Photo Dump: Play, New Friends, and Cuddles

It's been much too long since I did a post that wasn't a shelter journal. I've been missing spending most of my time with Denali and Kaytu. We have only been going to the dog park once a week if we're lucky, and I Haven't mushed Kaytu in weeks but the lack of exercise is mainly due to the heat. It's been around 90 degrees and even at night it isn't getting cool enough to mush. Kaytu is getting some energy out by tugging, and the girls do wrestle and chase and play with each other quite a bit.

Last week I had the pleasure of meeting Bea Pludow of K9sBehave. I had first contacted her about a dog I was working with that had aggression issues and we hit it off, and she invited me to meet so we could chat about dogs. We met up and then Denali and I rode with her to Fiesta Island where dogs are allowed to be offleash. Denali was kept on leash at first and when we were in a good area I let her off. Her recall skills are a bit rusty but I had a bag of treats and she did very well. The area where we were, the road is right by the water. So after walking around trails a bit we leashed the dogs back at the road, crossed, and Denali had a blast digging and playing in the ocean. Bea has a 10 year old Border Terrier named "Busy" (or perhaps spelled "Bizee" or something similar). He was great little guy, lots of energy for his age, and he and Denali did very well together.

 

 

 

Shaking off!

 

 

The girls also had a play date with Sugar again. They teamed up on her a bit, and with both of them being taller it was a little overwhelming for Sugar. Sugar clearly wanted to be chased, which Denali was happy to do, but Kaytu is more of a wrestler and kept tackling Sugar. They got lots of play breaks and we made sure Sugar wasn't being bullied. Kaytu is an "overenthusiastic bully" as I say. She means no harm and is not provoking or trying to start a fight, but sometimes she does not let up and wants to keep playing when the other dog isn't ready to play again or doesn't want to play so rough. (Denali was here this day too, just no pics of her.)

 

My husband has a new game with Denali, where she will jump up on the couch and lay down. He lays his hands on the couch, palms up, then quickly pushes them under her. This movement is usually accompanied by him saying "boop!!" and it causes Denali to wiggle and spaz, mouth his hands, paw at him, playbow, she loves it!

Their sleeping habits seemed to have changed lately as well. They've been cuddling up together quite often. Kaytu has also taken to sunning herself in the dirt each morning, for 3 days in a row now.

Snuggling with each other.