Ahhh..it’s beautiful living in a box canyon. Life is good….until December. I live on the sunny side of town, and work on the sunny side of town, but in December, I get exactly four hours of sunlight. Folks, that is NOT ENOUGH SUN. Now, there isn’t anything I miss about Arizona, but I need sun. So once the holidays are over, I head to visit my parents in Arizona. My Flat-coated Retriever, Blue, doesn’t like much about Arizona either. Leash walks on pavement for exercise? Boring! So I contacted Jeffrey Flocker, MPT, CCRT, CCRP, CMT at his rehab facility (I have no idea what all those degrees are, but needless to say he knows what he is doing – and highly recommend him) to see if Blue could swim off some of his energy, and in exchange, I would take some photos of their new Mastiff pup. And 11 week old Splash (New Beginnings Take the Leap) could get some socialization with an overly friendly Flatcoat. 🙂
Blue normally LOVES puppies, but what I didn’t count on were all the toys in the play area. Blue is quite the hoarder, so he totally ignored Splash at first and was 100% obsessed with all the toys. How rude….! So I just focused on Splash, who had just woken from a nap. My gosh, she was a gorgeous pup.
She can make silly faces and look even cuter, although I did not think that was possible.
She has a serious side…..
But when she gets the puppy zoomies, watch out for the crazy faces!
Jeffrey’s wife Karen got some treats to practice stacking. Well, that got Blue’s attention. They both just plopped into a sit.
And let the playing begin….
Brave Splashy, moving in for the attack….
Or, maybe not, that dog sure looks formidable! lol!
Wait, it was just a trick! She turns and tries to catch him unaware!
You’ll have to excuse Blue’s coat in these photos. I have never seen it look so hilarious. He got out of the pool and started running around like a madman with the toys, and I cracked up at how fluffy he got. It was like someone took a hairdryer to him backwards.
They had a good time….Splash is not an overly confident puppy, at least not at this age, but once she checks out the situation, she dives right in. She figured out Blue wouldn’t hurt her, and I love capturing moments of puppy play – they look so vicious, but are learning proper manners.
Some puppy stacking practice. You can’t start too early! And we tried to get some good movement as well.
Time for some more beauty shots. Or cuteness shots.
Yes, she can shake, yawn and roll over. Just not on command. Gotta work on that, Karen. 🙂
This shot cracks me up, and I wasn’t ready with my camera so I only got one dog in focus. We had given Blue to Jeffrey while we stacked Splash, because where there are treats involved, Blue will be in the middle of the action. When he let go of the leash, Splash grabbed the end and took Blue for a little walk. He seemed perplexed by this so it didn’t last long but it was so cute. And yes, Blue was still obsessed with all the new toys.
Some more puppy play. Blue was actually pretty tired at this point. The water is heated, so he was already panting when he was done swimming. Then the wild running around the yard with the toys and a puppy on top of it all? He needed a rest. Splash is trying to convince him otherwise.
Yikes, vicious Flatcoat!
Splash goes for Blue’s bumper. You won’t win this war Splash!
We’ll end with some overly cute shots of Splash. This leaf was worth a bite….
Or maybe not.
Getting ready to take a run at Blue again. 🙂
Ending with a close up of cuteness overload.
Thanks for the trade Karen and Jeffrey, lets do it again in April! I had as much fun as Blue! I have many more in your gallery, but this was just a sneak peak. I’ll send you a link in a day or two for the gallery, but I hope you enjoyed this preview! Kisses to Splash!
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