Run and Snooze

I love watching Shyla run. She can run like the wind and seems to never get tired. She is in her prime.

Part of why we choose "field Labs" for our family is their athletic ability and their drive. When she arrived here, Shyla wasn't in strong physical shape and didn't seem to have a lot of drive. By contrast, now, people comment on how muscular she is - her muscles seem to bulge from her trim body. Our vet says that she is "perfect". Don't tell her that - it might go to her head!

Back when I first met her, she also seemed to have little drive for anything. I thought that she was almost apathetic about most things - as if she didn't expect a lot from life. Now, she is insistent about the things that she loves. In the morning, she does not tolerate me sleeping late (past 6AM). If I do, she sits on the bed staring down at me and intermittently smothering me in kisses. She knows that it's time for our morning jaunt, and she isn't going to let me sleep through it.

R is the same way, although his intensity is directed at the Runner, who takes him on the trails every morning. As R leaves on his morning run, he lets out a series of high pitched barks and yodels, and he grabs his leash in his mouth like a puppy. Even if I'm a mile or two from the house, I know when R is starting his run from the sounds emanating from the direction of our house!

Even with all that drive, both dogs are content to hang out restfully for most of the day. Some people call it an "off switch". No doubt, they both know how to turn off the intensity and snooze. In the photo below, I'd just accidentally awakened Shyla from a snooze in a sun puddle. What a sweetie she is!

It's a great combination for us - high drive dogs who love the trails like we do but who also love to snuggle and snooze. Is it any wonder that we have had this type of Lab for many years?

For anyone who is considering getting a Field Lab, the one caveat is that you must be very committed to giving them the exercise and mental stimulation that they were bred for. Without those things, you'll have a Lab who goes out of his/her mind with excess energy! Even with sufficient exercise and training, Field Labs are well-known among vets to be prone to obsessive-compulsive disorder. We struggle with OCD in R (it manifests as endless water drinking) - but we can generally control it as long as he can run and do daily training. He's our first Lab with OCD.

On that subject, R has been allowed short bouts of off-leash running recently, after his long hiatus with a sore elbow. He's a happy dog!

My blogging may be sporadic over the next little while. Don't worry about us!

Monday Mischief

I'll start with the non-mischievous part of our day.

Storms are gathering on the horizon again, with either a deluge of rain or a truckload of snow coming our way. We will be close to the rain-snow line so we don't know what to expect. Our Pasqueflowers, the most flashy of our early spring flowers, have just emerged from under the snow of the last storm, and most of them survived.

Due to the approaching storms, the skies were cloudy and ominous at sunrise this morning. Shyla was playing with her favorite rope toy and struck a nice pose on a boulder with the clouds swirling in the background.

Last year at this time, our aspen trees had new green leaves. Not this year.

Shyla was not slowed by the clouds. She had fun!

When we arrived back home, I tried to make a video of me teaching Shyla her latest trick. I'm teaching her to wave with either her left or right paw, depending on which one I ask for. However, I discovered that she was very suspicious of a camera on a tripod pointed at her (that's why she looks unhappy in the video). Moreover, she was super distracted by a scent in the forest near our house.

Thus, our mischievous moment was captured on a very short video! You can watch it here or at Youtube. In case you can't hear me speak in the video, I had just said "sit" before she was mischievous.

Black and White Sunday: A Chorus of Howls

The coyotes continue to frequent our clearing. Most years, they disappear as soon as the wintery weather dissipates. For the winter, they are here most nights.

I like this photo because it shows that we have a new "Nick Ear" in the neighborhood. A coyote who I called "Nick Ear" used to show up on my trail cameras frequently. Then, a couple of years ago, I noticed blood on his fur in a trail camera photo. A few days later, I found his body. He'd been shot by someone who then let him wander around injured and dying for days. This guy looks healthy and strong.

I suspect that the nicks in his ear are either from fighting with other coyotes or from hunting.

When there is lots of snow, the coyotes also occasionally come around during the day. We pack down trails in the snow that lead to and fro our clearing, and I suspect that the coyotes simply take the paths of least resistance - all of which lead to our house. The coyotes look wary in the daylight.

On a recent evening, Shyla and I headed out for a hike. After I checked that our clearing was free of coyotes, I released Shyla from her lead. Then, I noticed coyote tracks walking carefully in my packed snow bike track. In the photo below, the coyote track is on the right and Shyla's slightly larger track in on the left.

After seeing the tracks, I called Shyla and put her on leash. Soon thereafter, howling erupted from a meadow very close to us. Shyla didn't seem particularly interested (thank goodness - perhaps she won't be a coyote-crazy dog like some of our others). We simply continued our hike and never saw the coyotes. My experience is that they usually want to steer clear of us. The one exception is when they try to lure a dog into their midst. Consequently, as long as the dogs are on leash, we feel safe.

Then, later in the same evening, I was setting up my regular camera on the deck for some star photos when a caucophony of howling erupted extremely close to the house. Several coyotes were howling in the vicinity of my trail cameras, and the howling of the pack was captured by the cameras. Unlike my previous coyote howling video, this one is truly a chorus of many. You can watch the short black and white video here or at Youtube.

My dogs responded to the actual howling by making noise of their own. R loves to howl like a wolf so he joined the chorus with melodic and mournful howls. Shyla barked excitedly. Myself, I love hearing the coyotes howling and yipping in the night. It's a hallmark of the west and the wild world we live in.

Shyla's Socialization

I have been continuing to work on socialization with Shyla multiple times per week. I do some of the training alone, some of it as part of a group class, and some during one-on-one lessons with our trainer. As always, I have no photos of Shyla during our in-town training, so I'll pepper this with photos from our outings in the mountains at home.

Although we still have up days and down days, Shyla is generally moving in a good direction. Until a month ago, her demeanor in town changed only gradually. To sum up where she was a month ago, everything on Earth still seemed foreign to her but she was gradually learning to cope with the alien planet that she'd landed on. However, she still seemed scared the majority of the time. At that time, she got diarrhea after every trip to town, telling me about the very high level of stress that town placed on her.

Then, about a month ago, she changed. It looks to me and the trainer as if Shyla no longer views the majority of our world as foreign. She walks along on sidewalks in town like a happy dog, observing the world but usually not bug-eyed and on the verge of a meltdown like she was before. She tries to meet most people, as long as they don't do certain scary behaviors like squatting down and looking her in the eyes. She no longer gets diarrhea after trips to town.

Because her demeanor is generally happy in town, I now can identify the exact things that still scare her. Prior to this, Shyla was constantly scared to some degree in town - so identifying the "triggers" was very hard. Now, she'll walk along happily until a sight or sound spooks her, and she immediately looks less confident or even spooks (i.e., darts backwards with her ears pinned back and her body low to the ground).

Apparently, Shyla's current state is a step in the rehabilitation of a dog who missed her puppy socialization that my trainer sees frequently. The dog finally (8 months later, in Shyla's case) accepts the world for what it is and knows what is normal. So, the dog functions beautifully until "abnormal" things occur - and then the "spook" is quite obvious.

The bottom line is that this change in Shyla is expected and good. Now, we can work on the specific things that Shyla is still afraid of - like men talking on cell phones, women with gravelly voices, construction equipment, skateboards, people squatting down to look in her eyes, etc. She now truly trusts me - so she'll literally look at me when she gets scared. I back her away from the scary thing, until she is at a distance that is comfortable for her, and then we watch the scary thing from a distance, using the principles of BAT (Behavioral Adjustment Training).

I never dreamed that this journey would take so long - and that the evolution would still be underway 8 months after Shyla joined our family. When Shyla first arrived, I thought that if I worked super hard, we could "solve" her fears very rapidly. I believe that an important step in the process was that I accepted that Shyla would have good days and bad days, and that she may or may not ever be really comfortable in the human world (but I love her regardless). When I adopted that attitude, I took the pressure off of both Shyla and me.

I'm still not sure of the final outcome in terms of whether Shyla will ever be totally comfortable in town. But, I do know that Shyla can navigate the human world without much fear if I guide her.

I also know that the journey has been incredibly rewarding. My trainer observed that Shyla's bond to me is much stronger than a "normal" dog's bond would be just 8 months after arriving in a new home. I feel very lucky in that regard, for my bond to her is just as strong. She is a gift.

The Labraduo

We've had an incredibly snowy springtime, as you've seen from my photos. It has been a record year for spring snow but it's not as extraordinary as you might think. We rely on spring snow to feed our forests and flowers, and to help prevent forest fires. You might remember the terrible fire year that 2012 was in Colorado. We are all hoping that these big spring snows will help mitigate that danger.

In that spirit, we mountain dwellers appreciate the snow, even if we are (secretly) eagerly waiting for warm and sunny spring weather!

The Labraduo and I took a sunset hike through the snowy meadow and forest last night. Due to the stormy weather this spring, I've rarely had good sunlight to photograph them together in the evening. And, as you know, R goes on the trails with the Runner in the morning so he's "unavailable" for photos then!

The two of them have developed a strong bond. It seems as if they've worked out their small differences, like Shyla's intense play style, and they love being together.

Shyla has remained a petite Labrador. Indeed, most people who meet her for the first time assume that she's a mix of Lab and something smaller. You can really see the difference between the two in these photos. R weighs 13 pounds more than Shyla, and R is not a big Lab (he's 58 pounds).

It's been a little tough throughout R's enforced restricted activity to let his elbow heal. It's taken close to 6 weeks so far, and we are just now starting to allow him to be off-leash for short periods. Shyla seems to miss playing with him in the forest immensely.

Indeed, this morning, Shyla suddenly launched herself off a boulder when she spotted the Runner and R approaching from a distance. She was hoping that R could play with her... but the footing was too tricky with the partially melted and frozen snow so R remained on leash.

We hope that R's return to full speed will be soon. I stretch his elbow daily, and I've taught him to wave with each paw to help maintain his range of elbow motion. We're giving him regular glucosamine injections plus oral glucosamine and other supplements daily. With all those things in his favor, we're hoping to put off an arthroscopic "clean-out" surgery for his elbow for a long time. I'm cautiously optimistic!

Now, perhaps, we can have some springtime!

May 2: Winter Wonderland

Wordless Wednesday

Milton the Black Bear

Trail camera photos of bears make my heart sing. Shortly after one of our big April storms, a bear walked in the woods. Look at the size of his hind paw covered in sticky snow.

This bear is not "Tiny". Unlike Tiny, this bear has a white blaze on his chest. However, he's as big as Tiny, which tells me that he's "Milton", usually the most prominent male bear in our area during mating season.

He is passing a bear tree in these photos but did not mark it. Indeed, both he and Tiny have passed this tree several times in the past month but neither has marked it yet.

He gazed into the distance before moving along.

Compared to those snowy days when Milton was traipsing around the forest, we've had gorgeous weather recently. Shyla and I have adored our sunny and warm bike rides.

Alas, another storm is starting right now. No one seems to know how much snow it will bring - but it could be a big storm. I feel like covering my eyes just like Shyla!

I'll try to visualize Columbines falling from the sky as it snows, because of course, the gorgeous wildflowers cannot grow without the spring snows!

A Life Worth Living

There was a time when I lived in the city. Now, I cannot imagine how I survived. My time in nature nurtures me. I know how lucky I am to have undeveloped forests and meadows all around me. That's part of why I embrace every day by going out onto the trails and living life to the fullest with my dogs.

Fortunately, my dogs like this style of living.

I've developed a funny habit. I like to look back at the same date over the years that I've been writing this blog to see what happened in previous years. I've found that there's a theme that recurs throughout this blog - seize the day. That's no surprise to long-time readers, I'm sure.

I try not to dwell on it but I live with chronic pain. People like my physical therapist and others ask me what I'd tell others about how to live with pain and still be happy. My reply always is to live today like it's your last one. Enjoy the good parts and fully feel the bad parts. Don't let the pain own you.

I first realized how important it was to live every single day as fully as I could when I watched my mother die of breast cancer when I was still young. Given the hereditary nature of breast cancer, I always felt that I wouldn't live a long time. Indeed, I never visualized living longer than my mother did. With that in mind, I have now hit the age that my mother was when her cancer was discovered. I feel less fatalistic about my future now than I did when I was younger - but I do fully realize that every day is a gift.

My attitude evolved most rapidly when chronic pain became my companion when I was in my twenties. I had endometriosis, requiring seven surgeries to finally quell the intractable pain. At the same time, I was experiencing the beginnings of the degeneration of my spine and associated pain. I won't lie - I gave up emotionally for a while - because life seemed too hard.

Somewhere along the path of life, I realized that I get only one shot at living... so immersing myself in misery is a bad idea. Gradually, my attitude became "seize the day" - make it a day that was worth living.

My dogs have helped me immensely in keeping that attitude. In an odd way, even K's cancer kept me fully alive - because I didn't want to miss an instant with her.

Now it's Shyla and R. Shyla knows that her life is a gift (and I know that she is a gift to me).

And so does R.

So, we all love our mountains every single day.

And fall asleep instantly when we lie still because we've spent every last iota of energy!

Life is good.

Spring is only here briefly...

We are having a few days of spring before the next snowstorm which is supposed to arrive mid-week. I'm not thinking about snow right now. I love the sun and warmth.

I watch the main wildflowers in our world closely. These wild crocuses ("Pasqueflowers") close their petals tightly whenever the air is cool. I'm guessing that their ability to rapidly pinch their petals closed is part of why they can survive the sub-freezing temperatures and snowstorms that are inevitable during our spring.

Then, like me, the Pasqueflowers relax and soak it up when the sun hits their skin.

This morning, Shyla and I celebrated the sunshine and warmth by visiting Hug Hill, where she ran around happily. It's fun have having a young and exuberant dog by my side. I'm reaching a point where I can simply revel in her youth, speed, and good health rather than thinking about the past. Shyla is at her peak, and we're both enjoying it.

Although King R didn't join Shyla and me this morning because he's still on restricted activity, I thought that his fans might enjoy seeing this cute photo of him. The dusky sky is reflected in his eyes.

It's hard to believe that he rules the pack with an iron paw after seeing that heart-melting photo!

A Spring Saturday!

I hope that you all are having a glorious day. It truly feels like spring here. Indeed, I am writing this from my deck. Flowers are sprouting from under the melting snow.

Spring Beauties were the new one for today. They are tiny (1 cm across) so most people don't notice them. When you look closely, it is hard to believe that this delicate and intricate flower is one of the hardy species that can survive spring snowfalls.

This morning, Shyla and I had a romping good snow bike ride before it got so warm that the snow was sloppy. We stopped for a game of fetch. She is so intense about retrieving now. In the next photo, she is about to pounce on the toy that I've thrown. Look at how she spread out her toes to prevent her paws from sinking too deeply into the snow.

She galloped back to me carrying the toy. I find it hard to believe that she was not happy to retrieve things when I first met her. But, it's true - she didn't like retrieving then.

Here's another round of fetch in the dappled light of a pine forest.

Full speed ahead!

I hope that, where ever you are, you are enjoying your weekend like we are.

For the record, today is the first spring day that we've thrown open the windows, and I am sitting on the deck!