Things of Not So Much Interest

We went to Julia's favorite park this week. We took a picnic lunch and she played.

She didn't wear the hat for long.

She preferred climbing up to sliding down.

Up ...

Up ...

Down ...

Down ...

Down ...

The problem appears to be keeping her eyes open to watch where she's going

She also twirled

Around ...

... and around.


What was Dax doing all this time?
Playing with those toes!

At home they played in the tunnel

I couldn't figure out the game, but they did. I guess that's all that matters.


We also had a few tragedies ...

I don't know how he did it, but bunny managed to get within grabbing distance on ketchup day.

Poor Bunny

And if you click on the picture to enlarge it, you can see Dax's teeth.
You can also see the spot under his eye where he gouged himself with the hook on top of the gong mallet.
(EDIT: Concerned parties will be happy to learn that the hook has been removed
from the top of the mallet and an eyehook will be installed soon.
Julia still has her toy and Dax is no longer at risk for gouging out his eye ...
with that particular instrument anyway.)

At The Park (video)

This is Julia's favorite video right now. We watch it over and over and over. She talks back to herself at 9 seconds (she says "Wheeee!" back to her video self) and at 15 seconds (she answers whatever question Video Julia asks sitting at the top of the slide. note: she always answers with the same thing so I guess she understands what she's asking. i don't.) She also asks "Oh! Where did she go?" every time Video Julia climbs up the stairs.

Her sliding skills have improved a lot since her first solo attempt a week ago. She doesn't hit her head anymore. It also helps that Mama remembered to put her in pants instead of a dress. Easier to slide when your legs don't stick!

Photos

Julia stole my charger for my good camera and so I didn't have a battery for it this past week or so. Here are some pictures that I took with the lesser of my cameras:

Mafia Dax
He's finished bathing and he dares you to say something about it!

Daddy's Shoes

The Kids (and a stuffed penguin "Hi, Pollito!")

Playing at Market Square

Grandma, I love my new dress! Thank you!

Yes, I know what they say about hindsight

I hate, hate, hate when I am confronted by situations where I have to think on my feet AND suppress my initial response because I want to try to get my point across rather than just insulting the person so she'll leave. Usually in these cases, I end up reacting overly polite and then going over the situation in my head later and getting irritated because I didn't stand up for myself.
Friday mornings between 8:30 am and 9 am , Echo and I meet our friends, Jana (human) and Steinway (dog) at the dog park at Victor Ashe park. We like to go then because the dog park is usually empty. Echo gets nervous around big packs of dogs and ends up just sitting next to my feet. Steinway has a more aggressive response, and Jana doesn't want her around more than two dogs at a time right now. Our dogs usually spend most of their time sniffing around the park, ignoring each other. Around 9:15 am Charlie (dog) usually shows up. After about three weeks, Echo and Steinway made friends with Charlie, and the three do okay together.
Last Friday, after Charlie left, another lady drove up with her dog. Even before she got out of the car, her dog was leaning out the window, barking at our dogs. We asked if her dog was okay with other dogs, and she replied, "He's never really been around other dogs. We've had him two months, and I thought I'd try this out." Great. Jana and I quickly put leashes on our dogs so the three could meet each other one at a time. Echo crept up to the dog to sniff noses, and the dog immediately growled and then snapped at her! Same response to Steinway.
Then, the lady looked at us and said, "Okay. I guess I'm going to try taking him off his leash and see how it goes."
WHAT?!?!?!
We quickly headed off to walk around the greenway. The woman rather fakely apologized for running us off, and what galls me is we both just fakely reassured her that this was our normal routine. (The walk is, getting run out of the dog park by crazy lady is not.)
I've been running through it in my head since then and have come up with a polite (and very articulate) version of what I wish I had said:

Your dog has snapped at both of our dogs without any sort of provocation whatsoever. I don't feel that our dogs are going to be safe inside this park with your dog off-leash. Since you insist on taking him off-leash in spite of his previous response, we are going to leave the area and protect our dogs's safety. Please wait until we are outside the fence before removing your dog's leash.

And a less polite version (aka "My Initial, Suppressed Response):

Look, crazy lady, your vicious, nutjob of a dog has already snapped at our two dogs without any sort of aggressive behaviour from them. If you take your dog off its leash right now and it goes for my dog or me, you can expect my foot to make rather fierce contact with your dog's ribs. How stupid do you have to be not to see that taking your dog off-leash is a bad idea?

(I tend to ramble more when I'm rude.) HA!
I'm going to try to remember my polite response if she shows up this week. Not that she'll listen or agree with me, but at least I'll feel better about my response to the situation.

She's still pretty much a people puppy

We took Echo to the PetSafe Dog Park again on Saturday afternoon. Dave's friend from work, Laura, and her husband, Brooks, were meeting us there with Stuart, their puppy dog. We've been wanting our dogs to meet ever since we got Echo, but our schedules just haven't meshed.
On the way, Echo enjoyed smelling the restaurants and gas stations along Cedar Lane.Once at the park, we let her off leash. Last time, we kept her on leash, but all the other dogs were running around free. This time we decided to see how she did running free. About the same. Still has an aversion to having her butt sniffed, but she will tentatively sniff noses with other dogs. She mainly stayed near the four humans. Stuart had a great time running with the big dogs around the park. He was ready to PLAY! He had just been groomed so you could see his eyes. So cute!




One dog took a shine to Dave. He was up for adoption and just wasn't quite ready for the rough-and-tumble of the dog park. So, he found a safe place and curled up. :)



Laura and Brooks had to leave at 3:15 pm, but we stayed on. Not too long after they left, a couple came with their Jack Russell terriers. The boy, Yoda, was full-grown, but the girl, Chloe, was only 4 months old! So cute ... and tough. She was ready to take on everybody. And she was fast! The bigger dogs would start chasing her, but she outran them all. The only time Echo ran away from us when she wasn't chasing a ball was when she took off after the tiny Jack Russell puppy. It was pretty funny. I was laughing so hard, I forgot to take any pictures.
One couple had two beautiful Vizsla dogs. I had never seen the breed before. The dogs were very sweet with a beautiful, reddish short coat.
Hopefully we'll get out to the park more to get Echo around other dogs. It will be interesting to see how she reacts in May when introduced to Diesel and Bear! :)

So she'll never win "Friendliest" superlative

We took Echo to the PetSafe Village Dog Park today. We had heard about it, but had never gotten around to going. A January Sunday afternoon with temperatures in the mid-fifties seemed like a pretty good reason. Although it is a lie that the park requires dogs to be on a leash, the dogs we met seemed friendly enough. Not to Echo. She appears to be very protective of the aroma emanating from her rear end. She freaked whenever a dog tried to sniff her butt. As this is the traditional "Nice to Meet You" gesture for canines, she did not make any new friends. Near the end of the visit, she tentatively began sniffing other dogs' noses which was a step in the right direction.
She did become quite accomplished on the ramp:
And took a much needed break at the top, far above the scary four-legged rabble below.
I don't know how she'll react to a classful of dogs on Thursday night when we start puppy education classes at PetsMart.

Considering this little puppy (who could have stood on Dave's palm) terrified her, I'm a little concerned. I'm sure she'll do fine in a more controlled environment with puppies her own age ... I hope!