Little Stinkers

I didn't take my camera on our walk today (I know, shocking) but I have too many photos that still need work to be done on them and I can't handle more at the moment!  But they rolled in gross stuff, so I couldn't resist taking a few in the bath.  They are both so miserable in the tub.

At Sunset

After our walk yesterday I decided I wanted to get some silhouette pictures of Coulee and the High Level Bridge.  I drove around a bit until I found access to the edge of the coulees with the sun on the far side of the bridge but I still couldn't manage to get both in the shot.  I think I needed to find a spot further away from the bridge.  I didn't want to give up and walk away with nothing though, so I snapped a few pictures of Coulee on top of a small knoll.  In most of them I wish you could see her body definition better, but I love the sky.

Happy Birthday Little One!

Lacey is 5 years old (or thereabouts!) today. I can hardly believe it.

Not much has changed in those 5 years... she still loves belly rubs, biting sleeves, chasing us around the living room divider, morning nose nibbles, wiggling her butt, and playing with her big sister.

Thanks for all the laughs and for being so irresistible, that Marlin caved on his "one dog only rule".  I love you Little One!

Snow

Apparently, I'm a little behind in blogging.  When you last saw us, it was still a beautiful autumn but then Tuesday arrived - along with 22 cm of snow.  I had the morning off, so I missed the horrible commute to work and it would have been insanity to drive to a park, so we just played in the backyard and in the park behind the house.

Lacey loves the snow, but her monitoring duties can't be neglected either.  She's looking for "doxie" who lives in the house behind us.

 Once Lacey determined the coast was clear, we headed out the back gate to the park.

 Lacey ran around for a bit...

But then her obsession with the other homes with dogs kicked in and I couldn't distract her away.  She runs down the fence line and sits outside their gate waiting for a dog to come out to bark at.  Thankfully all the other dogs were curled up warmly inside and she wasn't rewarded.

Needless to say, after she ignored me and couldn't be enticed into playing, she ended up hanging out in our backyard by herself while Coulee got to have fun in the park.

It is impossible to tell if Coulee's feet are in an upswing or if it is the snow.  But she has NOT been sore at all this week after playing in the snow.  :)

She has been getting the dreaded "snow toes" though which she'll stop to pick at but then leap to action at the drop of a hat.

In snow this deep, a frisbee is a necessity so we don't lose it.  All the other toys sink below the snow and if Coulee isn't paying attention we tend to lose them.  I lost a lot of toys a few winters back - but I think I've learned my lesson.

It is supposed to warm up this week so in a few days I expect everything will be wet and muddy.  Until then, we'll keep enjoying the white stuff.

Cat in the Box

Marlin went shopping a few weeks ago at Costco and brought home a bunch of food in a box.  He just tossed it on the floor up against the wall when he was done to flatten and recycle later.  But now we can't bring ourselves to get rid of it.  Lu loves it and hangs out in it every night.

Research Station

We tried to go to the beach today.  It was kind of a bust, but I'll save that for another post.  When we were on our way home though, we swung by the Research Station Park to see what the trees looked like.  When I came out here a month ago with Marlin and the girls the trees were all green even though on all the properties around it, they were a glorious yellow.  I was disappointed, but vowed to come back.  I'm so glad I did although I was almost too late.

Coulee has become quite the little poser.  I do a short frisbee throw to where I want her to stand.  She runs, gets it, brings it back, drops it at my feet and then runs back to the spot where it had landed last time and stares at me in anticipation of my next throw.  A snap a few pictures with the frisbee at my feet, then throw the frisbee to her as a reward.  She catches it and we wander to the next spot and repeat the process. It is enough to keep her entertained and wanting more, but involves very little running.

Scouting Help

I have a session this weekend out at Park Lake.  While I walk here often, where I go is probably not the best for photos, so yesterday the girls and I explored another section of the park and I attempted to get some fall portraits of them.

Way to ruin the shot Lacey.  :)

 And then it was Coulee's turn to photobomb.

Lacey thinks posing is for losers... she'd much rather roll around in the leaves.  I never did go over and see what it was she was rolling in. I hope it wasn't too nasty.

Contemplating if she should roll again, or move on...  I believe she chose to roll again.  :)

I tend to shoot with the sun directly at my back but I know "people photographers" tend to shoot with the sun directly in front of them (and at their subject's back).  I'm trying to figure out how to do this, but am not having much luck.  I don't mind the black and white.

I have trouble getting the camera to focus on a moving subject when shooting into the sun.  Coulee is only walking so it managed, but a trot would probably be too much for it.

Coulee got a few frisbee throws and that was it, so in order to play with Lacey without Coulee I just needed to find another "toy" that Coulee wouldn't want.  Voila - a fetching Lacey without Coulee joining in.  Although without Coulee wanting the toy, Lacey's excitement for the stick lasted for exactly one throw. LOL.

I couldn't resist asking Lacey to climb on top of a few tables.

See how much she enjoys posing and looking at the camera?  Yeah.  Not so much.

Operation Anti-Lick

Lacey has always had a habit of licking things... not us, or herself, but things like the floor or pillow she is laying on. I think it is a bit of a soothing habit - kind of like a young kid that sucks her thumb when she is just sitting around. Lacey used to do it once or twice a day and if we were home, we would just say her name and she would stop.  Recently however, it has become more constant and we come home to soaking wet pillows.  She'll still stop when we say her name, but we seem to be asking her to stop much more often.

This past year she has changed quite a bit - she is sassier and more playful at home but she is also less settled.  I don't mind the sass or the playfulness (I kind of like it!) but the less settled part is the concern and I think it is due to the reduction in exercise.  We now only walk every other day at the most and these walk are shorter and less active than before.  If I don't want Coulee to run, Lacey can't run either as one doesn't happen without the other.  Lacey doesn't run at all without Coulee along so going on off leash walks with just Lacey is a bit dull - for all of us.

But I think we are all going to have to suck it up, so today was the start of "Operation Anti-Lick".  I leashed up Lacey and left a crying Coulee behind (she really piled on the guilt this morning!).  Instead of a boring leash walk though, we met up with friends and the dogs had a bit of a romp.  I brought my camera but didn't take any pictures because we were too busy chatting.

I'll be loading up the iPod for Thursday's walk to take an edge off the boredom.  As an added bonus, Lacey's leash manners should improve, although they are actually pretty good when she doesn't have her sidekick with her.  We walked by someone today with little more than a sideways glance but if it had been all three of us, I would have been trying to control two barking, lunging dogs.

The Pups

We went off to Fort MacLeod yesterday for our dog walk.  It is a town about 30 minutes away and their off leash area is usually deserted. We don't understand it as it is a great place to walk.  But we don't mind having the place to ourselves!

There are so many things to see and sniff and explore that we've never brought a toy to play fetch with and it is the perfect place to walk if we don't want Coulee running.

The only problem is there is quite a bit of wildlife here.  They never seem to spot it, but they do find lots of poop and bones.

And of course there are plenty of sticks for chewing and attempting fetch.  She gives up pretty quick though when we ignore the stick at our feet.  It is never more than a half hearted attempt at best.

It is also the home to my favourite fence line.  :)

I was hoping there would be lots and lots of yellow but we had missed most of it. There was still some up in the tops of the trees but everything at ground level was pretty brown.  We managed to find this small patch of grasses though.  It was near where there is standing water in the spring so it is obviously a different species than the other stuff.  I even got Lacey to pose in it and not look beaten!

I only need to ask Coulee if she is beautiful for her to not look beaten.  ;)

I love the dreamy quality of the photo below.

I think it must be the colour of these bushes that make them so cool.  This photo didn't go exactly as planned but the shot where she is where I wanted her, she has a funny expression.  But I don't mind the runner up.  :)

The bushes were too tall to get a decent picture of Lacey walking through - so I had to satisfy myself with grasses.

You've probably noticed the girls are wearing their "emergency" leashes (the bright red tab you can see is the end). They are leashes that wrap around their neck like a collar so if you need them, they are there and already attached.  I HATE having them in all my photos but in public places, I feel like we need them.

On Coulee you don't usually notice it as much.

Speaking of not noticing... We also saw this cute little bird nest that was right along the side of the path at chest height that we never would have spotted if the trees still had leaves.

This girl was hard to miss though and I was very thankful the girls had their leashes.  He came up to "chat" which made the girls go wild.  We had seen him coming so we found a patch on the trail where we could pull way off but he stopped anyway.  Marlin left me with the dogs and walked about 10 feet away so he didn't feel the urge to come any closer than he already had.  He was very nice, but his big friend was really causing mayhem for us.  The girls did eventually settle... but would start up again if the horse moved or made a noise or looked at them.  LOL.

I wish I'd had a different lens on, but I had two excited dogs attached to my arm, and I didn't think a lens change would have been wise.

Someone was feeling a little insecure after he left but once they discovered the fresh poop along the trail, everything was good again.