24.09.10

morning run:
Gracie
Bette
Truman
Rita
Frijolita
Lily
Jack
Molly
(8)

I've said this two or three times now, but the monte was the most flooded I've ever seen it today (heavy rains yesterday afternoon). I took this crew out with eight AGAIN, because I screwed up counting when I was letting them out. I really didn't mean to, but then everyone was separated and being good and the dogs in this group are mostly on the "A" list; I foolishly thought that the good ones would influence the newbies. Out past the intersection, Gracie and Bette ran off into the flooded iceplant flats and scrub to check something out while I was deciding whether to go North or South, and when I called them only Bette came back. This led to about 30min of my shouting Gracie's name and tracking her through the swampy muck until her trail led into brush too dense to follow. By that point I figured she had just headed home; she had, and was waiting for us at the gate when we got back. She hasn't done that in a while and I'm not happy about it. Everyone else was stellar past that point, though, and all stayed with me while we looked for Gracie, through some challenging, swampy terrain. We came home via the beach at Au Soleil Couchant. Lily ran far ahead and then turned around and came all the way back to me when I called her, several times, which is good progress. When we turned off of the beach to follow the maginot line (cow-avoidance) I learned that there no longer IS a maginot line: it has been incorporated into the property to the North and fenced off. Since we were already there we just cut across anyway, but we can't do that again.
GRADE: C