Friday, July 19, 2013

Rally-free, Lower Hylebos Nature Park, and Elk

It is Friday! And I won't even list the lame events of this homework/exam/quiz week...let's just say 4 weeks down, 4 more to go.


Nicer News from the week

Is anyone else watching Panda Cam at the Atlanta Zoo? I like to keep it on and refresh every so often while doing homework...mostly there is a lot of sleeping going on. And yes, I am subscribed to the Cub Confidential Newsletter. Those panda babies might be louder than elk babies.




The baby bunny moved in a roommate this week. The attraction seems to be the fallen plums. This Rhodendron they are all calling home is next to the window where Pascal lives. This week the chipmunk kept trying to run up the window next to Pascal's cage. I am assuming it wasn't a social call. Pascal basically slept through it.


Emile has taken to morning writhing and kicking sessions with the snuggle. He loves that darn thing.

While this is sad news, I do hope you will take the time to visit Schoep and John's Facebook page. Schoep made it just passed his 20th birthday. Amazing. I had mentioned them several months ago when the photo circulated of them in Lake Superior.

Friday Events

Today Nim and I performed for our first video submission for our Rally-Free novice leg! The sport is still trying to grow, so they have video submission options for trialing which I love. Rally-Free takes freestyle elements and puts on them on signs. It is genius actually. For someone like me that can't naturally troubleshoot how to perform freestyle with my dog I have come a long way in how to train it thanks to this new sport.

Enjoy our video submission: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j9JMFIdtDJk

There are some oops...but I am proud of him. Our first run did not go well (note that link isn't posted) so I really had to bring the baby celebration talk up a notch, which as you can see he loves. Sign. No shame.

Anyway, I am hoping we qualify, we will see. I totally manhandled him for one sign which is a huge no-no in traditional rally-obedience. Not sure for rally-free.
  
After we completed our runs we were heading home and I decided to follow a sign for Lower Hylebos Nature Park.

This is a strange area, and from what I am reading up on, I don't think I was at the prettier end. I was down in Fife. The West Hylebos Creek area is in Federal Way and I think has had a lot of work done.


Still, it gave us a little walk with some different smells and a lot bird chatter.


There is a lot of these platforms along one path (you actually can't see the creek at all except for one end with a bridge). Maybe the area floods and the platforms are for that? You can't see anything from them so I am not sure. I appreciate the restoration efforts in a very industrial area.


I really hope you are still reading! This is what happens when I don't blog until the end of the week, but I really want you to watch my video of the elk:

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GNZTWd7eiyM&feature=youtu.be

You can hear some babies talking, and Nim sniffing and huffing. Interesting thing I observed today, but the babies might be calling more for each other than their mothers. I noticed when the little guy went back up the trail his friend stopped yelling.


If you look closely at the above photo you can see bunny and elk, grazing together.



Have a good night and thanks for reading a long post and dealing with two videos!

It will be a homework mostly weekend, however I am looking forward to the Old Dog Haven walk on Sunday.

9 comments:

  1. Wow! Good job Sam and Nim!! That was great. He looked like he was having a good time, too! The elk cracked me up. I would have thought that was a bird if I had heard that noise they make!
    Someone posted on FB about Schoep's passing.:(
    I haven't gone to his page to read it, it made me sad.

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    1. He was having a REALLY good time. Our first run, not so much. I got super frustrated because he was on his own agenda and then he got stressed and did a bunch of yawning. I really had to step it up for the second try. It took me probably the first season or so to figure out that was elk. The FB page for them really is amazing, emotional, but amazing.

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  2. I loved the long post and both the videos. Good thing you are fairly tall. I could never do the under the leg thing with a dog Nim's size at only 5'2" tall. Those baby elk are precious. I love the sound they make too. Have a good time on your walk.

    Cindy

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    1. It is funny, when we first started working leg passes I would step really wide which actually drops your height down if you think about it, so it took us awhile to get the hang of it. You can tell there is no clearance but we are getting good at it. It wasn't pretty at first. :)

      This is a very active baby season for me. I am loving them, but they are really into claiming the yard this year and it is a delicate operation for me to move in and out of their schedule.

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  3. Your new little chipmunk is cute. I saw that about Schoep this week, very sad. Glad he had a good long life filled with love.

    You're hike looks like fun. Doesn't look like a lot of people, which is nice.

    Great picture of the elk and the bunny. Looks like you have some nice weather.

    Give that sweet boy Nim a hug from me! Have fun on your walk!
    Going to watch your two videos now :)

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    1. I just loved learning the story of that dog and 20 is just so amazing. We wish they would live, longer, but when they actually get to and as touching story as this one, it was really nice to know about them.

      There was really no people so that was nice and it was somewhere new. Our mornings are like Fall! And then it goes into warm so I am happy.

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  4. Just watched the videos. Nim did wonderful! Keeping fingers crossed you qualify. I certainly don't see why not!

    Loved the elks. They're so beautiful and I'm so jealous. I really need to move!

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    1. Thanks! I will let people know. Even if we don't qualify it was a good run, and much better than the first one.

      You guys are probably still a ways off from moving huh?

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    2. As long as my parents won't move, I'm here to stay. They're both getting more nervous and anxious as they're getting older. I have a feeling they'll be moving closer to me sooner than I think.

      When do you find out when you qualify?

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