A Bath in the Creek

Juneau had recently gone on an 18 hour excursion into the woods and came home covered with dirt, burrs, seeds, mud, and shit. I decided that, since Juneau was filthy, and it had been a while since any of the other dogs had had a good scrubbing, that we'd all go down to the creek. Armed with organic goatmilk soap and an industrial scrubbrush, we set off in Big Red down the road to a pullout with creek access.

 The dogs were thoroughly excited at the sight of the creek and took off into it's chilly waters. They had a brief moment of exhilaration when they spotted a deer that instantly bounded off into the brush, but luckily for the deer, they easily lost it in the thickets. (I was not happy they chased the deer.) After scaring away any other possible wildlife, they set about causing a ruckus in the creek. Swimming, barking, running, and falling off rocks.

Then the bath began.
I started with Miss Filthy and scrubbed Juneau good with the goatsoap until she was nearly white with bubbles. She tolerated it, knowing that she'd be set free to swim once I was done. Then it was Sasha's turn, who had developed a, fragrance, of some sort. Katana was next, and it was his first bath that I had ever given him. He did good and stood still while I soaped him over, but wasn't too happy when I hucked him into the creek when I was done. Conker was last and grumped through his entire scrubbing and was glad when I was done so he could get back to being an asshole to everybody else who was having fun without him.

We stayed at the creek for a good bit, exploring and meandering about, until I'd had enough and headed back to the truck. The dogs didn't want to leave but didn't want to get left behind, so they followed me back to Big Red.

Once home, they immediately set to work coating their still-wet fur with dirt.

A-9

Today, in a boring place probably not near you...

Conker observes the cats across the street.

And examines some shrubbery.

In other news...

Some dickwad put this shit in our swimming hole in the creek.

Spring is in the air...

One of the cherry trees (that was not hacked to bits by an overzealous moron) out front is blooming full force! Looks like we are going to have a TON of cherries this year.

Conker is getting slightly chubbish (for him anyways). So I have been taking him on more walks, and will be cutting his food back slightly. I don't like to do that with him...

We often cross the creek in several places, but most of the time it's too steep for Conker to go for a dip. This is the same creek that he visits near the dogpark.

We always stop to let him sniff around and explore the area around the top of the creekside.

He tried to go down, but the leash prevented him from doing that. He was not happy about that. Not at all. He thought the upper 70's was too hot and really wanted to go for a swim. I got a Shiba lecture for my refusal to let him do as he wanted.

We went to the dog park today, something we haven't done in a long time. Nobody was there, but that was fine. Conker sniffed and ran and rolled in the sand, then we visited the creek.

Conker really likes the creek. Sometimes he visits it five times in one dog park session (about an hour, sometimes more). It seems to supercharge him and he'll run around like a rocket after going for a swim.
Some of the trees at the dog park are beginning to show signs of fall, and the temperatures reflect that. It was a very nice mild day with a slight breeze.

On our hike, Conker was less than ethsusiastic and spent most of his time either lagging way behind or way off in front speeding along and trying to take trails that led back to the parking lot.

This picture shows how darned leggy Conker is. Conker is very leggy for a Shiba.

The hike was only around 3.5 miles or so, not too long. We ran into a pack of off-leash (but polite) dogs that Conker wanted absolutely nothing to do with and ran away from, and bayed at from a distance, right at the beginning of the hike. That could have been why he wanted to leave.

Friday creek 'splore

Conker and I headed to the creek today to gather some blackberries. They are ripening at a good clip now, but plenty of them are still just getting started. I think this is going to be a very good berry season.

Conker explored the creek as I gathered berries. This isn't his favorite activity, but he likes it better than taking a walk when it's "hot" out.Which is basically why we go down into the creek in the first place.

This log that Conker is under "guards" the creek on the other side of the tunnel we have to go through to get to the creekside berries. He paused here to study some kids who were splashing in the creek a ways ahead.

I gathered a few ounces shy of 2 pounds of blackberries. Not a bad haul for a little less than an hours worth of work.

1 = 2

Today, being a Wednesday, deemed it a "creek s'ploring and berry gathering day" so Conker and I headed off to the creek beside the dog park. Which was undergoing some sort of construction, so the fence was all screwed up in several places.

Anywho...
We s'plored the same section of the creek we did the other day. The blackberry bushes were starting to droop with the ripening fruit that we'd gone down there to gather. I took the soft-sided lunch cooler Freshpet sent me back in March to use as a berry container. I stuck a hard plastic thing that came with a different lunch cooler (don't know where it is) that I normally use to store my expensive Copic art markers in so that the soft berries wouldn't be squished all over the inside of the cooler.

We started by harvesting the ripe berries from around the entrance to the tunnel. These bushes were dripping with large black berries, though none are easily visible in the picture.

Conker helped a little by clearing the grass away from a section of bushes. I did not get a picture of him doing this, but it was really cute.

This is the spot where I fell the other day. That chunk of wood jutting out on the left used to be twice as long, but is now lopped in half due to my stupidity. The water below it is about 4 feet deep but only 2 1/2 feet wide. Conker and I went around it this time.

It was about 90 degrees today, which is right around Conker's cut off point where he will not have any fun. Down in the creek it was much cooler, and the water helped with keeping Conker and I comfortable. All the shade the trees hanging over the creek made also helps with lowering the temperature.

Often, while I was foraging for berries, Conker would grow impatient and start to bark at me. He wanted to continue to explore, but I was busy collecting berries. So I'd toss one behind him and he'd run off to go find it.

This is the same vine I took a picture of a couple days ago.  When you compare the two side-by-side, you can see some of the berries are missing, and others are still growing.

This large berry was almost 1 1/2 inches! Not the biggest I harvested today, but a nice large one compared to what we normally get in the stores around here. This berry was particularly delicious.

First thing I did when we got home was wash and weigh the berries. I harvested a total of just over 2 pounds of wild blackberries! Not bad for only 1 hour of indiscriminatory berry picking. The first haul of the summer sure was a delicious one.
And that is how 1 = 2.

Creek 'Splore

Conker and I did some 'splorin today. We were originally going to find a trail that leads up another cellular phone tower (I don't actually know what type of tower), but I could not find where it began, so we instead 'splored the creek.

The creek is "normal" for about 100 feet then goes into a dark tunnel. This is the first time I've ever gone in this direction up the creek since before now, the blackberry bushes have prevented any forward progress. Somebody hacked them to bits recently, allowing access to the Northern part of the creek.
Conker was reluctant to follow me into the tunnel.

After being convinced it was not going to eat him, Conker bounded through the tunnel to the other side.

The creek opened up into a beautiful mini forest of trees and shrubbery overhanging the creek. Conker and I 'splored for about 1/2 mile up the creek.

At one point he tried to climb an almost completely vertical section of the bank. I don't know why he choose this spot instead of any of the other milder banks to climb. 
We were stopped by a large wall of blackberry bushes (no picture) that I did not feel like combating today. We will probably try to fight our way through on some later day, since it looked like it cleared up a bit on the other side of the mass of thorny plants, when I don't have as much stuff with me as I did today.

One good perk to the hostile bushes was their plentiful fruit. The blackberries are ripening a little earlier this year for some reason. There were many that were quite ripe and ready to be eaten. I would have brought some back but I did not have a container to put them in.

About halfway back to the tunnel, I was showing Conker that a log I'd previously used to traverse a deep section of the creek was perfectly stable. He had not used it on the first trip and refused to on the second, but usually will if I show him it's safe.
Well, it wasn't, and snapped as I demonstrated on it, dumping me into about 4 feet of water. The creek is normally only about 1 foot deep, so at least I didn't hit any rocks, but I got thoroughly drenched in the process. As did everything I had with me, including my camera.

Now I know to listen to Conker when he refuses to step on something.

Swimming Shiba

Conker now enjoys swimming. So much that he will retrieve toys out of the water. This is huge for him! It's taken him a while to get used to being in water where he cannot touch the ground, and now that he is comfortable in it, I feel like it's time for a bit of training.

The deep part of the creek is about 3 feet

Juneau is still very scared of loud noises. I honestly doubt that I'll be able to get her adapted to loud sounds before waterfowl season. This means I will most likely not be able to use her as a retriever when I hunt Coots. However, now that Conker has shown that he will and likes to retrieve in water, I might have a back-up if Juneau's training doesn't work out.

How odd (and cool) would it be to have not only a hunting Shiba, but a retrieving (in water) one as well?

Video: Dogs in the creek 2

It's been very uneventful here lately.  I mowed the law today but I don't think that counts as an event.  And Juneau's collar came off last night but I found it lying on a table today.  Whoop.

Photo Filler

Conker and Juneau in the creek near the dog park.

Pictures from today

Hasn't been much going on lately.  Real boring, even though there are a ton of people here.  The adults went wine tasting today, younger-taller brother and I took the kids to the local "air park" which is a room with a ton of trampolines in it and such.  Us bigger folks didn't jump but the kids had fun.

Conker's been really bored.  Almost to the point of pencil chewing, so I took him and Juneau to the dog park since Sasha already got a walk today.

After a bit of playing with the chuckit I took them to the creek to cool off.  It was a bit warm today and they looked somewhat hot.

Conker gets really excited to go into the creek now.  He's also started swimming in the deeper parts.  If there's another dog he has more fun that he does by himself.

Juneau got about 20 more minutes of fetch in and had nearly dried off when they got to go back into the creek.  The video above was actually from the second trip in.  There is a patch of tall grass next to the fence that Juneau likes to lay in during cool-down periods in between games of fetch.

Conker got really dirty after the second creek trip.  He also played a bit of fetch, then tug with a busted tennis ball.

When we got back it was time to feed the Girls.  They got Lamb flavored TOTW with some tuna in there.  No real reason behind the tuna, I just decided to be nice.  Sasha gets a bit of water in her kibble to slow her down, I just recently found that out.

Conker was his usual self while the Girls ate and put cute Shiba mode in overdrive.  It didn't work.



In other news...

My uncle apparently thinks it's okay to "let" Conker eat a piece of stinkin pizza.  My cousin came in and saw Conker eating it and TOLD my uncle that he was, but uncle didn't even try to take it from Conker since "it was already in his mouth."  Tell him to drop it you moron.  Thanks for letting my dog eat shit that'll make him either barf or have cannon ass tomorrow.  Or tonight, and if he does... I'm gonna fucking blow a fuse.

We went 'splorin

Conker and I went to the dog park earlier than normal today.  And upon our arrival and seeing no other dogs in the park, I opted to go explore the jungle around the creek to give other dog owners a bit of time to arrive.

Conker, who's never been allowed to explore on his own terms, thought this was a great idea.

Conker walked through the tall grass and down the multiple short trails around the most-visited section of the creek.  He stopped to sniff where he pleased and went in whatever direction HE wanted, with me tagging along behind holding the other end of the leash.

Conker discovered that the walkways around the creek don't always lead to the creek and are fun to follow and drink in the various sights and smells.

This was the end of the land-based trails.  I was in an exploratory mood and since there were no more trails to follow, we turned around, walked beside the dog park for a ways and down to the creek where most people don't go.

I didn't want to climb back up the hill we took to get down to the creek, and much to Conker's horror, I stepped into the creek and began to walk upstream.  In my not-waterproof SWAT boots.  At first he didn't want to come, but the second I whipped out a bag of Zuke's salmon treats he was willing to step into the chill water.

 Conker followed me through water up to his chest but wouldn't go in any deeper or swim, even with the salmon treats dangling before his nose.  So when that happened I picked him up and carried him through the deeper water or slick spots until we reached Shiba appropriate areas.

For a first real creek trial, I would say it went pretty well.  Hopefully Conker will grow to like Fording the Creek (as I would chant while carrying him through knee-high water) so his summer experience in Grant's Pass can be a bit cooler.


Sadly after this part of the creek 'splore my camera decided to be a dork and not work.  I still haven't found any film that I'm willing to buy and use, so for now I have to put up with this crappy temperamental point-and-shoot.