Names for Kola

Kola
Kola nut
Kola mutt
Coca Kola
Pepsi Kola
Kola monster
Cookie monster
Littlest Kola
Kola baby

Bus Ride!

After walking to Mt. Tabor park, and spending many hours there, I declared Kola, and myself to be properly tired. We walked over to 52nd. The bus pulled up, we got on and sat down. Not a word was spoken. Kola sat down very nicely. Eventually she decided to lay down and then busied herself finding things to eat on the floor. (Gross!) People got on, people got off, Kola watched politely and silently. We got off the bus without incident. It was great. I'm so proud.

The hills are alive..

With the sound of barking.

I have a car today so I took Kola over to Mt. Tabor dog park. Its mostly fenced, has water and lots of trees and paths. Its on the side of Mt. Tabor, a very steep ,heavily eroded, side of Mt. Tabor. Kola definitely needs more exercise on hills. She was very uncertain about running up. (Insufficiently uncertain about running down, I really thought she was going to go somersaulting down the hill.) Eventually she got the hang of it, but she was panting hard within minutes. Not hours, minutes! I must find an easy way to exploit this weakness of hers.

6 miles and counting

Went out to the springwater trail via flavel drive and then came back home along woodstock. At one point I tried to see how fast I could get her to go. I kept egging her on but she never quite went full throttle. I think she might be a little sore so I'll try to work her lightly the next few days. Thats easier said than done, Kola isn't always aware of her physical limitations. I'll also give her a little doggie massage. I started rubbing her shoulders and back and she leaned into my hands to increase the pressure and otherwise held very very still. I think she approves of the massage concept.

Sheep herding lesson!

Today Kola and I worked together herding sheep. Dave (the trainer) said he was impressed at how much better she was doing. I was pretty impressed too. After a few minutes working with her he let me take over. Those sheep are hard to walk through sometimes. Dave says that when they bunch up on me like that it means Kola is pushing them too hard. Kola and I both had a blast. She is curled up into a tiny ball in front of the sofa, fast asleep. She worked those sheep for over ten minutes I think maybe more like fifteen. 

Jesse took some video. Its not our greatest moments, but its pretty representative. Our next lesson is on sunday the 22nd. Cant wait!

 

The night club

I took Kola out to brentwood park with her new shiny flashy psychedelic collar. As we approached the park I saw lots of flashing lights zooming around. It was a bunch of black dogs, of course; and their owners were all standing around on top of a hill. I asked if I could join the party, the said yes, and I let Kola off her leash. So Kola got to run around outside of the fenced yard, very much enjoying the grass and the trees and the other dogs. This is all quite illegal, and the other party goers were keeping an eye on a police car in the distance. As a group we did some walking around and the pack followed along with us. One of the men there was the proud owner of a purebred Labrador trained to compete in field trials. He told me about how it worked and about his dogs lineage, which was interesting. It was especially interesting to observe how little labrador behavior Kola has in her.

I'm really looking forward to her herding lessons on saturday.

Sprinwater Trail

Kola and I ran all the way out to the springwater trail. We stopped briefly at the creek. Kola tried to get as close to the middle of the creek without getting her little paws too wet. She looked like a proper Labrador standing there in the stream with her nose in the air sampling the breeze. We went about a mile on the trail and then headed back. According to google maps it looks like we went a little over 4 miles.
We made a pit stop at the dog park for a little water and so that I could verify that she was tired. I was a little annoyed to see her running after the other dog as though I had just taken her out of the house a few minutes ago. Then there was a break in the action and she plopped down in the mud to pant. So I declared her just about done for the morning and we biked back home. (At a pretty good pace, just in case there was a little extra energy that needed to be squeezed out of her.)

I'm very pleased with her. We biked past cats, dogs, birds, (even a chicken!) and she was great. We had a few incidents were she lost focus and just had to smell something but mostly she just ran happily alongside me, sniffing the air. Soon I think it will be time for her first hike at powel bute state park.

Baby Pictures

The Kola Nut