If we can't track...we'll search!!!

A few days ago, I took Kira with me to an appointment, and went into a shopping mall with her. Rotten weather, so guess a lot of people touring the mall, which was great for us. We 'met' lots of people, and Kira was polite with them all..she especially enjoyed a very young child in a stroller who kept offering her toy to Kira and Kira would kiss the toy, not trying to take it, then the child, over and over. I had a few items with me, and was able to hide them in interesting places our first trip through, and luckily, when we back to 'find' them, they were still there. We had fun tug rewards and a good time.

We've not been getting the normal amount of activity and exercise being somewhat snowbound, and for a change here tonight, we did an off leash search in the house.

I had hidden five items, briefly scented, briefly aged. Being able to stand back and watch her, I could take pics. Most amazingly, she would ignore her very special two balls, as she was "working"...very impressive...

Here she has found a 2" square of flat leather in the magazines.She's just turned back to me with a glove I had shoved under a scatter mat by the back door.And here we have a small cloth article shoved down inside the boot.Another 1/2 glove in the black bag on the chair, she is just pulling it out.Toughest one. There was a small white, plastic 'gift card' tucked inside the opening of the bottom kitchen drawer which holds the cooking herbs/spices. When I opened the drawer for her, she picked it up and backed up with it.

Keen little search dog, she is. We then played with the ball she had ignored. Always happy, this busy little girl.

Real Winter Finally Arrived..

And I'm not too overjoyed. No walking trails, and we now have six deer coming regularly to the bird feeders. Very difficult getting dogs out for walks, having to check windows all around house, and make sure it's "safe" to go...The dogs are happy with the snow, but not happy about not going out into the fields, and now not the forest either because of the deer....sure don't need them running after the deer!

Amazing noses at work again! Out in the middle of nowhere in the deep snow, Trust has detected (I imagine) rodents travelling under the snow. She was very intent trying to pinpoint them.Blast clued in and came over to inspect the area also. I called them both away shortly and we moved back into the plowed area around the house to play ball.Trust doesn't play ball, but Tank was also out with us and it's a mad scramble between Blast and Tank...I have three balls going, and usually Blast manages to confiscate all three. After I put Tank and Trust inside, Blast scrambled up one of the plowed snowpiles hoping he could stay out longer. He always thinks that if he lies down and stays still, I won't 'see' him...It was pretty cold, a windchill of -24, so I just threw a few balls and back in we went.A little later, Kira and I went out the back. I was shovelling snow off the deck and she waits below to "catch" each shovel load I toss over. Spook used to do this. Kira is just more intense and jumps higher. She gets in this springloaded position ready to leap.We attempted a little walk along the deer paths, it was actually helpful to walk through the snow. She's running back to me, I had just called her off trying to rip a live/attached branch off a tree!

Switching to a ball, I was tossing them as far as I could into deep snow and down into trees. It's really neat to watch her scent these out, following the scent down the branches. I figure running through deep snow will tire her out...ha.ha.ha. Wishful thinking. She just has so much fun.What?! Go back inside?! Are you serious?! One more throw, one more throw...just one!? Please!!!!! Meanwhile, my fingers were so cold they could hardly hold the ball to throw it, let alone the camera. So, ok, TWO more throws and in we went.