Fun with recycling

Yesterday it snowed. And snowed and snowed and snowed...

Finally! Boise has been so dry. We had a beautiful walk.

Today it has turned to rain and the snow is almost all gone. My backyard is a mud pit, the foothills are too muddy to use`and it's just raining too hard to go for a neighborhood leash walk.

So I got out the recycling. Insert treat, put lid back on and give to your dog.

Got it!

To run, to dig and to sleep (and some agility)

First, to run

Then dig

And finally, to sleep

 

We had a great time visiting my in laws in the small Idaho town of New Meadows where they have this mysterious thing called SNOW! Boise does not know what that means this year.
Rye loves snow. He rolls in it, eats it and loves to catch snow balls. He's been known to slide down hills on his belly in the snow.
I wanted to try something called skijorring (where your dog pulls you on skis) but there's not quite enough snow for that so we just went snowshoeing.

In other news, Amber won big money last weekend! I went to a New Year's Eve party with the local agility club who had a course set up. $5 to run the course, then another $5 to run it backward. The winner in each height got $15, second place got $10. We won our entry fee back with second place. Darn black and white dog beat us. Amber must have thought I was crazy loading up the car with all our agility stuff and her at 7 pm! She ran fast though.

 This was in our backyard this summer, my attempt at agility action photography.

December in the woods

 An evening walk through the woods in the rain tonight. It smelled so good. So nice to be outside with my dogs. I love to watch them run.

The only way that Rye is showing his age is in the house. He sleeps more. Otherwise he is still a crazy bird dog. He runs and runs. He pointed some white river foam scum tonight. Amber almost believed him and honored his point for about a second then realized the mistake.

When we got home the dogs ate dinner and I sat down at the computer. Amber brought me her squeaky green dog and stared at me for a while before going to sleep on the couch. Rye is fast asleep beside me, his cheeks are puffing in and out, making little whining noises. Dreaming of that elusive foam...

an antler for Christmas

I found this shed deer antler on a hike a few years ago. I like to collect bones and things like that so it has been living on my mantle ever since bringing it home. Every once in a while I catch Amber sitting in front of the fireplace, just looking at it.

A funny story to go with it: I had been dog sitting a friend's two bostons and she had just come over to pick them up. Her younger boston was showing off, playing with one of Amber's toys and Amber was watching her, whining a little, wanting her toy back, but she's not one to take it away from another dog. So she walked over to the mantle, reached up and took the antler down and brought it to her bed to chew on! I know she's been wanting to do that ever since I brought it home but she knew she wasn't supposed to have it.


I've been reading about what a good chew an antler is for a dog, it's not supposed to splinter, lasts longer than other chews and dogs usually love them. I was thinking of ordering some from a person online because I just didn't want to ruin my pretty antler! Well, I decided that was silly since I already had one. Merry Christmas, Amber.

Rye will chew on something for a few minutes and then give up, rawhides, bones, anything, he's just not that into them so I didn't think it would hurt his feelings if I didn't give him one.
Amber is thoroughly enjoying her present.

 She's finally learned to "hold". It took her a while, she didn't want to for the longest time.
I didn't intend for this to look as creepy as it came out, it was late at night and my camera doesn't do so well in low light.

Rocks and ice

We took the dogs to a new trail yesterday. Lots of really cool rock formations.

Both Amber and Rye are quite the mountain goats, though Amber maybe a little more. I can point to a rock and ask her to get up on it and she'll stay for pictures.

When I ask Rye to stay for a picture he hangs his head low and does his impersonation of a vulture. Like this:

 
Most of his other pictures turn out like this.

This is the base of a really cool frozen creek/waterfall.