Fun With Fern

Having such a good time with my puppy!  Fernly is turning into a really cool dog, fun to take places and extremely entertaining to live with.  Far less mischievous now too, and much more trustworthy.  I no longer feel as if I have to watch her every single minute, although we are careful not to give her too much freedom. She needs to earn that and still assumes everything is a toy, something that must be carried around and played with.  Last night it was the strainer that goes over the floor drain in the basement, full of dried aquarium plants and algae (from water changes).  Found the strainer, along with dried up green stuff, on the dog bed in the family room. "Perhaps" it wasn't Fern who brought her prize upstairs, but . . .

I've been trying to take Fern running off leash as often as possible so she can burn off some energy.  A tired puppy is a good puppy.  I tried the Dog Park last week, and although she enjoyed it, I decided she was not ready yet.  Like Letty, Fern loves to be chased, but unlike Letty she can not yet turn sharply and come up running.  Fern's fast, but not very agile at this gawky, leggy age.  She would encourage dogs to chase her, try to corner too fast, do a double somersault, and end up on the bottom of a pile of dogs.  That made ME nervous, but she was determined to be chased.  Guess we'll wait until she's able to stay ahead of her pursuers, or decides on a new game.

On Saturday we went to Hidden Falls Park which is fairly empty this time of the year. I had a pocket full of high-value treats, so we worked on recalls too and she did really well. Fern had great fun chasing sticks and racing around with her squeaky hamburger.  She particularly enjoyed running through the leaves that were arranged in concentric rings.  I've heard of Crop Circles, but Leaf Circles?  We checked out the falls which I assumed would be dry, but apparently it's spring fed, and Fernly had fun racing up and dog the creek itself, splashing in the ice cold water.  We were joined by another woman and her huge Goldendoodle "Yogi".  We had a nice chat while the dogs played - but am so glad I was not the one who would have to get the mud, leaves and sticks out of the Goldendoodle's furry coat.  Love my Wash And Wear dogs.  Fernly was a bit spooked by the huge furry dog at first, but they quickly became best buddies and she burned off a lot of energy playing with him.

The weather wasn't perfect, but my dog and I had a wonderful time.