A couple of weeks ago we visited Flagstaff, because we were asked to dog sit up there. We jumped at the opportunity to get out of the heat, catch up with some friends, and get some real world training experience in!
We also were dog sitting a couple of our furiends from Tucson who we’ve dog sat before-Titan and Io. So they got to join us up in Flagstaff and get out of the heat for awhile. There were five dogs in Flag that we were dog sitting, but with Titan, Io, our summer guest Inca, foster Lacey, the permanent crew Bella, Terra, & Kronos, there ended up being twelve dogs in the house! The other dogs were Tonka (the huge lethal white-blind and deaf), Lexie and Sam (the two little white dogs), Henson (a little old Brussels Griffon-you won’t see him in the pics because he was mainly off sleeping or doing his own thing), and Mary Kate (another foster dog who is available for adoption through Arizona Cattle Dog Rescue).
Since we were in town for about a week, we took the opportunity to hit up many of Bella and my old haunts. Inca’s mom was in town for a short time so we met up with her downtown so they could see each other. Terra got to come along for that ride. Then we walked around for a bit, did a few tricks and some obedience practice, and then headed to the dog park.
At the dog park we played some hide and seek (I hide behind trees to teach the dogs to check-in and keep an eye on me), worked on a few recalls (calling to me then releasing to go play and explore again so coming doesn’t just mean it’s time to go home) and played on the Agility equipment.
Around the house we did a few games as well-we played search games (I’d hide their breakfast kibble and they’d have to use their nose to find it) and a texture game with Kronos around the backyard (Bella and Terra have more exposure already with this). Kronos was asked to get in odd objects, jump on things, and walk on a variety of surfaces from wood to concrete to the roof of a dog house (not sure what this is made of, but it’s definitely a different texture).
Stay tuned for Part 2 from our Adventures in Flagstaff next Tuesday! Continued in Part II
Join us in the Training Tips Tuesday BlogHop hosted by DOGthusiast and Tiffanys Diamond Dogs! Link up with your own Training Tips, Training Stories, Relationship Training, Training Experiences, or anything Training related!
Here’s how to join:
- Grab the badge: Download (right-click to save) or Link to it using the following code, your choice!1<ahref=“http://dogthusiast.com/about/training-tips-tuesday-blog-hop/”target=“_blank”><img src=“http://dogthusiast.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/training-tips-tuesday-200.jpg”alt=“Training Tip Tuesday blog hop about dog training and behavior”width=“200”height=“200”/></a>
- Link to your hosts, DOGthusiast and Tiffany’s Diamond Dogs. For ease of use, copy this code (there’s a copy button in the top right corner of the code box!):1Thispost ispart of the Training Tips Tuesday blog hop,hosted by<ahref=“http://dogthusiast.com”>DOGthusiast</a>and<ahref=“http://tiffanysdiamonddogs.com/”>Tiffany‘sDiamond Dogs</a>.
- Add your link to the hop! Click “Get the Code” below, add your information and link to your post, and you’re in the hop!
Then enjoy exploring and reading the other Blogs in the Hop!
Live Life to the Fullest,
16 thoughts on “Fun in Flagstaff Pt. I”
Sounds like you had a great time. Hide and seek is one of my favorite games with Laika, she loves it so much. Searching games in general are just so great and easy to keep dogs happy and entertained. Can’t wait to read part 2.
Looks like a fun vacation
It was a great trip and though we got quite a few fun outings and games in, it wasn’t exclusively for leisure! 🙂
Looks like you had a great vacation! We love playing hide and seek games!
Pup in a Pot – how cute is that! FWIW: I (hopefully) answered your lighting question in today’s blog post: http://www.bzdogs.com/2014/08/obsession.html. If not, feel free to rephrase and ask again 🙂
Yes you did! Thank you so much-I really appreciate it!
Wow – that’s a lotta pups! Fun! All of them are gorgeous! We love Flag. (Got married there cuz my parents and sis and bro and their families all lived there at the time. Would love to go back and visit some day soon.)
You are so lucky! It’s a beautiful town.
Sounds like fun!
Twelve is a big pack! We assume that everyone got along okay? Looks like fun times. I remember taking Callie to an introductory agility class and the instructor was a bit surprised that she would walk on the beam/teeter-totter. Once I explained that we hike in the wilderness and they are encouraged to walk on fallen trees, she understood.
It was quite a crew! Yes-it took Kronos awhile to warm up to everyone but he did end up playing with all the dogs his size. He wasn’t sure what to make of the big lethal white canid and stayed away from him though (a lot of dogs aren’t sure what to make of Tonka and his accidental bumping around and blindness takes some getting used to).
The real life experiences seem to make it so much easier to transfer that knowledge to the Agility equipment. Bella was exposed to backyard equipment (i.e. a saw horse, and wooden planks on cement blocks as jumps) and lots of random things in addition to playing in the forest. I always envision the dogs who have had those experiences looking at the standard equipment and thinking “This is a piece of cake!”
We drove through Flagstaff on the way home from BlogPaws, but no time to stop and it was lightly snowing so we just wanted to get going. Mom went there a few times eons ago when she was in college. She went to U of A for a year and they made some road trips up there. Beautiful area.
Didn’t know you went to U of A for awhile-that’s cool!
Mom went there her freshman year, but that was eons ago!