Ours for a Year: water dog

Showing posts with label water dog. Show all posts

Wordless Wednesday - In Too Deep

>> Wednesday, June 27, 2012 – dog swimming, lab who doesn't swim, water dog, wordless wednesday

Where's the Mud??

>> Monday, May 10, 2010 – baby pool, doggy pool, water dog

Mom bought me this funny blue bathtub last week.
She put it in our backyard and then filled it--with a whole 2 inches of water. Woo.

cabana standing in the pool, looking down at the water

At least, it looks like water.

cabana with her head down in the pool, drinking the water

It tastes like water.

cabana walking in the pool; her back paw is making a little sideways splash

And it splashes like water.

cabana looking up at the camera with her head hung low so her eyebrows look crinkled and disgruntled

But Mom, the most important part is missing....

cabana with her head looking past the outer rim of the baby pool

WHERE'S THE MUD?!

Spring and Sprinklers

>> Tuesday, March 30, 2010 – cabana, sprinklers, water dog

Mmmmm, wildflowers smell nice, especially when they're wet with morning dew.

cabana sniffing a low-to-the-ground plant with interesting green and white striped leaves, the leaves are shaped sort of like big dandelion leaves, but there are sharp thorny prickles all along the edges

These things, however, do not smell nice, and they hurt my tootsies. Sometimes, I get stuck out in the grass when these prickly plants are in my path. I stand there and give Mom my "help me" expression,
then Mom has to come over and show me how to get away from them.

Thankfully, there are more flowers and grass than prickles. But those prickly plants are spreading fast,
so I'll just smell the daisies while I can.

cabana and a chocolate lab puppy standing in a field of grass, three big sprinklers are shooting out water

Yesterday, while I was playing with my chocolate lab buddy, Latte, the sprinklers came on!

cabana and latte both have their heads down in the grass, ignoring the sprinklers

We thought it was cool, but for some reason, we didn't run through them. We decided to just pretend to be cows, grazing in the grass. We're puppies, so we don't have to make sense.

Coming Along Nicely

>> Tuesday, March 23, 2010 – favorite walking path, off leash, recall, water dog

Cabana and I have been working diligently on recall everyday for the past 3 months. It's a long and gradual haul! But she has progressed very well and comes about 95% of the time when off leash. Here she is, boisterously and immediately coming when called. (Ugh, I'm embarrassed of my voice, but oh well.)

Video description: We're in a big open field of grass with a fence and buildings off in the distance. Cabana is running around a short distance away in tall grass, but when I call her, she makes a beeline toward me.

Even when I don't call her, she likes to come running back to me. This is so rewarding, as well as such a relief. I feel so much more confident about letting her off leash now as compared to even a month ago.

Video description: Cabana running through the long grass, she circles around and comes to a stop after passing me.

But there's still that 5% of the time when I know Cabana's too involved in whatever is distracting her. Here, it's a big swampy, marshy puddle of water. Usually, I leash her when we're getting close to this puddle, but she's been really good about listening when I say "uh uh" (meaning, don't go there) or "this way" (change your direction). This morning, I thought I'd try keeping her off leash as we passed by the puddle. I called her once, but then I gave up and took this video instead. As long as she doesn't drink the water, I'm not that concerned.

Video description: There's a pond/puddle larger than an average living room, with tall reeds and grass growing in it. Cabana skirts the puddle, thrashes through one side, exits the pond and then runs around in a circle on the other side.

Well, next time we pass this puddle, I think I'll have to go back to leashing her. ;)

Scary Things

>> Saturday, March 13, 2010 – cabana, dog fears, pop up crate, water dog

It's obvious that Cabana has no fear of water.

And she's not scaredy of cats. (I interrupted a staring contest. I think our cat Angie was the victor this time.)

Last week, Cabana held her own with this huge rhodesian ridgeback (hind end pictured here), even though at 110 pounds, he was over twice her size.

She's even unfazed by this noisy little plane, flying low overhead.

BUT...Cabana DOES get scared--and by the strangest things!! Some blog readers may remember our struggles with the refrigerated sections in grocery stores. That fear got better then worse, then didn't matter.

But Cabana was sure this terracotta pot had it in for her. Yesterday, when she first saw it in someone's lawn, she backed up and hackled. Talking cheerfully and reassuringly, I went up and tapped it a few times. Even then, Cabana danced and pranced around, like, "I'm not getting any closer to that fearsome object!" Today, we went back to it, and she had completely gotten over it. "Oh, that thing, pah, I know it's nothing now."

Another scary object is this new pop-up crate! We rarely crate Cabana anymore, but we're going on a trip in April and will be staying in a rented house. In case we need to leave her for short periods, I didn't want her loose in a strange house. So I bought this collapsible crate, which I think both Natalie and Ro have--right? Only $25 at Target, and I love not having to store some big old thing! I thought it would be good to leave it out for a while, so Cabana could get used to it. Good idea?!

Well, I tried for over 15 minutes to get Cabana to go in the crate yesterday. She never minded the big plastic ones that we had borrowed from our puppy group. But I don't know why, she did NOT want to go in this one.

I tried everything short of brute force, while Cabana kept yawning and play bowing to show her discomfort. I threw in Charlee Bear treats, no go. I threw in baby carrots, still no. I threw in her Kong stuffed with a cookie, no way. Finally, I threw in a hunk of cheese! Still NO!!

What choice did I have, I decided to give up for the time being. But when my daughters got home from school, my younger daughter climbed in the crate, and Cabana happily dashed right in after her! Problem solved. As is evident from the photo, Cabana doesn't mind being in there one bit. In fact, she doesn't want to get out!