Black Dog Sunday

I think that our Black Dog has luxuriated in the sun for the last time for a little while. The entire ten day forecast is for rain.

The clouds have moved in and have reduced the visibility to about zero, except for a few brief moments when the clouds part.

Both of our dogs adore this weather. It's not hot so they can run as hard as they want to. Usually, warmth is what slows them down.

I don't love this weather as much as they do but I'll be hoping that the rains mean that our meadows are filled with golden flowers before too long!

I'm going to take a min-break from blogging. I'll post a few times per week but not as frequently as usual.

I'll be back to my normal schedule before too long. I just need to recharge after working hard for a while and consequently feeling exhausted.

Reflections

Today, we are reflecting on our last trip to the desert. The desert is so different from our home in the forest, which you can see reflected in Shyla's eye below.

 We camped in other-worldly places like this one, with the sun warming us up.

It was a rainy phase in the desert, and the depressions in the slickrock filled with water. Shyla loved the water, as you can tell by her wet fur. I loved the water because I enjoyed seeing the reflections in it.

I found it to be ironic that I had to go to the desert to learn to photograph reflections!

It was fun seeing Shyla and the clouds reflected in the puddles. 

The puddles stuck around for a long time after a rain, perhaps because there was no porous soil below them to absorb the water. Various tiny animals live in the bottom of these depressions just waiting for water so that they can start their life cycles. For that reason, I did my best to keep Shyla from disturbing the water holes too much.

I can't wait until we visit the desert again. It's so fun to spend time in a place so different from where we live.

Flowers in Springtime

Springtime blooms have progressed slowly here although they might be speeding up now. This field where Shyla ran today has just acquired some green grass. Before spring is over, it will be filled with yellow flowers (assuming that they bloom despite our drought).

It's been sunny and warm, and the Pasqueflowers have opened their petals wide to soak up the sun and attract pollinators.

Willow bushes have gotten their tiny flowers clustered together into catkins. These gems are among my absolute favorites!

I love watching spring unfold, one miracle at at time. The flowers are among the miracles but the arrival of migratory birds is another. I love watching the bird species arrive one-by-one. One of my favorites is the hummingbird. Ours are back!

Happy Springtime!

Thankful for our World

I am thankful that this is the main "traffic congestion" that I encounter when driving on our roads.

And then, when I am home, I am thankful that our world is quiet enough that even Shyla can relax.

Most of all, I am so grateful that Mother Nature gives us the most stupendous shows that I can imagine!

Happy Thankful Thursday!

Wordless Wednesday - Shyla at Sunset

Shyla's normal look

Shyla's look when she spots a treat!

Running toward the treat!

Shyla has learned to walk smoothly across a ladder!

You might remember that I trained Shyla to walk across the rungs of a ladder in January of 2017. I outlined how I trained her to do it in a post back then.

Like so many things that I've taught her, it mainly involved "shaping" where I gradually molded her behavior toward walking on the ladder using a clicker and treats. I taught her how to "high five" in a similar way.

After about 6 weeks of working on it, Shyla could take a step at a time with pauses in between them. She'd fall off the ladder about once per ladder crossing. Here's a video of her walking on the ladder after those first 6 weeks. I posted it for the first time back in January 2017.

We've worked on it regularly since then, and Shyla has found a degree of grace while walking continuously across the ladder! Here's the video!

I've also taught R to walk across the ladder but it's very hard for him. Since his elbow surgery, he somehow lost track of where his hind paws are. This is a great exercise for him because it's retraining his brain to keep track of his hind paws. He takes one step, stops, takes another step, stops, etc. It's awesome that he can do it at all - it's taken him more than a year to get to that point!

For Shyla, the next thing that we're going to do is tilt the ladder upward so she's literally "climbing" the ladder!

A Mountain Lion Stroll in Daylight

Recently, a mountain lion took a long stroll in daylight. That is quite rare, and my cams caught some footage of her.

This was near the beginning of her walk.  She came very close to a cam.

And she paused to sniff with the black tip on her tail so obvious!

The next place where we caught a glimpse of her was deeper in the forest. She moved through the area quickly.

Finally, she hit an area that the bears adore.  She was just in front of a sapling that the bears like to mark.

Then, she continued along the same route...

I found this to be a good way to gauge her size. I rode through exactly the same spot a day later (without knowing that she'd been there the day before). I was going in the opposite direction. I scaled both photos exactly the same for the comparison. Based on this photo, I'm guessing that she weighs a bit more than I do but it's probably close.

I loved seeing the daylight photos and video of the mountain lion. More frequently, I get photos like this one, as a storm front moved in and a mountain lion prowled in the fog.

I can imagine the soundtrack from "Jaws" playing as the lion walked in that fog!

My cams captured video footage at each of those sites, and I put it together into a short video. You can watch it here or at Youtube.

Happy Wildlife Monday!

Sunset with the Labraduo

I took the Labraduo for a hike at sunset the other evening. Sunset brings our best "golden hour" sunlight at this time of year. As you can imagine, I was thrilled to get our Duo out in that light!

Because I don't get as many chances to photograph our black dog as Shyla, I was particularly thrilled to see him in that fabulous light. His eyes enchant me.

The two dogs had fun racing each other whenever I called them.

At the end of one recall, R came very close to bowling me over. Look at his wide and clear eyes! This photo shows his truly wonderful spirit shining through in his eyes. He still looks like a puppy to me.

I love evenings like that one. We had a leisurely hike up to where we could see the Divide. We watched the sun sink toward the Divide as I photographed the Duo in the amazing light. We saw the sun slide behind the mountains while sitting on a log at our lookout point. Then, we strolled toward home, feeling like all was right with the world.

Here's to celebrating our Black Dog on Sundays!

Sunrise Musings on Saturday

We had a beautiful sunrise recently. Our winter winds are finally calming down on some days so I could take aerial photos.

Back around the winter solstice, the sun appeared to the far right in this landscape at sunrise. And it appeared about 1.5 hours later than it does now!

As I looked at the sunrise from up high, I thought about the fact that it was my childhood best friend's birthday. Isn't amazing how many of us can remember the birthdays of childhood friends but can't remember everyday facts?

Do you see the dirt road to the flatlands?

I think that those early bonds stay with us for a lifetime because those people knew us at the beginning. My best friend had a black Lab named "Captain" who accompanied us on many walks in the woods. Now, the Runner's and my dogs are Labs... and I love them like she loved Captain.

I sent her the photos from her birthday sunrise in the Rockies, which is thousands of miles from her home both in distance and landscape.

Then, we caught up with each other via email. I enjoy hearing about her family because I spent so much time with them as a kid and teenager. They were like a second family to me, although they were very different from my family.

As I ponder my childhood, I realize that I was destined to break free and go where my heart led me. These mountains are my home but my world couldn't be more different from where I grew up.

I love the freedom of having wilderness out my back door where I can track bears, lions, and moose to my heart's delight. I love the freedom of being able to ride my mountain bike out my back door with my Shyla by my side and continue on trails for hours without crossing a road. I love the freedom to be me - with no pretenses to meet the expectations of society.

Quite simply put - this mountain world of free spirits is where I belong.

Snowy Flower Friday

We've been wishing for moisture to deter wildfires and help our flowers bloom. Our fog turned into a heavy snowstorm yesterday. Shyla looked a little less than happy with it!

Soon, however, she remembered her love of snow. She ran.

And ran.

I was slow to get happy about it too. After all, just two days ago, I wore shorts, and we enjoyed the sights and scents of our very early blooming wildflowers.

This was the new bloomer for the week - a Sand Lily.

This was one that started blooming a while ago but the blooms are going wild now.

These are Pasqueflowers at the start of the storm. I liked the water droplets on them, and the fact that Shyla was watching over me so closely that her paw was just behind the flowers!

I sure hope that this storm helps our forest and flowers. It turned out to be pretty unpleasant for anyone who spent time outdoors. Although it was snow, it was a very wet snow that left Shyla and me soaked. Shyla's look in this photo says it all. We headed home just after I took this photo because we were both drenched and freezing.
Even though I toweled Shyla, she was still damp many hours later. Yes, it was a very wet and cold spring snowstorm. It also took down trees and power lines which was an inconvenience.

Interestingly, as I went through my photos for May of the past several years, it almost always snows within the first few days of May. That's worth remembering, and perhaps avoiding by going out of town!

Thankful Thursday - A warm place to hide during freezing spring days

We are in the midst of a few days of soaking fog and temperatures near freezing. This is as yucky as the weather gets around here. I am so thankful for our wood fire, keeping me feeling cozy and reasonably upbeat.

We saw this front sitting in the forecast for days ahead of time so I did some long mountain bike rides and checked a lot of trail cams in the days leading up to it. Then, the grayness descended.

The elk herd moved to a meadow near us, which is usually a fail-proof sign that some bad weather is headed our way.

Not all of the bull elk have shed their antlers yet. This guy suspiciously kept his eye on me.

Shyla and I headed out for our usual mountain bike ride this morning but we didn't last for long. The water in the air completely soaked me in no time. With the temperature only a bit above freezing, it was a recipe for hypothermia so I headed home after a short ride.

Now we are firmly ensconced at home, hoping for better weather for outdoor activities very soon. I'm glad for the moisture that will ease the fire danger a bit but I hate being stuck inside.

I am full of gratitude that we have a warm place where we can hide during these cold and wet "shoulder season" days!

Wordless Wednesday - Recent Snapshots in our Forest

Peek-a-boo! I see you!

Look at the treasure I just found!

Leaping for Joy!

Training Tuesday: Shaping a Nose Touch with Shyla

Last Tuesday, I showed you how I used a clicker and treats to "shape" R to touch an object with his nose. R is not very experienced with shaping so he took little tiny steps toward the final goal.

In contrast, Shyla and I have done so many shaping games together that she tends to make big leaps of logic along the way to the final goal. She surprises me time and time again.

In this example, I taped a pink note card to the A-frame beam. My end goal was for her to hold her nose on it for 2-3 seconds. In spite of her experience, I still started by clicking her for looking just vaguely in the direction of the pink note card. However, you'll see that she very rapidly noticed that something new, the pink note card, was in the direction that she'd looked. She instantly figured out that I probably wanted her to do something associated with the note card. That's a leap of logic that only an experienced dog would make so fast.

 The video of this shaping is below and also at Youtube.

She had learned this simple behavior within 2 minutes. However, I was careless early in the process and didn't selectively click when she put her nose in the middle of the pink card (as opposed to on the edges). Because she knows that these games usually require precision, she kept trying different nose positions later in the training to figure out which one was correct. I should've made it clear from the start.

Of course, this behavior isn't important in everyday life but I've used shaping to teach my dogs all sorts of useful behaviors. I love teaching them things that help me take better photos of them.  I've used a clicker to teach Shyla to pivot a little bit to the left or right for a photo when she has her paws propped on a rock. That lets me fine tune her position for the photo! It's fun!

I used that skill in this photo!

I'm hoping to make "Training Tuesday" a regular feature on this blog. I do fun training with the Duo regularly but I rarely talk about it here. I hope to change that.

What's your favorite thing you've ever taught your pet to do?