held there until I came back to retrieve them.

Here's a picture of Hope and Nick before the drill started in their working dog mode (they didn't have to wear their vests for the drill):


After they went through Intake (where I filled out the paperwork) and they were given identification numbers, they were taken by volunteers to the kennel area:


Nick goes into the kennel:


The Kennel area (Nick on the left, Hope on the right). There's a miniature schnauzer named Shay in the kennel all the way to the right, he is a therapy dog that visits at hospitals.


After being kenneled for a bit, both dogs were taken to the Vet tent to be checked out for any medical issues (Nick on the left, Hope on the right):


Nick being sprung from the kennel and on his way back to me:


Hope being sprung from the kennel and on her way back to me:

The cool thing is that we also got our picture taken that appeared in the local paper, Orange County Register.  I have no idea when this picture was taken and am just glad both dogs were behaving themselves ;-)  Here's a link to the article (click here)

It was a fun day and we were glad to help out.  It was also good for the dogs and I was pleased with both of them as they were both comfortable being handled by other people (who didn't have much in the way of dog handling skills), remained calm, and were comfortable being kenneled.

Fun day!

Throwdown...a dime?

On one of our Lend A Heart visits the dogs are individually introduced and we do a "dog and pony" show at the beginning of the visit of their "tricks" which ranges from performing obedience commands, catching a biscuit off their nose, etc. I never really taught Hope any fun "tricks" while I had her, so instead I use some of her service skills for this portion of the visit.

Hope learned how to retrieve things as small as coins off the floor, using the command "get". She has been able to retrieve coins off a carpeted floor, but has had some trouble picking up coins off a non-carpeted floor. Last week, our visit was outside so I had her try to pick up a quarter, knowing she might have some issues, but she did it! I was so pleased with her for doing it that I put it on my status line on my Facebook page. One of my friends then put a comment out there to try a dime now.

Sounds like a Throwdown to me and Hope was up for the challenge. I even captured it on video so I could put it on my Facebook page...here she is! :-) Good girl, Hope!



If Nick were smart, he would be paying close attention as he will be going through this training come August when he leaves for Advanced Training. Notice he doesn't even bother to lift his head!

Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day!

Hope and Nick sent this picture to their dog-moms Toddy and Niobe today...(that's Hope on the left, Nick on the right in case you are wondering)

Since my mom came up for the day yesterday, we spent the day together and had Mother's Day a day early.  So that left me with an unplanned free day today, yay!  The dogs and I had a nice relaxing day after several busy weekends, so it was nice to have some time together just to chill. I took them on a long walk first thing in the morning, went out for a paddle in the morning, and then took them on a hike at the lake in the afternoon.  Now we all need a nap! :-)

It's not all work

I've been working a lot with Nick this week while I have him to take him to different places and work on distractions. Earlier in the week, I took him through the drive-thru car wash. He was fast asleep and then all of a sudden was wide awake wondering what the heck was going on with all the noise and the funny things rubbing against the car. His eyeballs were so big! He did great, not scared at all, just alert and curious. It was too funny.

Yesterday, we went a dog park in Roseville after work and boy was he ever distracted by all the dogs, he could barely do any of his commands.  We just worked on the outside of the park, we didn't go in as CCI does not like its dogs to go in dog parks.  

Today, I was on a mission to see how he would do again at the dog park determined to get him to pay attention to me and to execute his commands.  I even had his Gentle Leader ready if I needed it.  He was a totally different dog today, distracted a little at first, but then he was fine and totally paid attention to me and did his commands just fine.  Who knows why yesterday was such a disaster.

After we got home, I took Hope and Nick to the schoolyard to play.  I've been letting them play in the field in the back of the school rather than the small kindergarten yard when there aren't soccer games going on - I guess that season must be over.  Nick carried the dog toy all the way to the school, it was so cute.  I didn't even carry his leash either, just threw it over his back and let him walk, he stayed right next to me.   He and Hope got their yah-yahs out running all over the field, now they are snoring....

In need of swimming lessons...

Now that the days are longer, there's more time after work to take the dogs out. Hope needed a bath before her therapy visit this week anyway, so I decided to take her and Nick to Folsom Lake for a quick swim. Because it was a little cold and windy, there was nobody out there when we got there.

It's a good thing the ability to swim is not a requirement for Nick to be a service dog, because if it were, he would never make it. I thought he might just follow Hope out to the water to swim, but he would only run as far as where he could stand and stop and wait for Hope so he could steal her stick. Oh well, maybe one of these days...guess I'll have to start throwing him in the pool or something, haha...

Puppy class at Sacramento International Airport

Last night, we had puppy class at the Sacramento Airport.  Somehow the local news stations found out about class and the two TV stations did a story showing a local CCI graduate and filmed "Big Dog" class.  Luckily, they were finishing up as we arrived for our class so we didn't have any cameras following us around.  

Here is a video of the story from one Channel 10:

Nick did great at class and it was so cute to see Hope so excited when we got home when she realized Nick was home! :-)

Anybody home???

I took Hope to the lake for a walk/swim after I got home from work tonight. She still refuses to jump off the dock, its so funny.  I try to encourage her, but she is having no part of that.  She'd rather just run up and down the dock and back with the stick.  Maybe her buddies Mason or Maggie can teach her!

After she was done swimming, she kept going off into these bushes near the edge of the water and wouldn't come back to me when I called her.  I went over to see what she was so interested in and guess what? There was a turtle...and it was real. I don't think anybody was home though as when I touched it with a stick, nothing happened.  I have seen turtles out paddling over by the Aquatic Center, but never one this big.  Weird....

Hope says, "Is anybody home in there?" ... Guess not, Hope

We walked along the bike trail for a bit afterwards so she could dry off a little (I forgot to bring a towel!).  Here's a picture of her near the Rainbow Bridge.  

A great night for a walk...

A Tough Day

Today was a tough day at work, another round of layoffs, another day of valued colleagues losing their jobs.  This economy has been tough on our company resulting in a loss of a lot of jobs and its not over yet. Even though I found out last month that my job was safe (for now), its still hard to see others lose theirs.

I was exhausted when I got home today and at the spur of a moment decided it was too hot to take Hope for a walk, but not too hot to take her to Folsom Lake for a swim.  I love being 5 minutes from the lake. She got to enjoy a good swim and I used the time not to think about anything for a while. Thanks Hope...

Girls weekend...and rattlesnakes :-(

It's been a girls weekend around here...I've been puppysitting a friend's CCI pup named Idelle since Thursday night.   That's her on the left, Hope on the right, in the picture above at Folsom Lake today.

Yesterday, we spent all day helping out at UC Davis Picnic Day at the CCI booth.  It was looong day for us as we got there at about 7:30 and didn't get home til about 5:30pm.  Poor Idelle was exhausted and Hope was so energetic when we got home that I left Idelle at home to rest and took Hope on a walk, just the two of us. Here is a picture of Idelle and Gerrit with the granddaughter of one of our puppy raiser friends. We took her with us when we went to watch the parade.  The dogs did great and weren't bothered by all the activities and noises of the parade.

 

Today was a relaxing day and the weather was beautiful!  We went out to Folsom Point at Folsom Lake and parked on one side of the lake and walked to the other side towards El Dorado Hills. The girls had fun swimming. Well, Hope had fun swimming for a stick and Idelle had fun stealing it from her when she got close to shore (hmmm...just like Nick does...). 

Here's Idelle coming in for the "steal"....

Unfortunately, we saw two rattlesnakes today too.  Its definitely rattlesnake season now that the warm weather has arrived.  The first one we saw was actually pointed out to us by a guy on the trail just ahead of us...it was teeny baby one that was barely as thick as a pencil, but you could already make out the rattles.  He said it crossed the trail and he almost stepped on it.  We saw the 2nd one on the hike back to the car.  It was huge, probably about 3 feet long, it crossed the trail right right in front of us; there was no missing this one.  I tried to use heavy footsteps (ie, make noise) on the narrower parts of the trail just in case. Yikes....

Other than the rattlesnake sightings, it was a fun Girls Weekend ...

Hiking at Lake Natoma

Working in a building without any windows really makes me realize how much I miss not being able to see what the weather is like outside.  The weather was so nice this weekend, I couldn't pass up the opportunity to take Hope on a hike.  

This morning we went for a hike at Lake Natoma, it was beautiful out there, probably in the mid-70's and very green with lots of wildflowers.  Today it was just Hope and I as Nick went back to our co-raisers.  We probably hiked about 4 miles or so and Hope got to swim a little.  It felt so good to be outside again!

I found some nice trails off the bike trails and Hope was happy to be off leash. I'm pleased that for the most part, she is happy to stay near me.  It's starting to be snake season and there are lots of ticks out there, so keeping her close to the trails is a good thing.  

Here is a picture of Hope near one of the trails we found...

At the edge of the lake with some outrigger canoes in the background that came zooming by; this was where we stopped to let Hope go for a swim...


A great day for a hike and swim!  In fact, it was so nice out there this morning, I decided to take a long paddle in the afternoon to this very same place so that I could drop off a geocaching Travel Bug that is hidden nearby. See my geocaching blog for a few pictures (click here)...

A week full of field trips

Since I had Nick for an extended period of time the last couple of weeks, we went on a bunch of field trips/outings with some puppy raising friends.  Last Saturday, we were joined by CCI pups Gerrit and Idelle at a dog event in Rancho Cordova to work on dog distractions.  Gerrit's puppy raiser and I actually traded dogs for most of the event, another good opportunity for our dogs to be handled by another person.  Nick did very well with all the activity going on!

The other interesting thing was we got to see some different types of competitions (actually, they were "fun matches") involving obedience, rally, etc. I never knew what rally was so it was fun to watch. I actually think this kind of thing is more of the type of thing that Hope would like, she was never meant to be an agility dog even though I always enjoyed doing it with her and she seemed to have fun doing it.

Here's a picture of Idelle, Gerrit, and Nick on Saturday.... (photo courtesy of Gerrit's PR):

During the week, I took Nick on various errands after work: to the grocery store, to get my oil changed, post office, etc.  One evening, we met Nick's buddy Gerrit and his puppy raiser at Petsmart in Folsom.  Luckily, we picked a good night as they were having a puppy class, so there were lots of distractions as the dogs were walking around the store with their owners practicing their obedience.  Here's a picture of Nick practicing the "kennel" command in a fancy log doghouse. 

 

Nick's behavior out in public is great; he doesn't seem bothered by much, what a good boy!