River Day!

Me, Mom and her friend Jill went down to the Rouge River today.  We brought the dogs... all five dogs.

Here we have Conker, Sasha and Juneau in the foreground and Lucky and Star in the background.  All the dogs got along great, with the exception of one minor scuffle between Juneau and Star.

I didn't bring any balls for Juneau so she had to settle for sticks.  Which was fine with her since she can chew on those.

Except when Sasha steals them.

Conker didn't do much, other than try to intercept the stick before Juneau got to it.  He was usually beaten to that by Sasha.

When not playing fetch Conker was the only dog out of the five who reliably listened to what I said.  Juneau was better than Sasha who were better than Lucky who was better than Star.  Figures, the Shiba is the best behaved of the bunch.

Ah, now I remember why I don't use sticks to fetch with anymore.  Sasha doesn't bring them back, just takes them.

Eventually Juneau'd had enough of Sasha's stupid and got after her. 

We were there for at least five hours.  Mom and Jill had a bottle of wine... three bottles of wine, and I broke my soda rule and had a Diet Coke.  It was really fun, especially when the Hellgate tour boats came down the river and sent huge waves crashing down on everybody.  The dogs all ran for cover when they noticed but sometimes they were caught off guard. The boat driver dudes were fun too, since they would come in real close then swerve quickly and make the waves even bigger than if they'd just stayed in the middle of the river.

Well, that's it for now.  I'm off to grill up some shark steaks for Younger-taller brother and I.

Riverside Park

Today Conker and I went to Riverside Park.  I haven't ever been here for anything other than Boatnik and since we went hiking yesterday I figured today would be a cool down day.

Riverside park is pretty nice.  It's not huge but it's a good size.  The Boatnik fair is held here afterall, complete with rides, food and all that.  Anyways, it was a nice shaded walk with relatively few people so Conker wasn't bothered by anyone.  There was plenty of new smells for keep him busy for the few who did ntotice him.

The Rouge River itself is actually not too easy to get down to.  The bank drops down pretty steeply and there is no actual shoreline on this stretch of the river.  Conker and I found a boat launch and visited the river from there. 

With a little encouragement (me stepping in and showing him it was okay) Conker walked into the Rouge and pawed at the water.  Then he saw the geese.  Oops.

After visiting the river we walked around the park for a short while then headed to the Grange. Conker's never been in there before and he did okay.  He still doesn't really like to go into buildings but the Grange is more open than Mini Pet Mart.
I found a Ruffwear Approach pack for $24.99 though!  It fit Conker PERFECTLY but I lack the money plus with Conker's LP he's not going to be carrying a pack anytime soon.  I might hop in there and get one anyways just in case Conker has surgery or I get another Conker-sized dog in the future. 

On our way home we stopped at the dog park.  There was a Labish dog named Morgan who I've never seen before there then a man with a Cocker Spaniel and some GSD mutt who I have met.  I didn't stay too this time.  On our way out of the park Conker surprised me by taking off into the creek.

Okay not too surprised but instead of his normal splashing in paw-deep water he jumped into the deep end and swam!  He almost never does this on his own nor looks like he's having fun if I make him go in.  But this time it was all him and he was loving it.  Weirdo.