One More Day to Spring! Yay!!!

Although this week coming looks more like winter again, this weekend is lovely. What a difference between the "front" and the "back" of our place right now. The driveway was a mess on Thursday, mud and ruts....now frozen again. We've lost a lot of snow out front, yet the bush is still quite deep.
This morning, I took Kira out in the front for a nice long walk and of course, we always get to "the rockpile". Out of curiousity, I picked up a small rock and tossed it up onto the pile. Up she went.

Here she is...seemingly searching for 'what' I tossed up. I figured she thought it was a ball as she knew I had one in my pocket.

And still she searches. I was about to pull out my ball and toss it up for her as she seemed to be working so hard, she's so tenacious, and I never thought she'd "find" what I tossed.

When down she races, with the SAME rock in her mouth, holding it so proudly. I truly couldn't believe it!!! Aren't these dogs just amazing?!!

After I convinced her to give up the rock, we went out to return up the driveway and do some ball throwing. Wow, the bouncy pink ball!!!

The driveway in this area looks just fine, and the fields have lots and lots of bare patches.

Here, Kira is coming back from the west field having a great time retrieving the ball. Such a fun pup, she is. Oh, when are those ears going to stand up!?

And here is the contrast from front to back. David, Trust, Tank, Blast and I out the back walking through the forest. It was early enough, everything was frozen and we could walk most places on top of the snow crust. I had forgotten how Trust likes to eat frozen snow, which she is doing here. She scrapes it up with her teeth and then when she gets home, up it all comes; I can't believe I could have forgotten this. We are going out again shortly, so have to watch her like a hawk.

The dogs had no problem staying on top running around. We occasionally went through, what a jolt that is, in places nearly to my knees, and you're stuck momentarily.

Heading home up the trail behind the house. The dogs were really pooped....a good thing!!!!

Very Short, Funny Story...

Yesterday, at the post office, Kira was sniffing boxes, garbage pail, other things in there. When everyone left, the postmistress and assistant came around the desk to see her. We were just talking, and both had bent over to pat her. She sniffed the first ladys' hand, she briefly touched her, and then Kira went to the other lady. Well, she was 'all over' her fingers, then quickly backed up 3 paces, looked at her and barked twice! It took us, including me, by surprise, she had never done this.
I said, "you must be the one with the drugs" and we laughed. Kira went up to sniff her again, showing interest still, and not in the other one. So we were wondering where she had them stashed!! Just kind of funny.
Really no idea what it was all about, but certainly was curious.

Blast does Hard Surface

Thursday I was heading into town for a few errands and taking Kira with me to the Post Office, Beer Store, garage and any other place for her to visit; kids on bikes were a new one for her. I decided to take Blast in case there was any suitable surface to work him on.
This place was great, no grass still, but started on a bit of dead stuff/mud/ice. When we parked, I had forgotten about the crazy dogs that ran the fence line across the road. I expected a bit of a problem with this, but Blast just looked at them 'with disdain' and headed straight to the start.
We moved out onto driveway (this width all the way around in a "U" shape, and he did great. As this was the first one, and urban is still new to him (got his TD last fall) I used some food along the track where I thought it might "help".

Because Blast is fast and a strong puller, I was unable to get any pictures until almost the very end. We had gone through a short area of snow, and about 1/2 was paved and 1/3 was gravel, broken up in sections. By this picture, he had already found a cloth article and a plastic one. Very nice "nose-down" working with a lot of distractions of people walking, cars whizzing by, after we got out of the "crazy dog" area.

He just made his last turn here and has the food treat after the corner. Good conditions, of course, it was wet, and aged under an hour. I have him on a 6' leash to make sure I work on the tension, and not let him wander (if inclined) and from yesterday, learned my long line would be filthy and wet to hold on to properly.

I wedged the final article against the snow to "hold it" and make sure it wasn't picked up. He worked really nicely, I was happy with his attitude most of all.

FINALLY!!!!!! A Track!

The temperature was nice, there were a few locations with roads and parking lots bare, and snow....no grass....but at least something to start working on! This was our FIRST track since October! All I wanted for Trust was somewhere to start...and this was the perfect spot. We did curved legs, lots of turns, short legs (actually some too close, but space was at a premium) and my "tracklayer of the day", Tascha, remembered to drop 3 of the five articles! ha.ha. Doesn't matter, it was a great day. Tascha also took the photos, over 40, so there's a bunch here, it was hard to pare them down. My main goal, with these conditions and the 1st track of the spring, was for enthusiasm from Trust and a decent job...I got both!!!!!!
Arrows show the start pad and direction - I prepare Trust to begin, she was itching to go.

Nose right down in the footsteps. I wasn't even concerned with aging, we "think" we ended up being away about and hour and a half for the aging process.

Headed (right on) the track over the dirty snow and into the gravel road. I knew we'd be turning left there, as the other side of the road is private property.

I figured the track was most likely up the middle area, but as is normal, she worked up the side of the road, where scent would collect against the dirty snow curb.

Here she had come out across the centre area at the end of the roadway opening up in front of the corner of the school. She picked up the track (blue) and moved up into the sidewalk (yellow). We've been here last year, and she is always sucked in against the corner of the building and around the pillar, before coming back out on the sidewalk, then moving right.

She is right on the track up onto the sidewalk. It turns right, but she (as shown in prevous picture) checks out against the school where scent would collect.

We've moved quite a ways up the sidewalk by this photo, and the track does go along the centre of the sidewalk. Blue arrow points out first article. Trust worked nicely along here. When we reach the next corner of the building, you can really feel the wind, and again, she turns left from the track, goes up around the buildng about 20' before turning and coming back to the track.

Sitting to indicate blue plastic lid.

This was a strange area, trying to figure out what she was doing. She went up the snowbank and around the pole, sniffing right in against the base of the pole. Then she came back on the sidewalk and up over the snowbank and into the paved area on the left. After checking it out, she came over the snowbank again, and then moved off the sidewalk to the right and across the road.

The line was wrapped around the pole here, and I was untangling it as she headed towards the road. The wind was coming mainly from the left here, so what was drawing her over that snowbank???

Across the road to the far side, where a small amount of dead grass/mud was showing. A left turn, continuing on along the edge, and then another left turn back across the road.

She had just committed to the turn here, and I was catching up.

The line was under a back leg here, so I told her to wait while I moved up to untangle her.

We continue on towards the next parking area. The track went through the centre here, but again, she's working along the edge. Oh, to have on of those dogs that keeps their nose right on the track on hard surface.......

I knew she had cut a corner here, the track would not have clung around the corner as she was going, and made sense it would have been further out in the pavement. But she was working it, so I let her go, of course. But then, we missed an article by doing this. I saw it, and because we were training, I encouraged her to look for it, and to circle back around until she found it.

In a UTDX trial, you must find all three articles to pass.

And here she is at that article, which was a metal plate. I wanted her to work and find and indicate it, to reward her. I also knew the final article wasn't too much further, and having found only one previous article, it was important to find this one on that day.

I gave Trust extra pats and rubs and praise at this article.

We moved on through the puddle and into the sand/gravel area and she quickly zeroed in on the final article, an old work glove. She is smiling in the above photo. She knows "she done good"! Then she got to play with the tracklayer/photographer...Tascha. I was very pleased with this little track for our first time out. She was really keen to work and the very long layoff didn't seem to matter much. I hope we have enough rain SOON to get rid of the snow so we can actually go and work some "real" tracks, "real" soon!!!!

The Old Maple Tree

When we first bought our property, we were amazed at a few ancient maples among the birches.
Our favorite was the oldest, the biggest, and the most glorious of all in the autumn. The branches spread out evenly in every direction and the colours were beautiful. Age affects us all.
Gradually, it is living out its last years and rotting from within, with huge branches breaking off now and again. The woodpeckers have had their way with it, allowing squirrels to move in and birds to build nests in the spring. Life goes on...
With Blast standing beside the trunk, you get an idea of how old this poor old tree must be. I wonder how it escaped being logged when J.R. Booth owned the property...perhaps they saw something special in it even back then......

You can see all the woodpecker holes up in one area, and more branches getting ready to go. Each time we have big winds, I expect more to fall. We are careful walking past it, it is actually at the beginning of one of our forest trails, next to our storage shed.

It's sad to see it aging and all the stumps remaining where it was once glorious. However, it still leafs out and shows good autumn colours; it provides home for other wildlife and birds. When the goshawk is around, it perches on top to hunt. It would be really interesting to know just how old it may be, but we won't be cutting it down to find out.

Catching Snowballs on Sunday

These are actually "ice balls" that I kick off the sides of the path and toss. Conditions are not right for snowballs now. And this is not Blast, this is Kira! She looks like a big dog in these pictures, not a 4 month old puppy.

And a powerful little jumping puppy at that. I think they have "jump straight up" bred into them!!

I don't like a puppy jumping too high or too often, so 3x times is it. Although she seems extremely co-ordinated, I don't think jumping is good for a young dog.

Heading down the driveway and carrying an ice ball is fun enough for her right now.

Blast is carefully cruising across the snow crust which just barely supports him as long as he's not running and pouncing after something. Very wolf-like, except he has a ball in his mouth...

Friday afternoon

Elle was re-named Kira a few days ago...same puppy, different name...her response to "Elle" just wasn't working to my satisfaction, and she responded right away to Kira...so it was an easy decision.
And she loves the rubber hose as much as anyone else! These rubber hoses are the best dog toy, I swear, and so reasonable!!! These first two pictures are in the front fields, just off the driveway.

Great to chase, pull and in all weather conditions, and you can cut to whatever length you desire.

She is pretty intense about this one!!!

If I didn't know who this was, I might think it was Blast....another jumper! We had some rain and melt and so a few puddles in the driveway which is the first day without snow. Kira also loves the water.