The Book of Ramblings

We had a couple picnics to go to yesterday. The first one was lovely, with Tandoori chicken and wonderful pasta salads and sides and brownies. There were a couple folks there with their really young children. Dahlia got to meet Oscar, who was only 16 months old. And I am AMAZED at how well she did. He was "petting her" which was sort of like hitting her lightly and then he decided to tug at her fur to pull himself up, including the fur right at the front of her neck. And he hugged her. Tight. Her reaction? NOTHING. She sat there and took it. Not a cross look on her face, not a warning growl. Almost this resigned look of "ok kid, I get it, you're small and don't know what you're doing." His parents were pretty amazed at her calmness too. I love my doggy!

The second picnic was, well, random to say the least. They were grilling anything they could think of and none of it included meat of any kind. Mushrooms, zucchini, potatoes. They tried corn but burnt half of it. The other half was undercooked and inedible. Just random.

The amusing moment came when he got out butter for the corn. The host (another David) starts unwrapping it and Dahlia, who had been practically asleep moments before, suddenly stood up and looked really alert. He says "What? It's only butter!" LOL Oh Dahlia, our North American Butter Retriever.

And I promised dog park photos. These are the ones of the other dogs in the park, for anyone who might be interested.

( Lots of doggies! )

Yesterday we took Dahlia to the dog park. It's been the first time in ages that we've done due to the weather. The place was packed full of dogs, some nice, some not so nice. This was actually our first iffy experience at the park. A lot of people brought out their intact, overly rude dogs and just let them do their thing. Dahlia had a couple run-ins with a couple HUGE dogs (apparently related) who were supposedly labs, but weighed over 150 (one of them looks like it's mixed with mastiff, not purebred as he insisted).

He just kept harassing her, jumping on her, and not getting her warning growls. She had to come out with her teeth a few times. There was no fight or anything, the dog DID finally get the point, but on more than one occasion I stepped in front of her as he was on his way over and shooed him away. He wasn't an aggressive dog, just a really rude one. And Dahlia doesn't like rude dogs!

So a few pictures.

( A few pics )

I had such a good time this weekend...even the moving part wasn't too horrible.

Saturday, David went off to session and I took Dahlia over to the dog park. Normally we would have left her at home, but we had a party to go to afterward and we didn't want her home for that many hours alone. I made the "sacrifice" of not playing music in order to let David go over and play. Ok ok...so I preferred to go to the dog park anyway. LOL

Dahlia and I had a blast at the park. She figured out how to play eventually, but as always, it took her a little while. There were SO many dogs there...from a Great Dane down to a little mini-dachshund. She played well with all.

But what was most amazing? She actually defended dogs against bullies. There was this one somewhat timid golden retriever and another dog kept jumping on her and bullying her. Dahlia took off running, came in between them, and growled at the other dog, which pushed him away from the golden. The people who owned the Golden (named Bree) were amazed at her. We've started calling her "Dahlia the Defender."

Dahlia managed to fetch some and I got some great shots of her running back to me with the ball in her mouth...I'll post some photos here shortly.

After the dog park, I picked up David and we headed over to our friend Geordy's for a party. We were never sure why he had it, but we had a brilliant time! Dahlia was on her best behaviour (in other words, she acted like she always did). Everyone thought she was great. She did well with a child that was there (she was probably 8-10 years old) and she did BRILLIANTLY with the puppy. Our friend Patti brought her puppy, a little maltese mix named Ally. The puppy was jumping up on Dahlia and biting at her. I was really worried about how Dahlia would react, but she did great. She actually started playing with the puppy, making this kind of "talking" sound (not quite a growl, more like a "arrr arrr arrr" noise). She would pin the puppy down lightly with her nose or mouth (open mouth, but not biting down at all) and a couple times she just gently put a paw on the puppy to stop her from moving around. It was SO darned cute! I wish I had thought to grab my camera and make a video of it!

Yesterday we did a lot of moving stuff. I started off the day with putting a bunch of stuff in the van (lucky for us, my workplace lets us use the new vans! yay!) while David took Dahlia to the dog park. We hit Heid's for lunch and then swapped spots. He took care of all the heavy stuff. :-) I ended up taking Dahlia over to my parent's house for father's day and had a nice time hanging out with my folks. Dahlia and Teri were actually doing rather well together. Teri is a bit skittish when she first shows up, but she's starting to be mostly calm in her presence, approaching and sniffing a bit, but mostly just hanging out in the same room without going too close to Dahlia. Hell, if all they ever do is hang in the same room, I'll be happy! At one point, I ran downstairs with my Mom and then looked back upstairs. There at the top of the stairs were the two dogs looking down at us but not wanting to come down. It was cute. Again, I wish I'd had my camera on me.

I left my parents around 5pm, met up with David, and then we headed over to our new apartment to move stuff in. Emily and Brandon were there and Brandon helped us out HUGELY by backing the truck in and then by helping David move the heavy stuff. I helped finish things with the lighter things and we left Emily watching Dahlia. Ironically, Dahlia suddenly had no problem heading in and out of the dining room and kitchen. She looked a little nervous (head and tail down) but she went in and out of her own accord. David and I sprang for Chinese food and the four of us, plus Jocelyn, had a nice dinner.

When we were getting ready to leave, a thunderstorm cropped up. Dahlia was nervous and headed under the dining room table for a bit. It was rather ironic that the room she was so scared of has now become her safe space!

We got back around 10:30pm and the three of us collapsed into bed. In the middle of the night, there was one streak of lightning and corresponding thunder and Dahlia immediately crawled into bed with us...just at the foot of the bed, so she wasn't all over us. I think she just likes to know we're nearby.

And now, for some doggie cuteness. Not all of Dahlia, but she's in there.

( A crazy amount of dog cuteness...37 pictures )