In Green Timbers

June 18, 2013 Maurice 3 Comments

Today we took Bailey to Green Timbers Park, in North Surrey. It’s a very large park, with several sections divided by some of the main roads. I really like this one section, north of 100th Avenue. It’s a small section of really cool forest, that is sort of spooky. It’s a very densely packed area, with lots of huge trees, and tons of undergrowth. Lush ferns cover the earth, and moss drips from the trees. There are bridges that span swampy bits, and narrow trails zigzag through the dense foliage.

Bailey had a great time, heading from one side of the trail to the other, checking out the interesting smells. We’re going to have to get a video up of her walking. She’s quite hysterical, running from one side of the trail to the other, searching for the next best smell!

Pam took lots of shots and there are a couple of cute ones. She loves this commercial of a dog with his head out the window, his mouth billowing open. So she got this one of Bailey doing the same thing.

This is a shot I took of Bailey relaxing at home. It seems she’s settling in quite nicely!

About Bailey

Bailey in Crescent Park

June 18, 2013 Maurice 4 Comments

Today we headed south to a really lovely park called Crescent Park. It’s near Crescent Beach, but it is not connected to the ocean. There are old growth trees, and re-planted sections as well. There are lots of play areas for kids, wide open spaces to just enjoy, baseball diamonds, a turtle and duck pond, and lots and lots of trails to walk, bike or jog.

Bailey is quite funny on the leash. She goes from one side of the trail to the other, sniffing and searching. She just doesn’t want to miss one thing. I think we should have named her ZigZag, because she just can’t walk in a straight line!

On one of the trails we came across this interesting old stump… looks kind of like a face wouldn’t you say?

She certainly loves to be in the car, with the window down. She sticks her head out, lets the old tongue trail and enjoys the sights. She hasn’t reacted to passing dogs or people, and hasn’t tried to get out. I keep her leash around my arm, in case she wants to go, but so far, she’s been really good in the car.

She loves to amuse herself in the backyard. It’s darn funny to be sitting in the family room, with the back French doors open and see her go flying past, head and tail in the air, with a toy in her mouth. Seconds later, she flashes by, going the other way. Then, back she goes… We have lots of squirrels who scoot across the top of the fence, and that is a source of amusement for her too. She’s a chaser, no doubt about it.

The rain doesn’t bother her either. When it was raining, it was tough to get Max to go outside. But not Bailey. In the pouring rain, she’s got the toy in her mouth, scooting back and forth the length of the yard, amusing herself.

Here’s a little movie of her playing with one of her many toys. We’ve got a whole pile of dog toys. Most were from Max, but some were even Buck’s toys. But I don’t think these will last very long, mind you! She’s pretty hard on the toys. The pig she has between her paws in the pic to the right has already had his feet chewed off. It’s a rubber toy, and Max had it for years!

Here’s a little longer one, showing Bailey molesting her toy pig!

About Bailey

Two parks with Bailey

June 13, 2013 Maurice 6 Comments

Bailey has been adapting to her new home quite well. She’s an early riser, though, that’s for sure! She has gotten me up at six, which is about an hour before I’m really ready to get up. I was thinking she needed to go out, but nope, she just wants to get her day started!

We’ve taken her to a couple of parks and she’s loved it. Hawthorne Park was one of Max’s favorite parks. It has a great big duck pond, and Bailey loved it, too. She wanted to hop down into the pond, but it’s fenced so she tried to sneak under it!

There is also a water park there, and we started up a bunch of the various fountains for her, and she lapped up the water. Pretty funny.

Today (Thursday) I took her for a run through Sunnyside Urban Forest. It’s a great park, with lots of trails through the forest. She is not great at socializing yet – she apparently had a very sheltered first year, and hasn’t had an opportunity to meet a lot of dogs. Well, that’s going to change with us, since we’re always in one park or another.

Today she met a couple big dogs, a Golden/Mastiff cross and something that looked like a short haired Samoyed, both female. She apparently has real issues with female dogs, but both meetings came off very well. I was very pleased with how that went, and not a little surprised too!

We’ve been continuing her daily training, and we’re teaching her a new trick – she is sitting in front of us, and we pretend to get her to come between our legs, but she darts around behind us, and comes through our legs from the rear! It’s darn cute. Hopefully we’ll get it perfected so we can take a movie of it.

Anyway – all is good. Well – not all – she does have a habit of drinking with her mouth quite deep in the water dish, and then dripping all over the place! It’s kinda funny, until you see she has dripped in huge puddles all over the kitchen and stairs leading to the family room! haha

About Bailey, Commentary

Bailey's home…

June 9, 2013 Maurice 8 Comments

First a bit of news – we have decided to change Jenny’s name to Bailey. Neither of us thought that Jenny was much of a dog’s name, so we wanted to change it. It turns out that LAPS had simply named her that, it was not the name she has had all her life, so we figured, what the heck? She’s going to be coming into a new situation, so may as well start her with a new name too.

We’ve also renamed the blog, from All about Max to My Dog’s Blog… Not sure I’m entirely comfortable with that, but All about Max didn’t make much sense.

So, anyway, Saturday we picked up Bailey and brought her home with us. LAPS gave us a big bag of food, a huge metal water bowl (so big it holds a GALLON of water!), and some medicine she needs to take. She’s had surgery to ensure she is spayed, so we also got a cone for her head, which she needs to wear when we can’t supervise her.

Once in the house, she sniffed around quite intently at all the places Max used to hang out, but didn’t feel the need to mark her territory, which is a good sign. She ran around checking out the whole house, but waited to go upstairs until we went up there.

She loved the backyard and gave it a good sniff and run. We played some ball with her, and gave her a toy that is quite hilarious. It’s a rubber pig in a football uniform and squeaks. She loved it. Kept tromping on it with her paw to hear it squeak. She’s been carrying it with her since!

After dinner, we went for a nice long walk around the neighbourhood. She got quite a bit of attention from people, but she took the praise like a champ, and didn’t get a big head about it. So, a good start to things.

About Bailey

More about Jenny

June 2, 2013 Maurice 6 Comments

We have been out to take Jenny for walks. The Langley Animal Protection Services (LAPS) has an absolutely first rate facility on a lovely piece of property that includes a nice walking trail, lots of places for the animals to get exercise, a small pond, big trees… it’s just really a great place.

She’s a bundle of energy and lots of fun to take on a walk. She goes from side to side on the trail, eager not to miss a single thing. She does not pull on the lead, trying to take over the walk. She takes as much as you’ll give her, but will come back to you if you shorten the lead. She has her nose to the ground often, like she has the scent of something. She’s really curious about the world around her.

I’m sure she’s going to love all the parks to which we will be taking her.

Here’s a little movie of her playing with Pam inside the offices of the LAPS. She is on the lead, since there are some little kittens at the other end of the room, and she has some issues with cats (wow – who woulda figured a dog would have issues with cats?) There were no incidents while we were there however – she was just interested in playing with us.