Waning Days of Summer - Labs Playing in a Lake!

Because it's approaching the end of summer, I am thinking about my favorite parts of summer. One is visiting lakes to let the Labraduo swim and retrieve. This year, Shyla found her confidence and was rivaling R in races to fetch balls out of the water.

A few of you met Shyla back when she was the most fearful pup I'd ever known. Some of you read about her fears here. In either case, you know that it was a big deal that she'd actually compete with R in a race.

She uses her tail during swimming more than any dog I've known before. When she grabs the ball and is turning back toward shore, she flicks her tail every time, creating an elaborate trail of water.

This year, Shyla watched R bring two balls back to the shore in his mouth. And she mimicked it. Here was her first successful carry of two tennis balls! I have to admit that I kept worrying that she'd choke on the ball further back in her mouth. Yes, I'm the worrier in the family.

These photos were all from our campsite high in the San Juan mountains of southwest Colorado where we stayed for a while on our most recent trip. There are myriad ponds/lakes dotting the tundra in that area. Most of them don't have trails leading to them so we had complete solitude while the dogs frolicked in the water.

We're hoping to sneak in at least one more visit to a mountain lake before it's too cold. I just saw a forecast that included SNOW for one week from today. That shows you how fast winter comes upon us up in these mountains. I have a lot of things that I want to do before it snows!

Happy Summertime to all my Northern Hemisphere friends!