Summer afternoon

I don't know nor can I say what other people do on a warm, sunny Saturday afternoon in late July, but I can share with you what I love doing.

After all the morning lessons have been taught, all the yard work taken care of and lunch over, its time to hang out with friends under the trees in the deep shade and talk of this and that. Yesterday, that talk led to my telling about an email I had received from Paula McCollum.

Mind you, it wasn't very long before the camera was out and we set off on one of those fun "can you top this one?" adventures. While I started figuring out just where we would do our "photo shoot", Sidney ran inside to gather up some of the necessary props, Alison put all the extraneous dogs up in the kennels and Damien cleared away the lunch clutter.

The instant the humans all got busy the three Dobes stopped whatever they had been doing and showed up in the outside office. Each and every one of them was hoping this new activity would include them. So it did.

Still in the "can you top this" frame of mind we started off with Sanity handling 4 bones. One on each foreleg and two carefully balanced on her nose. Piece of cake, says she.

So this leads to making it just a tad bit more difficult. How about a bone on each foreleg, a bone in one's mouth AND a bone carefully balanced on the nose?


Not to be outdone, Chance is quick to show that he can do that 2 bone trick as well.


Meanwhile, Sanity figures that he is going to take a while getting things straight so she goes off for food and drink for one and all.

Yes, it was a MickyD's day. Some days a body's just gotta have a big, sloppy fast food burger. Chance lines up for his part, while Sanity gets busy on a Coke.

Meanwhile, Wrap has been patiently hanging around the edges, just hoping and I suspect remembering when she was the star performer in all the little summer plays. So we finally get to a point where we can call on her for a small walk-on part. It makes her day and she is then happy to go off and snooze in a cool, shady spot.


Now, for all the bleeding hearts out there, yes the dogs did get to eat all the bones when we were finished. There were even enough for the dogs that had to sit in the kennel runs and watch. Plus everyone of them got a french fry. Mind you, I didn't say they each got their own BOX of fries, but they did get a single fry. Seems that is just a part of the after shoot clean-up.

Months and months of serious training work and we get to spend a lazy summer's afternoon playing. I always am left with the feeling that the dogs enjoy these silly "plays" as much as the humans. One of the nice things about working with dogs that have such a solid foundation is that they actually hang around watching very closely and are quick to step up and try anything we ask of them. This was Chance's first time at being one of my actors. He hung around the edges watching everything Sanity was doing and then when he was called, well let's just say he's a natural and I'm sure he will show up as the leading man in other productions.

From Wrap, Sanity and myself...hope you love summer at least half as much as we do.