Back to reality...

Since vacation is long since over, I suppose it's time to return to reality...















Sable has returned to her weekly doggy daycare sessions and has found a renewed and increasing love for eating/ripping grass out of the ground. This also includes grass clippings, mud clumps and pine cones. I suppose I wouldn't mind too much about her eating habits if it didn't mean that the lawn was getting destroyed and that Sable now wakes us up with immense hacking and dry-heaving. I know, I know... sorry for the vivid detail... as if you really wanted to know. Either way... it's yet another thing we need to correct.


On a bright note... Sable is very good (at our house at least) at letting us know she needs/wants outside. This is both good and bad. It's nice that she will now bark at the door rather than wait ten seconds and proceed to squat, but when she thinks it's ok to bark to go outside and then bark to get back inside every ten minutes it gets a little annoying to say the least. Enough of the complaints though... she's progressing! Woo!



Now that summer is here and in full swing... Sable is getting pretty good at biking with me. I'm not quite good enough with my rollerblading to try blading with Sable, but maybe we'll get to it eventually. So far we've done lots of walks and and bike rides. Since Sable now knows how to swim (thanks to the Alaska trip), we've been able to take advantage of the river on our exploration of the river valley. The summer has been relaxed thus far... but we're looking forward to things to come.



So... welcome summer, enjoy the pictures!

More Alaska Please!

While in Alaska I think Sable was spoiled... between my dad giving away (practically) free treats for minimal amounts of work and there always being new dogs for her to play with. She came home thinking play dates and free treats were her new way of life... little did she know.








She did learn the command 'sleep'... wherein she places her head on the ground as if she were going to sleep, but the eyes bulging out of her head, looking for any sign of food, is a dead give away that she is NOT in fact sleeping. The good that came out of the free treat concept... was that while she started out fearful of stairs and stools (things she could see through) she ended up being able to climb both by the end of the trip.

Mocha, 'the grumpy old lady', knows that climbing onto the top of bar stools gets her a free snack so she already does this on a regular basis without prompting.






I think my favorite moment was when my dad got both Mocha and Sable to share a foot stool... until Mocha shoved Sale off knowing that there was a treat to be had (Mocha doesn't like sharing).










Sable also learned out to swim on the trip. Fetching sticks from out of the water for the first time! At first there was a mad dash to the stick, then a look of utter confusion when the water was past her elbows.



Eventually there was the 'oops' moment where she ran too deep into the water and the immediate 'ah ha! I can swim' revelation comes to her as her feet start kicking for solid ground. It wasn't long before the confusion lead to Sable realizing that water was her destiny... getting her out became the bigger issue.



For more active outdoor time, we had looked for some sort of dog harness that Sable could learn to pull on. She loves to pull no matter what collar she has on, so we figured helping her release that energy was going to be easier than wrangling it. We bought an official dog mushing harness... built much better for running that the consumer oriented international pet store chain versions.


















We tested out the new harness at Angel Rocks, a hike frequented by many a Fairbanksian. It was handy when she pulled us uphill, but less awesome heading back down. Luckily Sable was quite tired from the uphill hike making her pulling a little more manageable on the way down.

Leaving Alaska was hard... another three day drive was a daunting task to look forward to, but Sable's entertainment never ceased to amaze me. I think one of the highlights was her attitude toward wildlife on the road. Unlike most places, wildlife here does not move off the road with any sort of initiative... you basically have to drive slowly around it as it stares at you.

The video below was taken after we came upon some sheep that seemed much less interested in us and much more interested in the gravel they were eating... despite Sable's confused 'Boof' from the back seat.

Wee'rrreeee Baaacckkkkk!

The beginning of the ALCAN Highway!

Yes, we're back!... and we've been back for a little over a week... oops. I'm a bad blog host, tisk tisk tisk. I got so used to sitting on my duff at home and enjoying relaxation leaving you all without any cute puppy picture updates... my apologies. I'll make it up to you!

The middle of the ALCAN...

We made it! The END :-)

The road trip was long... very long, but was awesome! We've learned that Sable is actually an amazing co-pilot puppy, she's very accepting of long car rides and sleeps in the most ridiculous positions in the car while passing the day away.

Sleep Position #1: head mushed deep into
 the corner of the seat.

The only downside is that she becomes an even bigger bundle of energy at the end of each day... I guess there are some pros and cons to having a puppy that sleeps all day.

Sleep Position #2: head strategically jammed
 between seat and door.

At more than one hotel along the route Sable had an accident, by that I mean she did unspeakable things at 70% of the hotels... whoops! She just doesn't understand that when we are outside for a potty break... it really means 'go now or forever hold your bladder'. It's a process :-/...

My dad, the Dog Wrangler (not Whisperer),
with Sable and Kepler.

Once we arrived in Alaska Sable immediately made a few new best friends... My dad and Kepler, Dan and Ashley's dog,... who's the same age as Sable. My older dog, Mocha, took a little longer to adjust to the tiny terrorist, but that makes sense considering we refer to Mocha lovingly as the 'grumpy old lady'.

Eventually Mocha gave in and accepted Sable...
probably only because no one else would play with her.

Sable definitely learned about new dogs, new places, and many new experiences on her trip... the hope is that those experiences somehow help her become a more well rounded dog, but I'm doubting it had any affect on her.

Sable eventually would settle down, but only after
some seriously intense play dates with Kepler.

Probably stalking one of the other dogs...
the look on her face says it all... PSYCHO!

So without spoiling all the stories from the trip in one post, I will leave you all to enjoy the few pictures I've shared thus far... don't worry there are more to come! Enjoy!

Dog Wrangler, Dad

No one gets off easy at my house...