Vacation and The Post Vacation Reconciliation

Lael and I went on a glorious trip to Nicaragua. I must admit I was more than a little apprehensive. After having spent a week in the town of San Juan Del Sure I must say that I would go again, and hope to. The people were great, the food was delicious and there is more than enough to keep you occupied. We did our fair share of enjoying the pool but we also enjoyed the town, the beach, a trip to Ometepe Island, a canopy tour, and most importantly, a week enjoying each others company. Often times you get stuck in your day to day routines and it is little vacations like these that make you realize how great it is to just hang out together without the rat race taking hold of everything. There was no opportunity to “overbook” our time either which was nice.

As far as the girls are concerned, Makin stayed with Steve and Joanne and then with Caera and Adam. Tessa went to Katrin (our trainer) for the week. They both sound as though they did well. Tessa did shed a few pounds, how, I do not know. So we have been feeding a little extra. They were both excited to see us and have been a little needy. Yesterday, Sunday, they had a nice long run at the park and then they both had training in the afternoon.

Tessa’s training went well. She is coming along and we were able to maintain some control when the other dogs started to go crazy. We also had a bit of luck with distracted recall. I am not sure if she just wanted to listen or if her stay with Katrin came with a little training. Regardless she is doing well. We have one more manners class with her and then I think it will be time for an Agility ABC’s class. We practice Makin’s homework with her a bit so hopefully that will give us a head start.

Makin’s class yesterday was awesome. We worked on “outs”, which we will need to work on a lot because Makin will definitely want to stick to you like glue. Katrin tried to use Makin as a demo. Now I thought this was a wonderful idea because Makin kind of gets it, but Katrin asked her to get out and Makin sure did get out, out and back to Lael and I. Kind of bad, but makes me feel good that we are her people. We also worked on touch plates. Makin did pretty well with this as well. Basically there is a point on the ground, marked by a plate, and Makin has to go to it and touch it with her nose. Slow at first but she started to get it. For next week she needs to be able to go to the plate from a distance of about 15 feet and over a couple of poles on the ground. We are teaching her to not only go to the plate but to go over things whenever she sees them, Very fun!

Well we will be sure to post some pictures of Nicaragua soon. Maybe next week we will even bring a camera to training and post some pictures from there.