October 05, 2008

outdoor art show

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Today we got up early and drove to the east side to visit with friends at an outdoor art show. We started by meeting them at a restaurant and letting the dogs greet, then we went to the rather large show which took up several blocks of the town square. Lots of nice stuff!
I carried Dazzle most of the way because there were a LOT of people and dogs at the event. I won't be able to do THAT much more! My back is REALLY feeling it!) He's still not moving very fast on a leash and probably would have gotten stepped on if he was walking on his own. He did really well with the crowds, many greetings, decorated booths and other dogs of all shapes and sizes, but the heat bothered him. When it started getting warmer, he wanted out of my arms to find shade to lay in.
We took a break at the farmer's market and he slept a bit in my arms, then we went to an outdoor cafe. A passerby was willing to take our photo as we waited for our table. Dazzle curled up on a chair and slept through lunch.

After lunch, we went to visit a doggie boutique, Hyde Bark. Dazzle saw a plush model and had to check it out. :-)


We went to the center part of the park where it was grassy and less crowded and he walked around a bit, past many people, greeted by kids and past a large fountain. When we found that the ice cream store had a line out the door, we decided to skip that.

Playing "jungle puppy" in the tall grass :-)

Dazzle and I went to the house of one of my friends (Dianne and Copper) and Dazzle slept for awhile in my arms and then played in her yard while we enjoyed his antics.

It was a long day and I got limited sleep last night (because yesterday ended around 2am and today started at 7:30 am.) After Dazzle slept for the hour ride home, he was ready to go again. He played for several hours and came very close to playing with the other dogs a few times. He raced around the "pool" (watering trough) playing with Buster. He got a little rough, but Dazzle started play fighting with him and barking at him from under the stairs near the pool.

I also worked on continuing to slowly introduce him to water so he can learn to love to swim. In the past few days, I have put him in the empty pool with only half the sloped bottom covered with a bit less than an inch of water. I gave him treats for walking in it. At first he didn't want to get his back feet wet, but eventually he was fine with walking right into the water. Today, I added more water slowly while he was in the pool. I continued to feed him treats for entering the deeper area. There was about 2" of water when I turned off the hose. Then, Mike tossed in a tennis ball and he played with that and splashed around with no problem. Between the treats and ball, Coyote and Bear also jumped in and walked around in the water with him. He seems just fine with the water up to his ankles now.

I haven't had a chance to upload the video taken today, but I will soon.

Tomorrow we have a 3pm Chiropractic appointment. I'm sure we'll find other fun things to do too!