After we did literally nothing all day on Thursday, I knew that we were going to have to do something yesterday to rid Jedi of some of his pent up energy. I had to run an errand at lunch time and I packed Jedi along just to give him a change of scenery. I still haven't tested the waters of leaving him loose at home when I leave and figured it was easiest to just schlep him along. My plan was to mow the lawn and then play around with some agility drills after work, but mother nature had other plans and dumped rain on us much of the afternoon. Come 5:30 it broke up enough that I could go out to clean up the yard, but it was much too wet to play with sequencing.
It was not, however, too wet to go swimming! I took Jedi and Secret over to Amundson Park. The park (and the river access) has been getting more popular in recent years, but I figured on a gloomy afternoon following the rain we shouldn't have to deal with anyone. I was right, we had the whole place to ourselves. Because of this I didn't bother leashing anyone as I let them out of the van. Jedi didn't know what to do with himself. He'd run a few steps and look back at me for direction. I guess this is preferable to Secret's tactic of just running off to lord knows where. He stuck fairly close until the water came into view and then he was off. I was going down to the beach area with them, but Jedi couldn't wait and ended up jumping in the river a few times on the way (not easy in/out points, either).
The water was pretty fast due to all of the recent rain, so I was cautious with my throws to try to keep them out of the swirling vortex areas just off the rapids. I always throw the toy upstream (towards the rapids) so the dogs just have to work a bit going towards the toy and then have an easy time coming back. Jedi is a lot stronger swimmer than the last time we visited this spot, so he had no problems and did well. I didn't leash him when it was time to leave and instead just started walking back up the trail. Twice he followed and went running back to the beach area. The next time he came running up I put both dogs on leash -- both to prevent them from going back in the water and to keep them from running off into the tall grass to pick up ticks. They got to play for about a half hour. It wasn't much, but it was better than nothing.
Today I mowed the lawn and then Jedi got to go hang out at Bangor Fun Daze for a while so that we could listen to the family polka band play. Jedi did great with the crowds and the noise from the band. He got to meet my cousin's German Shepherd puppy who, at three months, is almost as big as Jedi! I kept Jedi busy with tricks and tugging. There were several people who were enjoying watching him. Jedi also got to go swimming in the creek a couple of times to cool off, which he thought was pretty great. One thing that Jedi needs to work on a bit is settling in public. He is fine if I'm interacting and playing with him, but if we're just sitting there he starts to bark. He gets bored. After the band wrapped up Jedi got to meet some family members who have so far only seen him through Facebook.
Before we went home Jedi got to go meet and play with another puppy -- another cousin's mini Schnauzer puppy (guessing about 3 months), Doug. Doug was a little intimidated by Jedi at first, but Jedi rolled around on the ground enough that he got the puppy interested in playing. Jedi then proceeded to roll on top of Doug like he was something smelly that needed to be rolled in. lol There were some chase games and chewing on each other, but there was a lot of Jedi laying on top of Doug. Thankfully Doug didn't seem to mind this. Weird puppies.
After we did literally nothing all day on Thursday, I knew that we were going to have to do something yesterday to rid Jedi of some of his pent up energy. I had to run an errand at lunch time and I packed Jedi along just to give him a change of scenery. I still haven't tested the waters of leaving him loose at home when I leave and figured it was easiest to just schlep him along. My plan was to mow the lawn and then play around with some agility drills after work, but mother nature had other plans and dumped rain on us much of the afternoon. Come 5:30 it broke up enough that I could go out to clean up the yard, but it was much too wet to play with sequencing.
It was not, however, too wet to go swimming! I took Jedi and Secret over to Amundson Park. The park (and the river access) has been getting more popular in recent years, but I figured on a gloomy afternoon following the rain we shouldn't have to deal with anyone. I was right, we had the whole place to ourselves. Because of this I didn't bother leashing anyone as I let them out of the van. Jedi didn't know what to do with himself. He'd run a few steps and look back at me for direction. I guess this is preferable to Secret's tactic of just running off to lord knows where. He stuck fairly close until the water came into view and then he was off. I was going down to the beach area with them, but Jedi couldn't wait and ended up jumping in the river a few times on the way (not easy in/out points, either).
The water was pretty fast due to all of the recent rain, so I was cautious with my throws to try to keep them out of the swirling vortex areas just off the rapids. I always throw the toy upstream (towards the rapids) so the dogs just have to work a bit going towards the toy and then have an easy time coming back. Jedi is a lot stronger swimmer than the last time we visited this spot, so he had no problems and did well. I didn't leash him when it was time to leave and instead just started walking back up the trail. Twice he followed and went running back to the beach area. The next time he came running up I put both dogs on leash -- both to prevent them from going back in the water and to keep them from running off into the tall grass to pick up ticks. They got to play for about a half hour. It wasn't much, but it was better than nothing.
Today I mowed the lawn and then Jedi got to go hang out at Bangor Fun Daze for a while so that we could listen to the family polka band play. Jedi did great with the crowds and the noise from the band. He got to meet my cousin's German Shepherd puppy who, at three months, is almost as big as Jedi! I kept Jedi busy with tricks and tugging. There were several people who were enjoying watching him. Jedi also got to go swimming in the creek a couple of times to cool off, which he thought was pretty great. One thing that Jedi needs to work on a bit is settling in public. He is fine if I'm interacting and playing with him, but if we're just sitting there he starts to bark. He gets bored. After the band wrapped up Jedi got to meet some family members who have so far only seen him through Facebook.
Before we went home Jedi got to go meet and play with another puppy -- another cousin's mini Schnauzer puppy (guessing about 3 months), Doug. Doug was a little intimidated by Jedi at first, but Jedi rolled around on the ground enough that he got the puppy interested in playing. Jedi then proceeded to roll on top of Doug like he was something smelly that needed to be rolled in. lol There were some chase games and chewing on each other, but there was a lot of Jedi laying on top of Doug. Thankfully Doug didn't seem to mind this. Weird puppies.
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