Training Challenge #5

Our training challenge for the past week was 5 DAYS OF TOTAL SEPARATION!!! Talk about outside of our comfort zone! Since mom got me, we had not spent a night apart - I came to live with mom and dad on April 7, 2007 and mom left me on September 1, 2010. Can you believe it? Mom and I are huge homebodies and we love being there and being in our own routine and everything. But dad's parents live in San Diego and mom hadn't seen them in four years so this year she flew out there with dad. She was a nervous wreck - worried about me, worried about the plane trip, worried about leaving our house - I mean the list goes on and on.

I went and lived with grandma and grandpa for five days. I love them but when I first got there, I wondered where mom was and when she would come in the door. I laid around a lot the first day. But after that, I settled into a new routine with grandma and grandpa and I had a good time. I got lots of treats, I did recalls in the backyard from grandma to grandpa and back, I watched cars go by at the end of their driveway and some dogs too. Apparently I was a very, very well-behaved house guest! I want to thank them so much for taking such good care of me!

Mom had a good time on her trip. She got to see lots of stuff and go lots of places. They went to the desert, the mountains and the beach all in one day! She went to the zoo and also went walking in the chaparral. And my dad's parents have three dogs - mom played a lot with the two Border Collies (Kyle and Kellan - we blogged about Kyle and my grandma Catherine before and they are going back to the NOI for a 4th time this December. Kyle is 7 years old I think and just got his OGM Obedience Grand Master title and he is a UDX17 dog!) - and while she was there, they got a new BC puppy (unexpected timing) - so she even got to play with him! She says she missed me a lot, but I have my doubts! :)

Here are some photos from my stay at grandma's and from mom and dad's trip:

La Jolla:
Sea lions at La Jolla (dad thinks they should be called sea dogs because they bark all the time):

Mom and dad at Point Loma:

A view from Cabrillo (the marine layer was over the ocean each time they went to the beach no matter what time of day it was):

While they were taking in the beach, I was hanging out:

One day they got up very early (4:00AM) and drove to the Anza Borrego Desert - the park is actually closed most of the time from June to October because it is just too hot there. That's why they had to go so early. Even at 7:00AM, it was already super hot. Mom had never been to a desert before - look at this jackrabbit:

In the spring, the entire area is covered in wildflowers and the park is crawling with people. No one was there the other day and everything is dry. Cactuses are about the only plant around:

The mountains look like this:

Dad was enamored with trying for panoramic shots - here is one that looks like a postcard:

Mom got to watch part of my grandma Catherine's lesson that she was giving and here is mom helping to proof sit/stays - she pulled on the collar of the dog and said, "Let's go!" and unfortunately the dog broke his stay!

Dad took some amazing underwater photos in a tide pool - they should be in National Geographic magazine! This is a sea slug:

And a sea anemone:

Meanwhile I was in grandma's kitchen hoping for something tasty to come my way:

This was the beach at Torrey Pines at 4:00 in the afternoon - see all the marine layer? When mom and dad left grandma Catherine's it was 102 degrees. When they got to the beach 45 minutes later it was 67!

Mom sure doesn't look too sad or like she misses me here playing with Dax the new puppy!

He flew by himself all the way from Sioux Falls, SD!

Me again - waiting to go outside:

So we survived our biggest training challenge ever! Mom got back late last night and we spent all day together doing a few little tricks and going for a nice walk at my park and getting back into our routine again. Tomorrow we have class! I haven't done any agility since last week's class. We tried to keep up with reading everyone's blogs but we're sorry if we missed some. We'll get back to normal soon though. Hope everyone had a good long weekend!

Gotta zoom!

Ricky