Beach and Off-Leash

It is unbelieveably grey out today, so I bailed on our usual playground run. The school just five minutes from the house has the most amazing sports fields to play in now that school is out, but three soaking wet dogs just isn't my idea of fun. Luckily, everyone is still tired from the fun we had yesterday.
It was Vudu's first time visiting the beach yesterday, and since tide had just gone out, there were numerous teeny tiny crabs skittering along the sand. That got our little black guy all excited and Jerrad too. It was like watching ten year olds.

A picture of Jerrad's crab.

Everyone took the beach in stride:

Curly tail and pointy ears. Beach is sweet!

The boys playing with the crabs.

Anybody else think they kind of resemble each other?
Like if Jerrad was a dog, he'd look like Vudu?

Lemon posing for me.

Beckett trudging along.

The dogs were extra spoiled yetserday, as although the beach run tired them out for awhile, at about 8pm suddenly everybody became nutty. I don't mind play inside -actually, I encourage learning to play appropriately inside-, but after almost an hour of roughhousing with no end in sight, it was time to head to the school. We were a little hesitant about giving Vudu some off-leash time since he's been with us only a week now, but I wasn't going to burn off his steam just walking him. He wanted a run. So, I dropped the leash!

He did very well. He has a switch for a recall. He's either completely on and focused and running full tilt towards you like a crazy dog, or he doesn't realize you've called him/has better things to do. Over all though, he won't be too hard to be reliable off-leash, at least if his family starts off in places with lower levels of stimulation. We're lucky in that Beckett and Lemon have generally good recall, and he usually wants to follow them around. On his own, I don't know if he'd recall too well until he got a lot of training in him. Hard to say.

We also found a tennis court, which no one seems to use. So, what the heck, it's a completely fenced in area, good to know for down the road! It's got at least fifteen high feet chain-link too, so a great place to start off-leashing. Providing it stays empty. Maybe I should take up tennis? Jerrad and I have talked about getting more active, and you know, having the odd night a week without a bunch of dogs kicking around :P

Here is Vudu playing his version of tennis on the court:

After about ten minutes of zoomies and twenty minutes of ball, and the five minute walk each way, Vudu got home and promptly put himself to bed.

For now, some pictures from the schoolgrounds.

Pooped after about ten minutes of running around.

Three tired dogs in a soccer field.

It was also funny to watch Lemon get so many zoomies. Usually she gets one good bought for a few minutes and races until she collapses and is good for the night. With Vudu to chase her, she'll go MUCH longer. She'll tell him off when he gets too rough with her though. I don't think he'd like a 'real' chihuahua sibling, but because Lemon thinks she's a miniature husky, they get along really well. Vudu might pester a small dog without a big attitude.

We're off to a homecheck today. Actually for a home that was interested in Buckwheat and Barley, but mostly they're just looking for a really good fit for them. I'll be showing them Vudu, and there's a couple of others at TG I'll probably talk about too if Vudu doesn't float their boat. He's the right energy match for them, but when you're after a golden retriever mix, a 25 pound black dog with a curly tail might not be what you're looking for :P We shall see!