The hike that wasn't

Reading through the Town's conservation commission website the other day, I learned about some new places to hike, one of which is just up the street, about 400 acres.   COOL!   Was looking for somewhere to wear out Miss Fizz today before finishing up my great-grandmother's cookie recipe.     Trail leading back into the woods, 2 ponds that were dug by the Army Corp of Engineers to be skating ponds, land bridge between them.........awesome!

Or so it should have been.   Turned out to be a huge disappointment in terms of hiking. :(  Beavers had taken over, and trails were gone.   We ended up on some deer trails, bushwacking just to wear out the Wuppy.

The above photo is how things started....and quickly deteriorated to this.  The spit of land with the day-glow moss....that was our 'trail' through the beaver-generated swamp. :(

Fizz and I next to a recently 'cut' tree.    And yeah....you can see why I detest wearing hats.  I look utterly stupid in them.

On the way back, we passed through an old gravel/sand pit.   Gave me an opportunity to do a bunch of training/work with Fizz in an exciting environment (do you KNOW how much fun sand-eating is for a 15wk puppy???).   Worked on reward zone on both left and right, call once recalls, collar grabs, and several rounds of hide and seek.    Finally, we discovered the ultimate treasure:  a water bottle with ice in it!   I released her to attack it and boy did she have fun.  Awesome reward to end our training session! :)

I need some updated photos of Fizz, but I need to get the SLR out.......this P&S don't cut it in my mind for portraits!

Ice cube!!!!!!!!

Thought you could use a grin!   Here is Fizz meeting her first ice cube, at 15wks old.   Notice the ability to throw it for herself in Part 2.   Such a wonderfully smart girlie!! :)

 Part 1

Part 2

Working at the Wrentham Outlets

We needed to fight the crowds down at the Wrentham outlets today, so I brought Fizz with me to do some work, and some socializing.   It wasn't as busy as I was hoping for socializing, but we did get to meet 20 or 30 new people.   She had a grand time charming groups of ladies, couples, a gaggle of teen age boys, and various other passers-by. 

Fizz was VERY busy trying to find chewed gum in the cracks of the sidewalk.  I was rather disturbed with the volume that she did manage to find (and then would start chewing on if I didn't catch her fast enough).  Ew!

My goal for work was building duration in sits and downs.  Her sit is on a bench for no other reason than I was hoping for a better photo.  But....I was working with my P&S, and I just don't like it.   MUCH prefer shooting SLR, but you work with what you have.  :)

I was approximately 15ft back to take this.   People were FASCINATED that a puppy would stay in a sit.  Amazing what training does, eh?   ;)

Fizz was VERY interested in the people walking by, they are a VERY high level distraction for her.  But she was an awesome girlie and held her position.  :)

Fizz has been taught to sit at doors in order to get them to open.  I was quite impressed with how well she generalized this behavior to doors she's never entered (into stores with no inherent value to her, like Bebe and Coach).    She sat at 4 consecutive shop doors on our way out to the car.   People found her quite cute, I had to make sure they didn't let her in!!

Howling Fizz

We took Fizz out for an hour's hike this morning to wear her out before Christmas celebrations with family got underway.    Along the way, we encountered some nearby coyotes who were barking and howling their displeasure at our presence.  Thankfully, we never saw them, and Fizz did not become a snack!

After we got home, the kids opened some of their presents, which included for James, a Super Saxoflute.  James and Em had a great time playing with this.  While we were in the middle of dinner prep, we heard the most unnerving sound, and after about 30sec, realized that Fizz was howling b/c of James and Emilie's music.   After the second howl, I raced to grab my little camera, which also records video.    This howl is far less impressive than her first two.....but still amusing none the less. :)   Please excuse Fizz's over-large hiking collar (the blaze orange one).....she was so crashed out from hiking when we first got back that I didn't even try to remove it. :)