Penwood State Park

Another weekend, another new adventure. Saturday morning found us at a new venue for Will and Emma, with lots of new dogs and people to meet. We drove the short distance to Penwood State Forest, where there are numerous trails that either climb up Talcott Mountain or go around it somewhat. We arrived about 10 am and the parking lot was almost full already. It was a beautiful sunny Saturday morning, and we weren’t the only ones who thought to get out to enjoy it. (http://www.ct.gov/dep/cwp/view.asp?a=2716&q=325248&depNav_GID=1650)

Will takes the lead, his preferred spot

We took the high trail, the one that went along the mountain to see if we could get a good view of the Farmington valley before the trees are all leafed out. There were some decent views, but we never did come to the overlook area that was on the map. Either we didn’t go far enough, or perhaps we just didn’t see it. Needless to say, we all quite enjoyed the walk along the paved trail. Emma got to chase her leaves, and Will got to lead the way.

I haven’t mentioned their newfound obsessions yet. In the last week or so, we have noticed that they each have developed a different fixation on moving things, neither of which we are happy about and are trying to train away. Will has decided that the fast moving vehicles are a new toy to chase, and Emma has discovered that when there is wind there are moving leaves and they are a good plaything. Both of these behaviours are quite dangerous, since either one could lead them into traffic or somewhere equally hazardous.

We are working mostly with Will on the car chasing. When we go for walks around the neighborhood, he must move to the grassy side of the road and sit down when he hears a car coming. I have always been getting them to move off the road and sit, but this has become an automatic response. He not only sits, but will lie down the minute he hears a car coming. This works on our quiet street but the real test will come when we go to a busier trail like the Collinsville bike trail where he first exhibited this behaviour. We have a real challenge on our hands.

With Emma, the leaves are everywhere. We are not so successful with her obsession, and need to be more diligent with having her pay attention to us, not the leaves. It is a challenge to both of us and one we need to work on. More later when we get a better handle on it.

Our little pups had a good day of meeting new dogs and people on our Penwood adventure. They met up with two big Tibetan mastiffs that they met a couple of months ago at McLean Game Preserve. They are the biggest dogs they’ve met to date. A big red male, and a big blackish female named Maggie. They were so cute, and not afraid of them at all. Will even gave a few little yaps to try to get them to play, but no dice. Emma took her time meeting and greeting the bigger one, who was off-leash and very curious about the little pups.

Emma and Will on the run: they love the open space of the ball park!

Here I go!

Me and my shadow...

Emma and her shadow...

Will and the big femaleTibetan mastiff, Maggie

Emma makes friends with the red Tibetan mastiff

Happy Emma

Lea Anne and the 'twins'

Well, I must say that spring weather has arrived, and brought with it lots of things to do to enjoy the outdoors. This is probably why it’s been awhile since I had time to sit down to write a little something. There’s been lots to write about, but not much time to do it. With this nicer weather, most of the snow has disappeared. There are some piles built up by the snowplows that are taking their time to melt away, but they won’t last long. The time change has also changed our routine a little. It’s now daylight when Jim gets home at night, which means that we can take a nice little walk around the neighbourhood in the evening. The puppies love it, and we do too.

Today, we discovered a new place to walk to, right in our own neighbourhood. We took Will and Emma for a nice leisurely walk on this sunny but crisp Saturday morning. We walked down Town Forest Road, where we’ve taken to walking because it’s a quiet road with not too much traffic. We walked a little farther than we normally do, since we had extra time and nothing pressing to do. It’d been a long time since we’d walked that far, but we weren’t surprised to come across the baseball diamond where the local kids team (The Simsbury Babe Ruth) plays. What was a pleasant surprise was that the field was completely fenced and gave us a nice area to let the pups run. For the first time ever, at least outside the house, we let the pups run off leash. You should have seen how happy they were! They ran together, away from us about 100 feet, then turned and ran right back to us. If dogs could laugh, these two pups were doing it. You could just see the joyful smiles on their faces, they were so happy.

We took this great opportunity to practice some recall commands, so we separated ourselves, about 100 feet or so, and Will and Emma ran back and forth between us. They would come when we called, and they ran and ran, right to us, then back again to the other one. We decided this would be the perfect place to bring the soft frisbee type disc that we bought for them. Next time.

The whole thing came to a fun end when a woman jogging with her hound dog went by. Well, of course the beautiful hound couldn’t resist joining our pups to run and play. He found his way into the field (simply pushed open one of the gates) and came over to meet Will and Emma. Will, of course set into his barking routine, to invite him to play. They crouched and ran and played for just a few minutes, until Troy’s owner recovered him and took him back on the jogging route. What fun for the pups, though. I’m not sure what they loved more, meeting a new dog, or having some freedom to run and run and run. This is definitely a place we will return to, at least until baseball season comes!

First Trip to Canada AP (after puppies)

Another first in the short lives of Will and Emma. I have taken my first trip back to visit family in Canada since we have had our puppies. Since Jim wasn’t able to make the trip this time (work, work and more work), we decided to each take a puppy for the weekend. So after some discussion who was to have who, I have Will with me and Jim has Emma at home with him. He was determined to keep Will at home with him, and the reason for that finally slipped out. Emma likes to wake everyone up with her little yelps in the morning, which usually starts anywhere between 4:15 a.m. and 5:30 a.m. He just wanted to get some extra sleep! Will, on the other hand, is still the pee machine, and my rational to take him was that I would be more available to let him out regularly. Jim would be available on the weekends, but on Friday and Monday would only be home at lunch to let him out, which means long periods in the crate, and increased likelihood of accidents in the crate.

So needless to say, our long seven and a half hour drive went smoothly. He was quite happy to sleep in his crate, and we stopped regularly for bathroom breaks and to fill up with gas. We had a couple of longer stops, to walk around the grounds, to wake up our legs, and then got back on the road. Will slept most of the way, curled up in the corner of his crate. He would rustle around once in a while, and he’d be sitting watching me on occasion when I’d look back at him, but convinced I wasn’t going anywhere, he’d lay back down for another snooze. He was happy to get out of the van at the end of the drive though.

He explored around our townhouse, but there was no indication that he remembered being here before. It was his first home after we picked them up from the breeders just before Christmas, but we haven’t been back since then. He was up and down the stairs with me, while I carted things in from the van, and had to explore all around. I set his crate up in the kitchen area where we had it before, and put a bed outside the crate for him to rest on where I can watch him. We’ve got into the habit of crating the pups mostly when we’re not at home, and letting them sleep on their beds or play if we’re in the room with them. It seems to work all right, as long as we’re around. Eventually, they won’t need the crates, we’re hoping. But for now, there is just too many things for them to chew or break, and too many places for the pee machine to go.
Not only was this the first long trip for Will, but this is also the first time Will and Emma have been separated from each other for any length of time.


Sunday
It’s been a busy couple of days for Big Will and me. He’s been busy getting re-aquainted with some family, including people and their dogs. He’s gone for a few walks and of course drives. We saw my son, Aaron, and his girl-friend, Kendall, and his dog, Cajun. Cajun is almost ten years old, and wasn’t really impressed with Will, who really wanted to play, but didn’t know how to get Cajun motivated enough to play with him. He tried barking, which really didn’t do the trick. Will barks at Emma when he wants to get her attention, and must have thought it would work with any dog. Cajun just turned his head, and tried to ignore Will, but that didn’t work either.

We met with Aaron again this morning to check out a new conservation area near his house, which is on the Hamilton mountain. Eramosa Karst Conservation Area was recently opened, and has a huge cave which isn’t accessible at this time of year, because it’s flooded with fast running water. There’s also a series of trails, nicely groomed with screenings for the most part, so it was easy to walk at this muddy time of year. Will, however, was not behaving well during our walk. Cajun has always been an off-leash dog in this type of situation, and loves to run through the woods and ahead on the trail. This drove poor Will crazy since he wanted to run with Cajun, and at still under five months, I was not about to let him go off in unfamiliar territory. So it was tug and pull and unsuccessful attempts to correct almost the entire walk. Not the most pleasant Sunday morning walk.

He also visited Max, my parents dog, who is also about ten years old and had no interest in spending time with a bouncy young pup. Will again used his voice to try to get some play out of Max, but soon gave up on this when it was obvious he was getting nowhere. He was happy to meet my parents again, though, and loved the attention they gave him.

Jazz wants the rawhide bone
Today, my sister came to visit with her springer spaniel, Jazz, who is about a year and a half old and still has lots of puppy energy. Finally, Will met his match. At first they spent time getting to know each other, and playing together. Jazz had this way of using her body to corner him (all in play). They’d run around, and somehow they always ended in the corner, with Jazz blocking him in. They ran and played happily together for quite awhile. But again, for some reason, Will got into a barking fit with her, and didn’t want to stop. I finally remembered that if I got him to sit and calm down, and ‘look at me’ he would stop barking. This did work and we were all happy that we didn’t have to listen to all of his noise anymore. So, I’m not sure why he was barking at Jazz. My previous theory that he was trying to get some play didn’t apply this time, since Jazz loved to play and didn’t need any encouragement. I’ll have to figure this one out.

Will taking a break from our walk down Town Forest Road. We spent a pleasant Sunday afternoon enjoying the 1st of March, before the nor'easter hits that will bring with it about ten inches of new snow.

Our sweet Emma watching and listening to all the sounds of the winter afternoon.

Emma wants to adopt the lost hound she sees on TV!

So many toys, so little time!

Is this the one?