Our room at the Dog Scout camp where you can see the matresses I put on the floor instead of my cot (under the dark blue sleeping bag) and his crate right next to my bed.
Last night, while he was leashed to his crate, he spent most of the night sprawled out on the cool concrete, but at some point he got on the bed and was stretched out next to my legs. I woke up several times during the night. I think I was sleeping lightly to stay aware of what he was doing, hoping he wouldn't chew through his leash :-) About 4:30 he was trying to get me up by licking my face and laying on my head. I put him in his crate and he slept till 6:30. He acted like it was urget that he get out so I put on my robe and took him out. He promptly peed a river even though he had gone right before bed last night. Too much lake water I guess :-)
I took him to the play yard after I was dressed and ready to be seen in public :-) My neck and knees were extra sore but a few extra pain killers helped. In the pay yard, he played with Sugar (a Border Collie), Buttercup (a yellow lab) and Harley (a black lab.) Truffles (a mix) came in for awhile too.
Here's a shot showing his ground covering trot. If it was taken from the side, his butt wouldn't look so big :-)
Then we went to breakfast. All the food served for camp was excellent! After breakfast we started the hike with the group, but turned back pretty early because my knees couldn't take the hills and distance. This is the view back down to the beach from the start of the hill I had to turn around on.
Dazzle on the hike:
On the way back we stopped to practice his stays and got some really nice photos over looking the lake.
A cool tree too:
I let him play in the water on the way back too. He found some water toys :-)
Then while the rest of camp was finishing the hike or doing other things we went to the agility field. About the time we did that, a few others had the same idea but it wasn't too distracting and I was able to get Karen to take some video of Dazzle's first trip across the teeter:
After a few practice runs, he was even more confident:
The teeter was way off center, so the dogs had to run pretty far past the center to get it to drop and then it dropped fast. He didn't seem to mind a bit, but I only let him do it about 8 times. He also went across the dog walk like he had been doing it all his life, but I didn't get video of that. I held onto his harness so if he took a mis-step I could keep him from falling.
By that time, I really needed to sit awhile so we went back to the room and he napped while I updated the notes I was taking for this blog.
We went to help with the Directional Control class and Dazzle watched with facination as Gracie (the Search and Rescue pro) did the bases from about 100' away. It was really cool to see Bob direct her from place to place from such a distance.
After lunch I checked off Lonnie's dog for her fundraising badge and then took Dazzle to do a second painting. I was going for red, white and blue but ended up with a lot of purple :-) I titled it "Texas Twister"
Then it was time for swimming. The waves had picked up again so I didn't bother getting dressed to go in but he had fun running and playing with the other dogs.
Look out Dazzle!
A good perch to watch the action, you can see how high the waves were!:
Had to get a shot of one of the many paw prints on the beach:
He slept through the next presentation till the end where I needed him to demonstrate how I taught him to heel. Then he joined in on one of the games, but didn't last long before he was "out." The dog needed to respond to a single verbal cue, no body language. He got the "sit" but when I said down, he got distracted by a butterfly and since I couldn't give him another cue, he was out of that game. He wouldn't have been able to do the "bow" that followed anyway because he hasn't learned that yet.
I put him in his crate for a nap during dinner and even with roommates going in and out I think he got a good nap. He also stayed there through arts and crafts and the "free time" that followed it in which I was finishing up my craft. After 3 hours of sleeping he was jazzed and ready to play! It was time for the costume contest. He just wanted to play with any other dog within reach, his toys, his blanket, his leash, me, etc. The costume I bought said "cookie monster" which I thought would be a really cute costume for him. But it turns out I didn't read it right and it was actually Elmo. I just saw fuzzy with big eyes and it's been too long since I have seen Seasame Street to remember cookie monster is blue, not red. Maybe I can dye it blue :-) He humored me and wore it long enough to parade in front of the other campers, then I took it off before he could eat it. There were LOTS of adorable costumes so he didn't win but it was still fun. The winner was a Pirate Labrador and his parrot (a chihuahua covered in feathers.) I tried to get some photos, but it was too dark inside for my camera. I'm hoping the professional camp photographer got some good ones for the photo CD.
Cookie Monster or Elmo?
After the contest, he was still wanting to play, so two of his roommates indulged him for awhile, then he laid in the middle of the room chewing on a bully stick. Thankfully the other dogs didn't mind. He wasn't ready for bed, but I sure was!
This one looks like Kozi was trying to tell him to be quiet!
