Folsom Lake

WOOF! Brock here.

Let me just say, I am not a happy camper today! It is windy and rainy and all the noise is really freaking me out! And there is no way I can get a human to come outside with me today either. Grrr

So on friday dad got off work early and they took Alki for a walk, then took Royal & I to our favorite place ever, Folsom Lake. It isnt too far away, and is in a biiig park, far from any roads. It only has one road in the park, and it is small and windy so cars have to drive slow. The perfect place for running free.. Our favorite spot is Oak Beach. It is located deep in the park, and there is TONS of open land all around this spot on the lake, far from the small park road. dogs are allowed on this beach and we are supposed to stay leashed but mom breaks the rules for us. We just NEED to stretch our legs sometimes, and it stinks that there are no wide open places here for us to do that legally. The beach here is rarely very populated, and other dog owners let their dogs off leash here as well. Sometimes horses show up too which can be very interesting! (They are allowed on this beach too). Mom has to keep an eye out for horses in the distance cause that is a distraction we cannot resist, and a lot of horses are scared of dogs, which can be very dangerous for us and the human horse riders!

This day we only saw one other dog just briefly, and no other people. (And no horses either!) We had the place to ourselves! Mom has been practicing my recall a lot lately since we go to lots of unfenced places now to run free, when back home I only ran free at the dog parks where I was safe and didnt need a perfect recall. Royal has always had a good recall mom says, but thats cause he gets treats for it every time! Unlike myself. Moms says its cause at the dog park she has to be careful cause I do not like to share my food and it is hard to give me treats with other dogs around. (psh whatever mom. I think its not fair!) But now I get treats A LOT.

Mom has also been doing some other things differently with me lately. She says I am on an obedience backtrack. She says she has been slacking with me for so long, and we need to work on some of the basics we havent really ever worked on, namely "leave it" and "stay" but also "watch." She has also started feeding me THREE times a day! They are 3 smaller meals that I used to get, but I looove getting food all day long! I guess because of my broken pancreas it helps me digest the treats Im getting throughout the day while training, if I have more meals. She says this is also helping me stop begging as much since Im not hungry all the time like usual. Hmm, come to think of it, she's right! I havent been as hungry lately!

She has also been training with Alki everyday too. They have been going on walks a lot, just like mom & I have. Mom is trying to get our barking to lessen. See we hear noises outside all day and get excited about it, but after going for walks and checking the world out, we are less excited about the outside noises cause we've already had a chance to check it all out! Alki has also been feeling nervous about like a lot lately, ever since she was attacked by that dog. It hasnt helped that we moved away from home and all our friends and normal routines. Since we havent had any visitors or dont have any friends houses to visit, Alki has gotten shy again like she was when she first came to live with us. When mom & dad went away at Christmas we had a stranger come over to take care of us and it took Alki a long time to get used to her and mom was so nervous the whole time about poor Alki. So mom has started cracking down and been getting Alki social again. It is so hard to walk in our neighborhood though cause there are always several loose dogs, and Alki & I do NOT like being bugged when we are on our walks. There are just so many RUDE dogs out there that just rush up to you when you are stuck on a leash. I mean, hello? Get out of my face!! Grrrrr! And of course whenever Alki tries to tell a dog to go away, people FREAK OUT cause, "oh em gee, she is an EVIL PIT BULL!!!!" Gimmie a break. My sis just has it rough. Dont humans know, its racism!

Anyways.. Needless to say, we have all been pretty busy! Mom is also sticking the black box in our faces allll the time lately. She said she is trying to take photos of all of us every week, so she will have 1 good photo of each of us, and the kitties even, every week for the whole year. She then wants to put together a photo album of all of us at the end of the year. Eh, as long as I get treats for posing I dont care!

Here are our photos from Folsom Lake. (Mom also has a BUNCH of photos of us here from Nov she still has to get ready! So hopefully we can share those this week too):

finally, a photo of me!

we were pretty excited!

Royal loves water..

chasing rocks

gotta get the butt dried off some how!!

dang, Im good lookin'.

here I am looking rather regal

what a slob

Now we have some photos from last week when mom took us to our other open running area around the block. I was SOOO excited.. I found a DEN of some sort, full of critters!! I tried really hard, going back and forth to all their entrances, trying to catch one of them, but I just couldnt. It was hard work as you can see by how tired I look!:

whoa, I think you can see in my stomach

I dont think Ive panted that hard in a long time! I just loooove chasing critters..

heres my little bro looking pretty goofy. he wasnt even helping me, he was off with mom but apparently got some good running in too.

And here are some photos of sister. I was pretty mad, mom took her out back to play without me.. I hate it when they do that!:

she says this is her excited face- haha!

lip caught

she has a pretty nice smile, doesnt she?

and I thought I had a big mouth! ;D

Well, I hope you enjoyed our photos!

butt wiggles,

Brock