It’s good to be back!

We were so happy to be back at Grandma and Grandpa's last night!

(Elsie, behind me, was having the greatest time running laps around the place.)

Here is Remi looking for bugs in Grandma's flowers.

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Bonus photo: Here I was totally exhausted Wednesday night after a fun tricks class!

Play Dead!

Finally, a trick that can be captured by Mom's smartphone! 

We started this in a tricks class that we dropped in on Wednesday night (I had a great time, btdubbs).  I am trying to get comfortable being in such a vulnerable position, but as you can see, I still have not relaxed my legs all the way.  I'm working on it!

Reverse Roadtrip

Today, we woke up early so that Mom could pack up and let us have some playtime outside.  Then we made the trip back to our "dog house."  When we got here this afternoon, I had a little bit to unwind, and then I went to my last class for this training session!  Even though it was a long day, I still did really good!  We worked more on settling, greetings, and approaching dogs on leash.  Mom was super proud of how well I did.

I'm going to take it easy tonight at home, while Mom heads off to her first kickball game!  Wish her luck!


PS.  Their team is called Saved by the Balls!  Bwahaha.  Silly law nerds.

Chores... During my Vacation

This evening, I had to spend some quiet time inside Grandpa and Grandma's house.  I wanted to go outside so badly, though.  There were birds out there just waiting to be pointed and chased off!

Mom thinks it's cute when I rest my chin on window sills, but she's totally missing the point.  I want out--not photographed or a conversation.

Eventually, we got to go outside to do chores.  Here, I'm helping Mom feed the horses.  By helping, I mean, staying out of the way.  I follow the rules about keeping out of the horse areas flawlessly, but I have a confession: the horses rather frustrate (and stress) me, and sometimes I bark at them when they move too fast.  (If they stay still, I give them kisses through the fence, though.)  Anyways, lately Mom has been tying me near the fence, so she can toss treats to me or putting me in an ex-pen (or house) away from it all, while she brings the horses in.

Tonight, the horses were so ready for their dinner that they ran into their overnight pens (they're only just being weaned onto the Spring pasture).  That's Dandy in the front.

Finally, before heading in for the night, we had to feed and kennel Morgan, Remi, and Elsie.  I like to supervise while Mom takes care of them.  Normally when we come visit, the others take turns inside the house overnight, but this go around, it's just Soph and me.   (I pretty much always sleep with Mom--again, she has attachment issues....)

Picnic at the Park

Hi, It's me, Sophie!

I'm not trying to be rude, I promise!  Mom was eating something, and I wanted her to share....

We went to a park with her friends yesterday to celebrate the end of Spring term finals.  I got to visit with about fifteen law nerds who think I'm adorable (I'll admit, I am very pretty), and I tried to maintain my best lady manners when I mingled with three other dogs.  There was a lot of good food that her friends weren't stingy with, and Mom brought along a container of hamburger just for me, too!

Mostly, I stood around and looked cute.  I made myself readily available to anyone who wanted to pet me. (It's a rough life.)  I love how everyone thinks I'm a young lady!  When Mom answered ten and a half, they thought she meant months!  How flattering!  I was also complimented on how clean and soft I am, so all my efforts to steer clear of mud paid off!

I was a little disappointed we didn't get to walk around and explore the park more--kind of mean of Mom, considering I've never been there before--but I did have have fun playing Bocci.  I was my mom's lucky charm--she scored a three pointer, which is quite impressive considering she has about the worst hand-eye coordination ever.  We players were told we looked like a scene from a Wes Anderson film.  I'll take it.  We passed on playing baseball (both kinds) and another ball toss kind of game because Mom already met her quota sports.  (I don't think she knows what she signed up for when she agreed to join a kickball team with her friends this Summer....)

Anyways, after about four hours of hanging out, Mom and I ran to the pet store for some vitamins and treats and then headed home.  I made sure to tell Champ and Elsie about my afternoon of fun, since they were stuck at home doing nothing.  Yes, Champ gets his brat traits from me.

I'm going to go take a nap with Mom!  (She's bogged down on Benedryl, plus we have time now!)  Have a great weekend!

Dog mom here! I just wanted to say thanks for stopping by!  We are about a week into the blog project and already have had over 225 page views!  I don't know if that's a lot for young blogs, but it's way more than I imagined we'd be getting!  Thanks again!  

The Park

Happy Friday!
Tonight, I am just going to share some photos from the awesome park that is just down the street from our "dog house."  It isn't a dog park, but we will talk about that tomorrow.

From yesterday:

I love the water!

Practicing my recall on the trail.

I'm already pretty tired here after running full speed ahead through the woods.  Mom's been too busy to take us to the park lately, but she promises to bring us more often.  That should help all of our conditioning.

Here's the creek at a different location.

This field is on our side of the woods.  When we can't go walk on the trails, sometimes we just run here.

From today:

I found another bird!  The greatest thing about this park is that I get to pretend I'm hunting.

I had my very first training class tonight.  I was so tired on the way home!  Because I can be leash reactive,* Mom took me to a practice session a few weeks ago.  She says I impressed her then as much as I did tonight!  I don't know what she gets so worried about.  I only let out a total of three or four barks: two when a big black dog came in late and one or two when he walked up to me (I don't remember).  I hardly knew what was happening before I found myself gobbling down handfuls of treats a couple yards away to where Mom moved me.  Other than that, I kept my eyes glued on Mom and eagerly waited for her to give me my cues.  It was actually pretty fun, and I showed her I could relax in a smallish room [that echos] with five other dogs and nine other people in it!

*Oh, I forgot to share that I passed an oncoming dog twice on my walk to the park yesterday and didn't react!  For full disclosure, he was on the other side of the street.  But after a scary encounter with one who was off leash and charged at us a couple months ago, I became pretty worried about oncoming big dogs on our neighborhood walks.  Mom doesn't understand why people let dogs that are not reliably trained off leash run loose in the neighborhood....  Anyways, I'm getting better with this.

A couple notes: first, my mom needs to get a different camera--and soon.  I was pretty disappointed that she didn't get any great action shots of me in the actual woods.  I guess I'm just too fast for the camera because I always looked blurry.  Or she doesn't know how to take photos (she makes no claims at being a photographer).  Probably a bit of both.  Second, you'll get to see the wooded trails tomorrow!  She has lots of photos of Sophie and Elsie in them.

That's all for tonight!  Thanks for stopping by!