Day 76 - Fishermen's Park

Jedi has been a busy boy today, starting right away in the morning. I was lazy and didn't get out of bed until after 7:00 this morning, so Jedi found his own fun and made a toy out of the empty milk gallon sitting next to the garbage can. He played with that pretty much all morning, so at least it kept him busy. For breakfast we went downstairs and gave it our first go at shaping around the traffic cone. Jedi got fairly frustrated and was displeased with my rate of reinforcement and not understanding what it was that I wanted. I was very careful with my reward placement, but come the end of the session I'm pretty sure that Jedi thought he was supposed to do a half circle around the back of the cone. At least I got him to stop offering hug and pee on the cone, though -- that took a while.

Jedi was active throughout most of the morning, far longer than when he hits his usual nap time. He probably didn't settle down until after 10:00 or so. For lunch today we went out and did nails on the deck, as I'm trying to get back into the Friday routine. Jedi did really well today. I did both Kizzy and Kaiser before it was his turn, and he waited patiently next to me as I randomly tossed him pieces of his lunch. When it was time for Jedi's turn he was much better than last week when he was a bit nutso. His preferred position remains to be sprawled across my lap, which isn't my favorite position, but so long as he holds still I guess I can deal with it.

I waited until around 2:30 or so before we went back outside for some play time. I picked up the yard and then refilled the pools so that they would be ready for Jedi when we were done. It was hot today, around 85 degrees, and I knew this would be a pool day. Not only that, but the water in the pools was disgustingly warm to the touch; not very refreshing. While the pools filled, and in between going to put the hose back into the pools when Jedi pulled it out, I brought out a tunnel for the cone exercise again. I set up the video camera today so that I can show where Jedi's at. Considering how warm it was today, I'm pretty impressed with how well Jedi was able to maintain his speed (although you can start to see him dragging at the end). As predicted, he hung out in the pools for a while when we were done.

Jedi was pretty quiet this afternoon thanks to the play time in the heat. I wasn't sure what we should do for our outing of the day and I finally settled on going to Fishermen's Park here in Sparta. Secret got to go along today despite the fact that she just went on the last outing, but both Kaiser and Kizzy are running agility all weekend and I figured they could stay home and rest up for that. Because it was Secret coming along for the ride, and because I knew the park had a big open grassy area, I grabbed the frisbees and threw them in the van.

I haven't been to this park before, so I was unaware of the fact that there was lake access in the form of a canoe launch. I've never swam the dogs in Perch Lake because the edges tend to be slimy with algae, but the water was clear at the launch area. I figured I'd make the dogs' day and let them go swimming for a bit. We had the park to ourselves so I just opened up crates and let them out. Jedi immediately ran down to the lake, where of course he jumped right into the algae part off to the side. Sigh.

I let them swim for quite a bit and then we played frisbee to help them dry off. We went over and posed for pictures on the playground equipment, where I had their rapt attention (Jedi's at least) because I had the frisbees in my hand. I threw the frisbees on the way back to the van and had every intention of loading up to go home at that point, but the dogs had other ideas. Jedi led the way into the mucky part of the lake, and Secret followed. Well... Since they were both completely wet again I figured they may as well get a few more swims in and at least try to get the algae off them.

They probably got 5-6 more fetches in before a couple of people showed up to fish off the little deck area. I figured the dogs had swam enough and didn't need to be disrupting the fish for these people so I called them out of the water. Jedi obliged at first, but then went right back into the lake. Again. Apparently Jedi has a recall EXCEPT where water is involved. I got his leash put on and then was going to throw the frisbee for him again (I try hard to make sure he doesn't associate the leash going on with ending his fun), except for then he turned around and went back into the lake. Again. With his leash on. Argh.... He did chase the frisbee several more times after that, though. He was still completely wet, but I figured it was time to go home.

When we got home Jedi was certain there was still time to play more, as he stared intently at the toy box in the garage. I still had the tunnel set up outside but I figured enough was enough (seriously, he ran a lot at the park) and I put that away while he continued to run around the yard. For dinner we went downstairs and worked on the cone again. Things are progressing faster with circles to the right than to the left, but I still feel that Jedi thinks the exercise is half circles around the back of the cone. I started to hold out in the end for him to take more steps around the front and we progressed to about 3/4 of a full circle on his own. We'll keep plugging away at it, although I still have no idea what I'll name these.

We have a NADAC trial in Rochester tomorrow, so we'll be on the road bright and early.