Friday, July 8th, 2016

Groups

Millie and Domino made their ways out to the agility yard. Both set out to do some exploring, but it wasn’t long before Domino was wanting to play. He started bouncing around Millie trying to get her going. Millie was a little reluctant at first, but she couldn’t resist for very long and was soon chasing after Domino. Domino was then tackled by Magic. They went tearing off around the yard together. Millie decided to let them have fun on their own for the moment while she checked on a rather interesting hole. Millie didn’t stay away long and was soon running with Domino and Magic. While they were running around Domino found himself a nice toy. He was quite excited and bounced around showing it off to everyone. With Domino now occupied, Millie turned her sights on Magic. She bounced on her and tried to get Magic to play with her instead of Domino. Millie was sort of successful and they had some fun wrestling. Millie then became distracted by some husky hair clumps in the grass and spent some time checking those out. Domino took off running and Magic went chasing after him. Millie saw this and went racing after them to try and steal Magic away. She got her wish as Domino was stolen away by Duke. After a little while everyone needed a break. Millie headed over to the fence behind the tunnel to do some exploring and grass sampling while Domino played with his toy. The quite time last about a minute and then Millie and Domino were having a blast playing with Justice and Magic. When Duke came over to see what was going on Millie switched from the husky fun to asking Duke to play with her. Domino took another break from playing to go and climb into the pool that was leaning up against the fence.

Tinkerbell didn’t waste any time in putting her nose to the ground and setting off in search of something epic. She went all over the main yard very thoroughly determined not to miss anything. Even when Tinkerbell was practically the last one in the main yard, she didn’t hurry and only made her way out to the far yard when she was good and ready. She looked around the yard then went trotting over to the hole to see what was going on there. Tinkerbell didn’t find anything too interesting in the hole and so started to explore the surrounding area. She was soon joined by Mika, Charlee, and Toby. Charlee later left them to come cuddle with me. Tinkerbell saw this and quickly came trotting over to get some cuddles of her own. Once she’d had enough pets Tinkerbell was feeling frisky. She went chasing off after Charlee wanting to play. They ran around for a little while until Tinkerbell decided to make her way back to the main yard to do some more exploring. Not finding anything new Tinkerbell went and hopped up on the picnic table to survey the yard. 

Kouza got outside and was immediately distracted by some scent or sound on the other side of the fence. She seemed determined to figure out what it was. I left Kouza to it for a little while before heading back over to check on her. She was still over by the fence so I called her over and she was quick to head my way. Kouza was then distracted once more, but this time it was a plant growing from between the fence. After giving the plant a very thorough once over, Kouza made her way over to me. She was more than happy to receive lots of pets. It wasn’t long before she presented her back end for some good butt scratches. After Kouza had had enough she headed out to check on what the other dogs were up to. 

Mika's nose hit the ground and she was off on a scent as soon as she stepped out the door. She followed her nose all over the main yard before it eventually led her over to the entrance to the far yard. Mika stopped to spend some time staring out in to the other yard. After she had thoroughly checked out that section of fence it was time to enter the far yard. Mika set out to do some more exploring around the yard. She made her way over to me, gave me a look, then took off running. When she was finished observing the other dogs, Mika was back to exploring. Mika noticed Tinkerbell checking stuff out around the hole and decided to make her way over to check it out as well. It wasn’t long before Mika ended up in the hole. She finished up with the hole and it’s surrounding area and headed off to check out more of the yard. 

Trixie, Roxy and Charlee made their way out into the yard. Trixie and Roxy wasted no time in headed off to follow their noses around the yard. Charlee, on the other hand, wanted to say hi to the other dogs. She spent some time with Julie then ran off to check in with Roxy. Trixie and Roxy were determined to check out the whole yard most thoroughly. After having gone around the main yard, they made their way out to the far yard to continue their exploring. Charlee was about to follow them out when she was stopped by Toby. The two of them have quite a liking for one another and spent some time giving each other a once over. When their greeting was done, Charlie and Toby went and joined Roxy and Trixie in the far yard. Charlee left Toby to go and check in with Trixie. She then went running over to check on Roxy. Charlee then noticed Trixie checking out the hole and went racing over to check it out with her. Trixie moved on to check out another part of the yard, but Charlee was content to stay there, especially after Toby rejoined her. Charlee then spotted me crouching down. She came racing over and launched herself into my arms, wanting some love and attention. Tinkerbell came trotting over to join us. She and Charlee spent some time checking one another over. Charlee then found herself being asked to play by Tinkerbell. She was a little unsure, but ran around with Tinkerbell for a little while. Nearby, Trixie and Roxy had met up again and were going around the yard together noses to the ground determined to find something. 

Pepper was a little unsure about going outside; that is until she spotted that she was in a group with Max again. She then spotted Theo. Pepper took an instant liking to him and soon they were play bowing to each other. This quickly turned into them racing around together. After a little while of playing Theo left to go and check on something. Pepper took this as an opportunity to do a little exploring around the yard. She met up with Fergus and the two of them went trotting around together checking out anything that caught their eyes.  Along the way, Pepper met back up with Theo and Max. It didn’t take long for the three of them to start racing around the yard, having a blast. Pepper ended up splitting off and meeting up with Monty. Soon it was the two of them racing around. Max, wanting to get in the middle of the fun, ran to join them. 

Monty decided to start his group time with some exploring. He was very interested in all the plant life growing next to the fence. Monty was very focused on what he was looking at or for and barely noticed when Theo went trotting over to join him. Monty eventually had checked out all of the fence line that he wanted to and branched off to explore in the yard. He continued exploring around the yard until he noticed me crouching down, watching him. Monty came running over wanting some cuddles and pets. Not too long after that he found himself being approached by Marley who rather wanted to play with him. They ran around for a little while until Monty met up with Pepper. Monty then took of running around with her. Their fun multiplied with the addition of Max. 

Leah and Poppy made their way out to the yard and immediately went down to the fence, checking everything out. They then noticed Hobart and Oban nearby and stopped to say hello. With that done, Leah and Poppy headed out to continue exploring around the yard. Once they’d gone around the main yard it was time to head out to the agility yard. Leah and Poppy stuck together for the first little while. Eventually Poppy wanted to branch out and see what was going on in different parts of the yard. She soon made her way back over to Leah, but discovered Leah spending some time with Goliath. He had made his way over and after a quick hello started to bounce around hoping to get Leah to play with him. Leah was quite happy to bounce along with him. Poppy left them to it and made her way over to me for some pets and cuddles. She then left me to see about joining her sister and Goliath. The three of them played for a little while but soon Poppy moved onto continue exploring leaving Leah and Goliath to continue playing together. 

Caesar, Monte and I had a wonderful day together! They started their day with a walk on the trail with their good friend Leah. After taking a little snooze, they then went outside with me in the yard and they had quite the outing! Monte was the fetch master today, chasing after any toy that was in the yard. At first it was the black Kong, which he found on his own in a hole in the yard. He kept tossing it out of his mouth and then trying to catch it again. He dropped it each time but it was really cute to watch! Afterwards, we started to play fetch and Monte brought it back each time. We were a couple of throws into the game when Splash showed an interest in the toy, too. Monte must have sensed this because he stopped dead in his tracks and barked at me, looking for another toy. I grabbed a bright orange rubber toy and threw it across the yard and he leaped after it, pouncing right onto it. Meanwhile, Caesar was beside me the whole time while Monte and I played fetch. He went from bum scratch to belly rub, and then was dying for me to rub his ears. He pawed at my leg whenever I stopped to say hello to another dog. Caesar and Maggie were both so lovey-dovey with me today, competing to see who could get the most pets at once. These two curly pups are so cute! Caesar loves getting his ears rubbed. Whenever I stopped doing it, he rubbed his head/ear on my hand or arm to entice me to give him a good ear rub! So cute! After a good cuddle session, he wandered off and met up with some of his pals, Maggie and Gracie. They all wandered around the yard, throwing in the occasional burst of energy and chased each other to the other end (with Monte right at the front of the pack of course). It was a day well spent with these two!

Max and Sadie had a really good day today! As always, they were bursting with excitement to get out for their morning walk right when they arrived. Tayler, Sadie and Max enjoyed their walk together, with the light rain coming down as they went. Later on at group time, I got to spend some time with these crazy pooches! They were joined by Isis and Sky in the yard, along with Boris and Tasha. Max was so excited that Isis was outside with him. Isis was full of beans today and Max was chasing her around the yard, and he loves a good game of chase. Isis would run across the yard and into the small dog yard, and leap right onto the small kiddie picnic table. Max was right behind her, and he tried to leap up there too but there wasn’t room for the two of them. One time Max tried to jump on the table, he went barreling right into Isis and they both slid right off the other side of the table. It was so funny and cute to watch. They both stood there for a second, wondering what happened, before they both bolted over to the other yard where their friends were hanging out. Sadie had fun today too! She was occupied by the big hole in the ground for a while, with Sky sitting close by, waiting for her turn in the hole.  Sadie spent a lot of time hanging out with Tasha in the yard; the two of them sat around and watching the young kids race around for a bit. Once Tasha went to run around with Boris, Sadie leaped up, full of dirt from digging and pounced right onto Max and the four of them erupted into a full on chase around the yard. I had to run too; otherwise they all would have run right into me! It was a fun group to say the least. 

Boris had a wonderful day, sharing the yard with his familiar daycare friends. He loves running around with Isis and Max in the yard. Max absolutely loves Boris and the two of them tend to play really well. Today they didn’t play with each other until near the end of group time. Boris was more occupied with Isis and running around with her for a while. Once Isis started to race around the yard with Max, Boris wandered over to Tasha to see what mum was up to today. Tasha was in the far grassy yard, sitting with Sadie and Sky. He gave her a few playful bows and then a few playful grabs and it seemed to do the trick. Tasha got up and then went right after Boris, chasing him through the yard. It is so funny when Tasha is chasing Boris and he runs into the tunnel. Tasha runs alongside it, looking around like she doesn’t know where he went, but as soon as he pops out of the other side, she is right there and ready to leap on top of him! Of course, it isn’t all play outside for these guys! They have their moments where they are the biggest cuddle bugs ever. Tasha rolled over for me and wanted some good pets so she laid there while I rubbed her belly. While I was sitting in the grass with her, Boris came up and sat beside me, panting away from being so tired from running. The three of us had a few moment of peace before Isis, Sadie and Max came and demanded to get petted as well! Next thing I knew, there were 5 dogs trying to get on my lap. I stood up and Boris took this as his cue to run away. I opened the gate to the yard with the play structure and Boris and Tasha ran through at the same time, eager to see what new things were in that yard today. They spend some time wandering the yard, sniffing the play structure and the fence before we all headed back inside. 

Feist is such a sweetheart. I love being in the yard with her. She tends to do her own thing outside, and today she wanted some alone time so I let her wander around and sniff the grass and along the fence. Some of the other dogs stopped to say hello to her and she was polite and sniffed them back but then continued on her way around the yard. Eventually I wanted to cuddle her so I called her name to see if she would come over, and she couldn’t have ran over any faster! She ran right towards me, with her whole bum wiggling side to side. She bumped into Splash and Gracie on her way towards me, but she was so determined to come to where I was sitting that she didn’t even notice! I bent down to pet her and she cuddled me for the rest of the time that we were outside. She rolled over to get a good belly rub. Some of the other dogs came over and were jealous of all the attention she was getting so I had to share the love but Feist stuck around, enjoying everyone’s company in the yard. 

It was nice to have Ginny stay with us for daycare today! We missed her so much as she is such a sweetie and lovely to have in the yard! She started her day with her familiar friend Leah, along with some new doggie friends that she had never met before. After her walk she had some time to relax before heading back outside. In the yard, she met up with some new and old friends! Spencer, Glory, Ricky and Wally were out there and she was excited to see them. She met Finnigan today and these two had a ball together. Finnigan was playing around with the black rubber kong and then Ginny noticed that we were playing fetch with it and slowly gained more interest until she was trying to join in. It started off when I threw the kong for Finn and then he went to chase it. He and I spent a lot of time playing together. In between each throw, he dropped the toy and ran up to Glory. He loved Glory today! He was licking her face, giving her such nice kisses, and jumping on her trying to get her to wrestle around. She never gave in, but Finnigan seemed to be having enough fun with just her sitting there; it was so cute! After a few minutes, he remembered that we were playing fetch and looked at me to see if I threw the ball. I waited until he saw for me to throw it and then he raced after it. This time Ginny started to run after him and then chased him until he dropped it and she grabbed it. Once Finn was tired of running around, Ginny went to see if her friend Spencer wanted to play. She gave him a few playful bows and they play fought for a couple seconds and it got Ginny worked up and she took off and ran across the yard! I decided to play chase with her and I ran after her and she took off, running in and out of the tunnel. Eventually she figured out that I wasn’t going to follow her into the tunnel so she stood in there for a while. I got Finnigan to chase her in there and they both came barreling out and running so quickly around the yard! The three of us ran around for a bit before it was time to head inside. It was a good day today for both Finnigan and Ginny. 

Spencer had a good day! He took to his usual activities in the yard and during his walk. His walk is definitely one of his favorite times of the day. He gets to spend some time relaxing in his kennel and today he walked with two of his good friends. A group time, he spent most of him time exploring the yard, sniffing the grass that hasn’t yet been cut and taking in all the new smells. The odd time he would come to me for attention but for the rest of the group I had to look around to see where he had run off! He is such a curious fellow. His old friend Ginny joined us today in daycare and he was rather happy to see her in his group. He said a very friendly hello when they saw each other in the hallway and then raced off to see everyone else outside. It was so funny when Ginny and Spencer were going out the door because they both tried to squeeze through at the same time. A few minutes into playtime, Ginny was dying to play wrestle with Spencer. Spencer was so flattered that his old friend wanted to play so he played for a few minutes. After that, he noticed that the pools weren’t filled today and looked at me and barked only once. I apologized to Spencer and gave him a good back scratch and he was feeling rather good about it and wagged his tail a mile-a-minute and wandered off to sniff something new. This guy is so cute!

Maggie G. is such a cutie. She loves to soak up all the attention she can get while I am outside with her. She and Caesar were quite the pair outside today, each occupying one of my hands so that they could both get their ears rubbed or belly rubbed. Maggie was the belly rub queen today as she kept rolling onto her back for me to give her lots of pets. At one point, I think she fell asleep while she was lying there because I stopped and she didn’t even budge! It was too cute. She suddenly jumped up and play bowed to me before taking some leaps over to the grass and then proceeded to sniff around. She did return to my side shortly after to get more cuddles. This time I bent down and she sat beside me, sweeping her tail back and forth across the grass, panting with a big smile on her face. Her good friend Caesar saw this and decided to come over and sit on my other side and do the exact same thing. 

Gracie is so cute! She seemed to be exceedingly excited today about everything. She was jumping up and down with excitement for her walk this morning in the kennel. Later on after walks, she spent lots of time up at the front with everyone. She loves to get multiple people paying attention to her at once, and get so excited to see everyone she knows. She spent some time with everyone, sniffing the room, getting lots of pets and kisses. After she was done with all of that, she then took a long nap on the big comfy chair in the front room. Her new friend Julie, who lives with us at Tails & Trails, woke her up a couple of times to invite her to play with her big caterpillar toy. Julie and Gracie spend some time together each day, when Gracie comes to hangout with everyone in the morning, or when she is just passing through to go play outside.  Later on, I went to get Gracie and bring her outside for her group! She was with lots of dogs that she knows and loves so she had a really good time outside. She made her rounds and said hello to everyone and then walked around to sniff everything  that was new to the yard since she was out this morning. She then came over to me like she always done and sat pretty for beautiful pictures. She is so photogenic!

Extra Attention 

Feist was pretty excited to have Alyssa spend some extra time with her. Over the course of her stay, we've discovered that Feist's favourite place to relax is in her kennel, so after going for a little one-on-one walk, she and Alyssa settled down for some cuddles and treats. Feist made sure to get as much love and attention as she possibly could. Alyssa brought some yummy treats and had Feist show off what she knows. Sitting, laying down and giving paw! I think she managed to look so cute that she even got a few treats for free. Feist enjoyed some belly rubs and continued to spend time with Alyssa until she fell asleep in her lap relaxing and enjoying all the pets. 

Millie is always so much fun to hang out with! We went for our usual wander around the field when we first went outside together. Millie followed her nose and took in all of the scents that lingered in the long grass. We then went out to the front yard and spent some time hanging out together. It wasn't long before Millie spotted each of the different toys that were waiting for her in the grass. She seems to choose a different favourite every day, and today's was the white ball. After a few rounds of fetch, Millie was happy to come and show off for some treats. She did a lovely sit and lay down, so I started working on "shake a paw". She did a great job! 

Gracie girl is always so very happy to spend time with all of her people friends at Tails & Trails. After spending some time outside doing tricks for Ashley, Gracie came inside to hang out with Julie and I in the reception area. Gracie planted herself at my side and I couldn't help but give her a few treats. Once she'd had her fill, Gracie went over to have a little nap on the big comfy chair. 

Pepper opens up more and more each day that she spends with us; it's so great to see! We went for our walk around the field, which was more of a wander than a walk. Pepper let her nose be our guide until she saw a new friend walking into the field. We made our way over to the front yard to say hi to Adam, who was coming to pick up his furry friend, Teetu. Pepper took her time saying hello to Adam, but before long they were sitting in the grass together, and Pepper was thoroughly enjoying lots of pets and attention.