August in San Diego

It is already back to school time for most of my friends and their kids. Even though I am not teaching, it is hard to believe summer has gone so quickly. For me living on the West Coast, the most obvious sign is how early the sun sets here. We wonder how we will exercise Hana in the evenings when dusk comes earlier and earlier.

This past weekend we picked up the new kayak and realized paddling tandem is much different. We will be working on this and will be sure to share our stories and pictures. :)
We also got to spend some time with our good friends, Lynn & Dave, who are now residents of AZ and realized they should have moved one state further west in order to enjoy summer outdoors. It was a great day poolside catching up with friends.
While we were with friends, Hana went to a new daycare to meet her own friends. I think she loved it - she was completely exhausted when she got home. She had been outside running for about 6 hours and even waded into the salt water pool to keep cool. I am hopeful she became a more confident dog due to her experience and won't shrink back at going again. We even picked a daycare with a web cam so we can check on her and check on the facility. As another dog friend put it, you want to make sure the tour you get is the same for the dog and they aren't throwing them in a kennel somewhere.

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 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.

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?