Lions and Tigers and Bears, Oh My!!!

[Luanne Dillard]

We are in the Grand Teton National Park, in Colter Bay campground. Having a grand time, even though something is wrong with our aqua-hot heating system, and we have no furnace nor hot water. But hey, we're roughing it!

It's beautiful here; our favorite place to be. Jack and Rupert are having a good time too; Rupert is an old hand at being out here, and Jack--well, Jack is loving it. More smells than you can imagine, and he is sniffing them all. I am counting it as a success when I walk him if
1) he doesn't pull me down
2) we basically go where I want to go
3) we go back to the RV when I'm ready

So far, our walks have been a success, using the guidelines above! He is actually pretty good on his walks, and has met lots of new people. He does like people, and that's good in a place like this.

He saw a deer today, and I was so pleased, he just sat down and watched it. Didn't bark, or try to chase it. 'Course, I'm sure he would have chased it in a heartbeat if the thought had occurred to him.

Hope all of you are doing well, and that your pups aren't destroying too many costly and irreplaceable items.

Luanne, Faye, Rupert, and Jack

[Rebecca Owen]

Sounds wonderful in the Tetons - we hope to get Jake there next spring so he can checkit out!
I have hopefully signed up Jake - the pictures will have to wait though - I need Nic's help on that one!!
Jake is doing so well - he is finally enjoying the car rides (having figured out the car is not a bad mode of transport) and conquered his fear of the stairs - he has gone from madly scrabling up and down, or downright refusal to use them - to finally leaping up and down them - so he is figuring out life away from his Farm!
The 3 girls are his main love - if they are with him life is good. They keep him busy with dog walks, bike rides and keeping up with their daily activities - so no down time, a good thing as wood appears to be a favourite on his menu so our furniture is in peril if he ever feels like he has a moment to spare!!
He must miss his brothers but he is lining up some doggy friends in the neighbourhood to hang out with so life is good.
Hope Jackson is going well and Jack is enjoying it all.
Jake sends greetings to Jack, Blue, Lady and Rupert.

Ciao
Rebecca, jake and family

[Luanne Dillard]

That's good that Callie has a "big sister" to learn from. Rupert doesn't like to take walks where he might see people he doesn't know, he's a pretty big fraidy-cat. So it's just Jack and me.

Gotta go for now. Going to grill a steak for supper, and had better get started.

[Kathleen Gresham]

For us, I think it helps that Daisy knows how to walk properly on a leash. Callie tends to follow her lead. Now at the very beginning of the walk, on the way out the door and to the street and thence the corner, it's a fight with both of them because they are both so excited, but after that they tend to settle into a routine. Well, until there's a kitty...

[Luanne Dillard]

What I really want is for Jack to walk better on leash. We are in class, I know several different methods and techniques supposed to help with pulling, or more accurately, NOT pulling. But he about pulls my arm off sometimes. He does great at times, then terrible other times. I too, have to remind myself that he is still a puppy, and, there are so many smells.

[Kathleen Gresham]

Daisy and Angel each destroyed one piece of furniture each (Daisy a Papasan chair and Angel a coffee table) neither of which was a great loss as it was during college days when I was living with cast off furniture I wasn't nuts about in the first place. Now that we're married and own a house, we've got nicer stuff, so it's a little more painful. She does wonderfully the rest of the time. She likes to "sing" when Allen plays guitar. Current favorite is Hotel California. It's a hoot. She's totally snuggly, which we adore, and she gets WAY excited for walks. We're just starting back after stopping for about 6 weeks during the hottest part of the summer. She's getting so BIG that it's hard to remember that she's still just a puppy really. She's already bigger than Daisy. We're off to curl up on the daybed and snuggle while I read.

P.S. SO ENVIOUS that you're in Wyoming. I love it out there. Post more pictures!

[Luanne Dillard]

Kathleen, I do know what you mean. Rugs, socks, shoes, a heating pad (fortunately not plugged in)--it would be much worse I'm sure, but we use the crate when one of us can't watch him. Luckily, he doesn't seem to mind being in it. I try to tire him out throughout the day; we bought a lunge whip at a feed store ( which is what it sounds like, a whip, and we tied a furry toy animal on the end of it). It provides LOTS of exercise, chasing that around. And is easy for me, as I get to stand still. Is good for when we aren't at the farm, and can't let him run loose.

I took him down to Jackson Lake this afternoon; I can see that we will have to spend lots more time there. He had a ball running around in the little waves coming in to shore. He was just on a six foot leash though, and next time I'm taking the 20 ft lead, so he can run around better.

I do sympathize with the chewing. It's a terrible phase, and can last a while. We also got Jack and Rupert each a "Buster Cube". It's a wonderful toy, and keeps them both busy for a while. I ordered ours off Amazon.

Hang in there; the exercise pen sounds like a good idea; we've thought about that too, but don't have any room.

[Kathleen Gresham]

So far we are down the bedroom rug, Allen's office rug, a lamp cord (replaced that), a laptop charger cable, a dog bed, and the fringe off one side of my good oriental. This is in the last 2 or 3 weeks with multiple days housebound owing to all the rain from the various hurricanes and tropical storms. Two days seems to be her max. The bedroom and the good oriental are the ones I'm most peeved about. The oriental can be repaired someday. The bedroom rug is just flat ruined. She ate a hole through it. And not even at the edge where we could have them cut it off at the next pattern. She's lucky I don't believe in violence toward animals--it was a near thing when I found the oriental. We've got a large exercise pen now that we're setting up in the dining room (only space big enough for it) and putting in a towel, a bunch of toys. and a kong with a treat loaded in. That seems to be helping. Please God, let her outgrow this phase soon! She's still sweet as ever and is our little snugglufagus.

[Luanne Dillard]

Beautiful photo! I know the very spot you took that from, I think. We'll be here through September.

It is beautiful, and we love it here. Jack is having a terrific time, now that we've started taking long walks around. At first I was afraid to venture too far with him, as he was almost unmanageable on the leash. But he is doing much better now, and we take about an hour walk every afternoon. He is so good meeting new people; I'm so happy about that. Yesterday, he met two little boys with their parents, and they were petting him all over, and he was just eating it up. Had the biggest grin on his face!

How 'bout the rest of the pups? How are they with meeting people, and kids?

Thanks again, Linda, for joining in.
Luanne

[Linda Phillips]

Cool - the picture uploaded!

[Linda Phillips]

Hi Luanne - I'm anxious to have time to look at all the pics here - it's just been really busy since I got back trying to catch up! I'll get there though.
How long do you get to stay at Colter Bay? Everyone that I've shared pictures with has been so impressed with the scenery! Wish I was back there . . .

(I'm new to this stuff, so I have no idea if the image uploaded here or not!)