Last Sunday I heard there was some sort of Significant Sports Event happening (the Mega Cup? Souper Spoon? Something like that.) Because of this I hatched a cunning plan.
Assuming there was a significant overlap between people who like sports, and people who like to play in the snow, I had the idea that there would be considerably fewer of the latter because they would be, or be getting ready to, watch the former. This would leave the dogs and I a considerable area to play in the Sno Parks (yes, that’s how they’re spelled) up in the mountains without any, or at least very few people around.
I took the dogs up to the mountains to play in the snow this weekend. I took a ton of pictures with my big, beautiful DSLR… which my computer isn’t speaking to at the moment. While I engage in some couple’s counseling (and a good deal of swearing) please enjoy these few pictures I took with my phone.
This was Marsha’s first time in the snow.I didn’t realize it looked quite so dirty when I was taking the pictures!They had a much better time when I found somewhere I could let them off leash. Graham still tried to make the best of it.
The problem with having a small, observant dog in a houseful of cats is that their behaviors sometimes rub off on him. For example, the cats are alone most of the day with the run of the house, so it’s hard to keep them from being places I don’t want them. Which is probably why I came out one morning to find this:
“Can’t sleep, mailman will eat me… Can’t sleep, mailman will eat me…”
As a cat person transitioning to a dog person I was very lucky to have Hershey come into my life first. She is, on the whole, a very mellow soul, not much concerned with the goings on of the outside world, at least when she’s inside. While she will run to the window to check what the neighbor dogs are barking at (this usually involves multiple, hourly trips) she’s generally not one to join in the festivities.
When Graham came into our lives a few years later I no longer had the luxury of having a laid back dog. According to Graham there are murderers out there, and they’re all walking by our house!
Over the last three years we have worked on his reactivity to outside noises, with some limited success. Through the process of ‘not yelling at him when he barks his fool head off,’ I think I’ve managed to tame some of the Little Dog aspects of his nature. Don’t get me wrong, he still barks at things that don’t have the slightest bit to do with him, but I’m able get him to stop after a bark or two. I usually say “enough,” and call him over and praise him for stopping. I’m not sure if he thinks he’s being praised for alerting me to murderers or for not barking so much, but it’s the best I’ve been able to do with him.
smoredogs 