Playing Around

We havent posted a video in a little bit!

Just a few blocks from our house is an abandoned school. Mostlty fenced. 

People in the neighborhood use it for the basketball court and playground.

We use it for the grass.

Success

The pack walk was a huge success and Im very pleased to report that Taricha was one of the better behaved pups, after the initial OOOO!!! of gathering together. She put up a fuss, mostly just lunging and pulling when I wasnt paying attention. There was one little boston terrier she seemed to take a fancy for, or at least an obsession with. We ended up near the end of the pack while the little terrier was near the front... if they made eye contact at any point, around a bend in the path, the little thing would erupt into barking and Taricha would say bad words back.

Towards the end I was nearly dragging Taricha along... she gets so tired and so hot so easily. (This was only a 2mile walk chunky girl!) Unfortunately I didnt get any photos because I was simply too busy working! We plan on going back again and again...

Afterwards, I decided we werent tired enough and stopped by an art fair / farmers market we had passed on the way. Two city blocks full of tents, people, food and stuffs! Taricha seemed to perk back up at the new scenery, loved greeting all the people who must stop and Ooooo and Aaaahh at her. We almost picked out a cute bulldog portrait but decided it looked too much like the short english despite the face markings being dead on.

Now we are home and the very first thing Taricha does is collapse on the coolest floor in the house.
And its not even 11am!

So I leave you with a video....

A New Toy, the Backpack

When Taricha was younger I had made her a backpack out of old cargo-pants. Not only did she outgrow it in a couple month, but it was really only for fun and wasnt made well enough to carry anything. At the time she seemed to enjoy toting it around. 

This winter we've been bored senseless and I wanted to try out some serious back packing in an attempt to wear Taricha out. (so I can play video games in peace!).

No idea where to begin or what to expect when picking out a backpack. The choices out there are TOO MANY! I didnt know how it would fit, how we would like it, or durable it was, etc etc.  Why not start at the bottom and figure out what we do and dont like..... sooo. We bought a 20$ pack in size L off ebay, "Outward Hound". I figured it was a good place to start since it was mainly, cheap. 

For twenty bucks,  we are both impressed. Been using it almost two months now and its just now starting to show wear. It only just had a hole rip from a bottom seam but I dont blame the pack, we were running through bushy winter backwoods including a few lake dunks.

There are many things I instantly liked and didnt like about this backpack.

Cons: Doesnt seem to fit right around her large bully chest and neck and I dont think its a size issues, its a design issue. Straps dangle and dont tuck away or too many. Canvas in the middle sucks up hair but the rest repells it...

Pros: Durable. lots of pockets. Inside one pocket is a keychain/hook or something. Handle on the back for easy grabbing.

 Time to start shopping around for a better one now that we know a thing or two. Suggestions welcome :)

Taricha isnt carrying anything heavy, yet. Two months of this one and we've only just worked up to a water bottle in each side, her leash/harness, poo bag and extra treats/food being held in the pack. She certainly knows when she's wearing it, that I'm messing with all the time, is more tired after a neighborhood walk and I swear she likes it. I hope she feels like it's a 'job'.

Creeks

In our city, which is a sprawling suburbia, its hard to find a decent field or any space what so ever outside of the established parks. Thankfully, its littered with walking trails that follow trash filled creeks so most anywhere we go, there is a trail nearby that provides some entertainment. This one happened to be between/under/around a liquor store, 10 car dealerships, a hardware store, a bridge or two and a highway. And a lot of really cute geese that leave adooorable piles of green shit all over the walking trails.

Taricha had every intention of eating every single pile of poop no matter how much I tried to nearly bribe her away with treats.... so we ended up walking on the creek intself and taking our time to admire the scrap wood piles and plastic bagreenery.

Really hard to look regal with that face, Taricha.

PS. Puppy playdate from the other day =O!

How to enjoy a nice day

An old toy becomes new with some rope and good weather. Taricha has crazy toy and then dont let go drive. We had some difficulty playing in a small camera-view. Usually we'll rip-roar across the entire yard......



/7

Two houses down has this tiny fluffball that is outside 24/7 and YAPS 24/7..... so I apologize for the YAPPPING in the background!

Door Closing

There is this door in the middle of the house that drives me nuts. It's kind of a separator. The living area, kitchen, bedrooms are all on one side while the other is the laundry, garage, basement and storage. The animals arent allowed on the garage side unless we're passing through. So in order to keep the cat out of boxes in the basement and the dog out of dirty laundry...... I keep this door shut as often as possible.

No one else does. People tromping in and out all day and night, this door gets left open twenty times a day.  Arg!

So I figured instead of griping at everyone else and being a b!tch. I'd teach Taricha to do it! We've only been working on it a few days, using what she already knew which was to target a note card taped to anything with her nose.

 Now this video here, we finally took away the notecard and we're happy to report she still 'gets' it.



My current goal is getting her to do this from a greater distance. She gets frustrated easily. I mess up easily and have a hard time being consistant. Practice will make perfect and I'll post another video when we have this perfected! Which is soon. Taricha loves this kind of stuff. SEE THE BUTT WAG!

Say Heyo to Coffee with a Canine who was awesome to feature Taricha and I this week. We are true coffee junkies around here. Even down to our coffee cup tattoos.  So pop over and read some doggie stories with your daily coffee... or bowl of water!

DIY Hula Hoop

Taricha is a moderately intelligent dog despite how she may occasionally run head-on into walls. She is extremely food motived. When it has been coming to training, we've been working mostly on basic things, loose leash walking, heel work, turns, spins, jumping/downs, paw crosses, touching, targeting, food manners, people manners and a pretty good sized list that goes on. Only recently did I  decide to step it up and start adding objects into the mix. A makeshift jump in the living room, chairs and books, a large yoga ball and now awesome hula hoops. (youtube is great and gives us things to aspire to like this.)

Upon attempting to purchase a hula hoop from the local superstore, I was extremely disappointed to discover that I couldnt find just a regular stinkin hoop. They had water filled ones, jelly filled ones, light up, dripping in tassels and sparkels! Is this what America has come to? A plastic hoop isnt good enough, it has to have BLING? But I digress...

So we made our own with the awesome help of this site. I followed the directions to a tee. Three hardware stores later, I found the correct size tubing (Lowes ftw). Enlisting the help of siblings, we used tree trimmers to cut the tubing, a craft heat gun to melt it and a few hours to tape up 8  various sized hoops (100ft ish). Probably spent too much money on neat colored electric tape but we dont have to talk about that...

Taricha kind of gets the basic going thru the hoop, awesome I get a treat but has a hard time getting anything else  without obvious sloppy luring. But hey, it was our first go. She tends to pick up on 'big ideas' faster after a couple rough first days of flopping around. (psst, I dont know what I'm doing)

 A short vid of our first go with some foot to paw bonus at the end!



I cant wait to get Taricha outside with these hoops! She's not a jumper, she's not very agile and really only cares about FOOD but.... we'll get there. If all else, we consider this good exercise when outside still sucks.

What other objects and fun things should we start picking up and playing with?

Cat Menace!

Taricha and I are both entirely exhausted. We've been rollin around all weekend like a couple of yahoolagins. Playing in the snow, shoveling moooore, attempting to sled, car rides, stores, parks, kids visiting, cleaning, bath(!!!), lots of outdoor learning (above freezing!) and everything in between. We're going to go zonk out now and leave this awesome video in our place.

Only a little chilly..... /cough

As with most of the midwest, we're in the midst of a snow storm. Hasnt stopped all day and it just keeps coming but like snow would stop a she-beast bulldog. (12" on our back porch now. Snow at the belly!)

Boredom and two old leashes and I created a pulling harness. The idea was to throw it on her, load up the sled with snow (or children) and Taricha would pull through the snow to her heart's content. Didn't go so well. One, she'd rather simply eat snow. Two, it was our first try at really pulling and with all my coaxing an' hoopin an' hollarin... she still didn't really do much but lean into it and give me sad-eyes. I'm disappointed she didnt catch on but we shall try again and again.


We only spent a few minitues outside because by golly its nasty cold.
Quick, run inside!