Hana is back in "school" for intermediate obedience. She still gets a little stressed with the other dogs barking and all the humans talking to the dogs, but I learned to use her stress signals to calm her down. It is really cool to have that communication with her and she keeps her eyes glued to me so I know it is working.

On Wed. evening, she had her first long play date with Dude (pictured above). For almost 6 hours she played at Dude's house and made him pretty tired. I think she was pretty good for Jennifer who was so sweet to take her on a warm day for us. The funniest moment we saw came at the end of the night when we were saying good bye and I was trying to get Hana to do her "touch" (where she puts her nose on the back of my hand) and instead she put her paw right on Dude's shoulder! It was too cute.

Last night we took her for her first kayak in the water experience. I think this will be a long process. While she willingly gets in the kayak in the yard, once she had her vest on and we were at the water's edge, she was not interested in being in a floating kayak. It may have something to do with her Frisbee which she prefers to semi-bury when at the beach or the kayak moving and her not being ready to swim. We tried to use the Frisbee to lure her further into the water to no avail. We will post a short video of this trial as soon as we can edit it!

Small world

Our good friend Mark was here on Monday for a quick business trip. We took him to the Atoll restaurant at the Catamaran Resort and Spa for dinner. As the waiter comes up to us, Mark notices it says Louisville on his name tag. Mark asks if he is in fact from KY (because yes there are other Louisville even though we think we are the only one!) and when the waiter pronounced it correctly, we knew he was in fact a Louisvillian. What makes this truly remarkable is that not only in a city of almost 3 million people did we find someone from the same city, but I actually graduated high school from the same graduating class! Go BHS Class of '93!
It is always nice to make a connection in a place where you can often feel isolated- people don't have the Southern hospitality or even common courtesy sometimes that you find in other places, like Louisville, KY! :)

Happy Birthday Hillary

Happy Birthday to our sister-in-law, Hillary. She is a great mom, hard working attorney and all around neat person to know. We talk about being the kind of patient and creative parent that she is with the kids.

We are also excited today to have our friend Mark visit us from the right coast and he is just in time for the heat wave here on the left coast. Today still has remnants of June Gloom on the coast but more humid and still which makes it quite warm. Hana has found shade under the tree to snooze in again after I caused her stress by running the loud and scary vacuum cleaner!
It is also restaurant week here in San Diego so we are hoping to take Mark out to a place that we have not been to either. These are the types of events I look forward to because they encourage us to get out of our comfort zone and try some place new.

Full Moon Paddle

Did you spend or save your stimulus money? We decided to do our part for the economy and spent it on a new activity that we could do together. We bought a Cobra tandem kayak! It won't be in for a couple of weeks so they let us borrow 2 regular kayaks in the mean time. Last night we went out for our second paddle on Mission Bay- it was a nice sunset and we were supposed to see the full moon (aka Strawberry Moon because it is as close to the earth as the sun is in winter), but there was a bit of a haze on the horizon so we didn't actually get to enjoy it until later.
Still the water was smooth and fairly quiet so we took a nice leisurely paddle out and back at dusk. We can't wait for Hana to go with us once we get her fitted in her life vest, we hope she will enjoy it as much as we do. Yes, she is the primary reason we chose a tandem. Also it will be easier to share with friends when they come to visit (hint hint). No it does not mean we won't move back to KY ever, we hope to use it here and there whenever the time comes.

Hana had spontaneous play dates this morning with both her boys. Hovis and Dude. Of course playing with Hovis only happens because she lies down in his yard and waits for him to cry enough that Chris will let him out. Then she heard Dude going down the alley and hung out with him in the yard for awhile. She is now sleeping it all off. A dog's life is truly good.

Hana's first day herding

Hana had her first experience at a farm and to see if she is truly a working dog. We went with our friend "Dude" and his human Jennifer who have been herding for awhile now. Hana at first wanted to play with the other dogs but got interested when Dude went in the pen with three sheep and made them run. By the time Dude was in the big pen with the sheep, Hana was almost whimpering and putting her paws on the fence. Finally it was time for her to have some fun. She went in the small pen with three sheep and I got them started by running after them (G believes we should have video of this but thankfully we do not!). Hana immediately started to chase them and especially the one who would break loose from the pack- although she never did her stare or herding stance that she uses on us and other dogs, she seemed to know she wanted them all to go one direction or another. It was pretty fun to watch and really hot so we quit while it was still interesting to her. We hope to take her out in another month or so and see what happens when she actually has to work and not just play. In the mean time we might try agility and see which she is suited for- agility requires a more hyper dog so we kind of hope she doesn't pick that up! Thanks to the action K9 sports for letting us play today.

Happy Birthday Ryan!

Birthdays abound in June in our family. Happy Birthday to Ryan who gets his first Father's Day and birthday back to back. Ryan is a great dad and great brother-in-law who we are thrilled to have as part of our ohana. Ryan will drop what ever he is doing to help anyone and can talk to anyone. He is probably at Lowe's right now working on a project and it might not even be for himself.

Hana had another big day. Yesterday she played in the park with her frisbee, then "Dude" & "Quest". Quest is a retired Greyhound- it was amazing to watch her run and at some point she decided Dude was a rabbit and was after his tail. It was too cute to watch. Hana wanted to get in but was unsure how to get around Quest's legs! This morning she stalked her friend Hovis and he eventually came out to play for an hour. She is happily resting in her bed again. We are so proud of what a good dog she has become and the friends she has made.

Happy Father's Day!

Happy Dad's day to all the Dads out there. New dad Ryan, more experienced dads, Brett, Chuck and Galen, Granddad Hawkins, and pup daddy G. Paul. All of you are such great Dads and all the kids are lucky to have you for fathers. Hope you have a day filled with just what you want and that you really get what you want every day.

Happy Birthday Mary-Stuart!

Mary-Stuart is 1 today! Happy birthday little one! This picture is from Christmas when we saw her last. We miss seeing our nieces and nephew so much, but that is what happens when you live on opposite coasts. All the time when we think about staying in CA for awhile, we come back to missing out on the kids. Pretty much the entire Hawkins clan is getting together this weekend to celebrate and I wish we could be there too. She is a little shy with new people so I hope she lets everyone give her birthday kisses!

The sun has shone for a little while today. Long enough for me to ride my bike to yoga and back and enjoy the trip around the bay. Even Hana was excited to go on her walk this morning and carry her stick (her new thing!). I think she is happiest when she is working- a true working dog.

Hopefully we are going to try her out with herding thanks to our new friend Jennifer and her dog, "Dude". That should be a fun blog for next week.

June Gloom

http://http://www.wrh.noaa.gov/forecast/MapClick.php?site=sgx&smap=1&textField1=32.71528&textField2=-117.15639
There is a secret in San Diego that no one tells you until you live here. IT IS NOT SUNNY ALL THE TIME! The past two days have been a perfect example of what they call "June Gloom". None of my friends back east believe this when I tell them of course because all you ever hear when you live there is "Sunny Southern California". This is a lie. I am not saying San Diego does not have a million other endearing qualities but one month of gray skies is hard to take. Even the pup sleeps more-oh wait I can't tell with her because she sleeps all of the time anyway.
Serenity now!

Most sensitive dog in the world?

Our 6 month old puppy is currently sleeping under the guest bed. She went there after I attempted to play frisbee with her and it hit her in the nose. It is made of a flexible material, it is not a hard frisbee. She immediately ran away with her ears back, then crawled in my lap then hid under the bed where she has been for at least an hour.

Is this normal behavior or are we the most neurotic parents? She is almost too low key for a puppy. Of course being a rescue dog, we have no idea what happened that could have traumatized her in the first few months. This is currently one of many "discussions" my husband and I have been having. Is she normal, over sensitive, depressed, sick? Are we pushing her too much or not pushing her enough?

first ever blog

I have been thinking about blogging for a long time, but who really wants to read one person's rants and raves? Well I am going to do it anyway. This way I can update everyone on Hana's growth (not really exciting when she is sleeping) and what our plans are (as this is the most asked question). So add it to your list of things to read in your e-mail or don't, but it will be here.
Thanks!
P.S. For all you non-Hawaiian speakers- ohana means family and all its extended members, like our great friends!