Dog Days Of Summer

This summer was very hot and dry and the dogs don't get to do a whole lot during the summer months. For me it was a time to really get to know the dogs and for them to get to know me. Not that I didn't know all their names I had walked the Dancing Girls all fall and had worked with all the dogs at some point but they had moved to B.C in December and hadn't returned until late March/Early April. Once my dog yard had 3 loads of sand, all the posts were pounded and the chains ready we hauled in 8 houses and I painted them to match our house and then came the dogs.

In a few weeks we were able to get the wire all up around the whole kennel and I was releived to have this extra safety measure in case someone got loose. We live pretty close to a very busy road and I have had a dog killed on this road before. Now I could close the gates and let the dogs loose in the kennel to run around and get to know each other as well. We also started taking them out on "Free Runs". What this means is we let all the dogs loose and take them for a walk. Sometimes it was for only a 10 or 15 minutes and lot's of times it was for an hour or more. This gives the dogs some exercise and helps them bond with me and with each other. They get to play and explore and learn to come back to me to get a nice pet and it's just fun for everyone. My daughter loved these walks and always came with me everytime. We learned quickly to watch out for Siboon though because he loved to run at full tilt and he never watched where he was going and we were liable to get knocked over if we didn't watch out for him. These walks did alot of good in making the dogs feel happy and they looked forward to them everyday, I can tell you if you think puppy eyes from one dog is bad try watching eight dogs give you puppy eyes when you don't have time to take them on a free run. Most times I ended up taking them even if it was 10 o'clock at night. It was good for me too very stress releiving to get out in the cooler summer evening and watch 9 dogs run around and have fun.

A Fun Game Of Tag

RunThe Team and Me