The Gables - in Marysville

After going to the previous nursing home several times I just wasn't feeling comfortable with the set up so I did some checking around and contacted the activities coordinator at The Gables here in Marysville. My contact person was Leah, and she was wonderful. I took Cash today for her visit.  We were greeted right away at least Cash was I was just a person attached to her leash. Leah took us around an introduced us to a lot of the patients and I was so impress that she knew which ones liked dogs and what kind of pets they had. She also seemed to know who would benefit the most from longer visits and who liked to just look at the dog from a distance. We even got to wander in to the activity hall and hang out for a round of Bingo. Who knew people got so excited for Bingo. Everyone seemed to enjoy Cash's company and she got lots of attention. When we were finishing up to leave I could tell Cash was getting tired. There was a resident sitting on a couch in the hallway and Cash went right over to her and laid down at her feet and just stretched out. The patients face just lit up and she was so excited. What a perfect way to end her first visit. I can't wait until next time.

Darree Fields Dog Park - Dublin, OH

Through some friends I found out about a new dog park in Dublin about 20 minutes from our house. Of course I had to check it out. It was fabulous. Cash and I had the place to ourselves except for two other black lab mixes. It was several acres fenced in with several agility obstacles to play with.  They had a tire jump , teeter totter , jump , and tunnel. Cash loved the tunnel. She kept running back and forth inside of it. The other two dogs that were running around were scared to enter the tunnel so Cash quickly figured out that she could run through the tunnel with a toy to hide from the other dogs.

What a perfect day, I just wish I would have had Tank and Avery with me.

Beginner Rally Obedience Class

Cash and I got involved with a training facility (Anything Goes for Dogs) through her Therapy dog testing and because of the facility's information we also were able to find out about The Dog Scouts of America. Now we are on to our next adventure... Rally.

I had heard of rally obedience but really had no idea what it involved. Cash is a great dog, but she lacks speed and motivation sometimes so I didn't peg her as an agility dog. Rally is a nice step for us. It is basically obedience but a lot more fun. In the competitions you have different stations you go to and each station has a task to complete. We took a workshop on it a few weeks ago and Cash seemed to really like it so I signed her up for some classes.

Today was her first formal training class and she loved it. I have never seen her get so excited about anything. We did a few off leash exercises and she had a blast. We practiced healing of leash and weaving around a pole the drill was called "fly" . She really picked it up fast and had fun doing it. We also did off leash drills of walking in large circles and then small circles. It doesn't sound like much but I broke up the routine of basic healing and I think she really responded to the change. I don't' always realize that dogs get board doing the same basic commands over and over again.

We have homework with this class to keep practicing on what we learned so I better keep up. I really want to keep my dogs happy and keep life fun for them. After all that is why we have dogs.

Happy 4th of July

As a photographer I love taking pictures of my pooches ... the girls love being models but Tank is to tough to act like he enjoys the extra attention.

As you can tell Cash is the happy model , Avery is the old Pro, and Tank just looks like he wants to be out in the field retrieving ducks not wearing cute outfits.

So today being the 4th of July we went to our local Marysville parade. My husband and I took Cash and Tank ( Poor Avery once again got left at home ). It was their first experience at a parade and they loved it. A few of the parade participants even threw out dog biscuit instead of candy for the furry parade watchers. Cash even found a friend named Maddie to hang out with during the festivities.

Thanks for reading my blog , and everyone have a safe and happy holiday.