Wickedly Happy!

I just love the expression on Kiras' face in this picture.....that's all.....she just looks so happy running back with the wubba toy. She looks like she's 'gumming it'...she's lost a bunch of teeth this past week.

Kiras' Sunday Experiences!

We had many new experiences on Sunday! Not pictures for all, like the ambulance people who were parked in park...they both came out to see Kira, and opened the back door of the ambulance for us to check out. I had previously hid a couple of things in the hubcaps for her to find. We couldn't get inside the ambulance, but she stood up on the back bumper and had a good inspection and sniff... We are at the mall now, and Kira has learned how to open the doors.

And in we go. They do not allow dogs inside, but I spoke to the security person who gave us permission. A good friend made a vest for her, and I had the lettering put on, so this certainly helps us to 'inspect' some places we likely wouldn't normally be able to.

Being Sunday, it was not busy, we just spent some time in one section for the first time in there.

Hmmm, I wonder what's inside here. Actually, it was her rubber hose, she had no issue 'taking a look inside'.

There is a toy hidden inside here on the floor, which she wasn't able to quite reach. She had searched the outside first, before trying to get in to it.

Aha! There's something in this planter as well.

Since Kira is going to eventually be a dog who will work on specific scent, she must be keen to search, and have no fear of anything. This is mainly what we are doing right now; socializing around people, places, noises, unusual things.

How did my rubber hose get up there?

Down at the lakefront, a convenient construction site was not completed, so it was another place to visit.

She decides to venture inside the bucket.

And has a look around. Nothing much of interest, but no fear of it either.

We check it all out.

Let's see what might be under here too!

I often encourage her to check out everything "high" as well, and not just stay down low to the ground.

We're done.....we run off.....enough of this!!!!

And what a treat this was. When we thought we were finished for the day, we drove to Timmies' and parked beside the nicest lady and her motorcycle. Another opportunity! She was about to leave, but stayed "for Kira". She started the motorcycle - mighty loud - and Kira played with her sock.

When we felt she had no issues with it, she revved it up a few times...it was almost like a gun shot each time. Interest from Kira, but no negative reaction.

Finally, when she was revving it, we moved towards the dual exhaust pipes, so not only was she getting the noise, but also the fumes. You can see she's interested in watching this. When the lady stopped, Kira turned back and tried to get her leather glove on the ground...better than the sock!!!

All great fun and great experiences.

Trust did great today...

Beautiful day, the very first one. We plotted and laid a track for Trust at the waterfront, amongst tons of people and dogs out walking and amidst construction. Trusts' track was aged 3 1/2 hr., which was a little longer than planned. Ground cover was barely uncovered grass, weeds, snow, brick pathways, mud, sand, asphalt, cement stairs. She worked great! This is our start, she was anxious to get up to it.

She's moving along really well, at least we are still too early here for goose poop!!!

Scent moves into openings and around curbs with vehicles driving in and out while aging.

We've crossed the road, and made a turn, she is just off the track a little and coming back for the first article, which is wood.

What a good girl!

We continue along, more sand and gravel than grass, and then will drop down into a garden area.

She investigated a couple of large boulders in here and then turned out onto the brick walkway.

I was told (by Tascha) she was exactly on the track here, going up the stairs.

And straight to a metal article on the top of the circle. We will head down the steps on the other side, over the brick sidewalk, and then move out past the twin garden and onto grass/sand.

Heading towards the construction machinery, Tascha laid the track between the two pilons.

And that's exactly where Trust went! Then across a wide driveway and onto grass/sand/mud for a stretch.

That's a pile of plowed snow in the corner here; these are all over the place up here, filthy piles of snow. We made a left turn and are crossing the road again over into some almost 'real' grass.

After another left turn, we moved along quite a ways and are about to go up a little hill here. By the way, those are pine cones scattered about, not dog poop! Trust circled around here a bit, and it turned out there had been a plastic article left here which had disappeared. I encouraged her to continue up the hill, we went over that, over another brick walkway and headed right towards the lake.

And there is her final article, a scrap of leather. She had gone past this - we were on the really well-travelled walkway just before finding this article on the other side when she turned back.

You can see part of a pressure crack behind the rocks.

This was a really difficult track having being aged 3 1/2 hr. in a very busy walking area where we must have seen 100 dogs out and that was only when laying the track and when Trust was working it. It's a beautiful boardwalk along the lake with wonderful gardens and very popular for people in town, plus the first really nice Sunday so far. Trust did really well and again was keen.

Pressure Cracks, Storm Brewing..

Pressure cracks near shore on Lake Nipissing on Sunday morning. A deadly hazard for snowmobiles, but they should be off the ice by this time.

Fascinating to see some of these formations, they are like cement walls building up.

Another view, right across the lake.

The beginning of a early spring SNOWSTORM building up. It was a beautiful sunny day at the lakefront, and then a rapid change in the sky moving in.

Sure not looking forward to snow once again!!!! And yes, it did. This morning, April 4th!!! we awoke to thick falling snow. Supposed to change to rain later.

Emma at the Waterfront

What a difference two days has made in many areas. Lots of bare places so we had a few choices. What's called for tonight? SNOW!!! But this was a lovely day. First leg heading towards the cement bandshell. Ground here was just mush. When I laid the track, the fellow on his bike came up into this area and rode/walked around, just after I finished going through. And then he was still there when Tascha and Emma began their track.

First article on steps. Will be interesting to see what she does 'inside'....

Emma couldn't have cared less about this fellow in there, and she was right on her track. This was a very hard place for her to work in. Tascha is working on 6' leash to stay right on the track.

Heading down the ramp (where the bike fellow came up), she will go out onto a bit of gravel area and then into (almost) grass. Emma did a nice corner in the bandshell.

They've found a cloth article, made a right turn, and are heading up onto a nicer area on a little hill.

This was a long leg, and there was a small plastic canister on it. Emma heads right out onto brick walkway, and will be crossing driveway shortly. She's doing wonderful on the hard surfaces.

Piece of food there, she's barely been more than 2' from the track.

After the driveway crossing, another brick pathway and I went into the bush/perennial garden and actually "meandered" through it. She was dead on my track. We come out onto grass and then down onto the paved parking lot.

A turn coming up on the pavement and she is working so nicely here.

Emma veered off very slightly (yellow line) from the track, and went up over the curb onto the grass. She quickly indicated loss of track and searched for it, coming back down over the curb to the final article. It was a small plastic gift card, which is not a normal final article. I thought Tascha gave me 5 articles, and couldn't figure out what happened to the leather one when I was nearing the end portion of the track. As it turned out, there wasn't one, and so Emma did really well with her four articles.