Tracking and Stuff

red harness

 Since we got home from Kingston, Mom seems to have a lot of time on her hands.  Even when we were at the beach she did.  I think that's because Granny is gone.  She's using that time to teach me to track; Dad's helping too.  When we got home the books she'd ordered were here and so was my harness;  then she finished making my tracking line 40' long...that's pretty long.  If you don't know about tracking, I'll share what I've learned so far.  Mom puts my harness and line on me and Dad gives me treats while I sit quietly at the start of a track.  Dad puts a flag in the grass and some food on the ground right next to it...then he walks along dropping food every once in a while and putting down another flag, finally he drops a glove on top of treats and plants the last flag.  I watch while he comes back to stand behind Mom.  She gets real excited and tells me to "go find it".  Sometimes I stay on task and sometimes I don't but I am getting better...I'll never be that dog that pulls its person down the track lickety split...That would be Monty!  They brought him out so I could watch him one morning and he just scrambled down the track snarfing up treats until he got to the bricks where all the neighborhood dogs stop...he had to see who was around, but then went back to getting the treats.  Now he sits in the house and howls when I'm trying to think! Maybe Mom should train him instead...IF she could keep up with him!

with The Dutchman

watching the tracklayer

When we were at the beach for so long, Megan (Mom's niece) came a couple of times with Dutch and Rodeo.  I think I told you about them before.  They are Border Collies and pretty active.  Megan brought them down to the beach so they could get some exercise.  I ran and ran with Dutch but couldn't catch him.  He's not even a year old yet. I think he's my new boyfriend...remember Casey moved away and long distance romances are pretty tough.  Both of Meg and Brad's boys are pretty cool but a little crazy...they like to chase flashlight beams and will stare at a flashlight if you set it on a table.  You have to hide it so they will "move on".  Brad is Meg's special friend and Mom says he is real nice.  I haven't met him yet because he's often on a tug pushing oil tankers around.  They don't live far from us so maybe we will get together.

Dutch and Monty watching Meg

Mom says she is going to Sarah's house tomorrow to meet her new granddog.  Not sure if I get to go...probably not.  Sadie is a 6 month black lab who was going to be sent to a shelter and now she is living with Sarah, Trevor and 3 of my girls.  I guess she would be my niece.  We gave her Monty's car crate and ordered him a new one which should be here in a couple of days.  Bet Mom takes lots of pictures.  I think it's cool that there's another black girl in the family and bet she will really like me.

Today while I was walking with Dad, I saw a new kind of cat.  It was rather small and brown with large ears sticking straight up.  It ran across the road and into a yard right in front of me. Didn't look like it wanted to play; just like the other cats I have seen.   Dad said it was a rabbit but I will continue to call it a strange looking cat.

'til next time
                                                   Juno

Easter and Tracking

Mom with Dutch, Rodeo and Duke

Annie

We've been at the beach for almost a week and will be here for a while longer.  On Easter Saturday, Mom and Dad went to a place called the Lucky Ladner Ranch...doesn't that sound cool?  Welllll, WE didn't get to go even though all the other dogs in the family went.  WE had to stay home!  Mom smelled pretty interesting when she got home because I could tell she saw Dutch and Rodeo.  There was the smell of a couple of other dogs too. Then, of course, we could smell the baby chicks, horses, llamas and naturally the good food they had eaten. Not that I  care about the food.  The thing that bothered Monty was that 3 of our girls were there and he didn't get to see them.  Annie was wearing her jacket that Mom made and when I saw the picture I figured it would last her quite a while.

Mom has decide that I should do something called "tracking" so she borrowed a book from our friend Val and tried a couple of things with me.  This involves food so...will it work???  Dad laid a couple of short tracks behind our beach house but I just wasn't sure what they wanted me to do.  They kept talking about how Monty would figure it out in a couple of minutes since it involved food!  Then Mom played "find it" in the house for quite a while and that was fun because Monty and I did it together.  He got the food and I killed the glove!  What a team.  We met Val in town, got some pointers and I tried on JoJo's harness to see if it was the right size.  It was so Mom is getting one for me.  JoJo's is a pretty teal color, but mine is going to be red. That's my color, you know.  Tonight we did a few more tracks behind our house and I think I'm getting it...tomorrow we will try again.

resting

The weather has been really nice so we get to go for long walks with Dad.  Sometimes we walk down to Sand Dollar Cove, that's what Dad calls it; sometimes we go all the way to the Degaussing Station.  That's where they used to clean the bottom of ships that had been in places where there were mines. Sometimes we just hang out on the deck while Mom, but mostly Dad, work in the yard.  He just finished fixing the vegetable boxes and planting 100 strawberries!

Everyone's been pretty busy working on Granny's memorial and cleaning up her house.  It's kind of sad that she isn't here anymore but Mom says she's in a better place now...not sure I understand that.  The chickens are even gone!  I guess they moved to Eastern Washington and took their house with them.

Take care...I'll let you know how tracking goes and share

a picture of me in my new outfit in the next blog.                    Juno