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morning run:
Bette
Gracie
George
Posey
Frijolita
Osita
Blue
Reggie
(8)
I truly did not mean to take eight today. I threw George in at the last minute because he really wanted to go, and he needs the exercise, but I forgot that I had already let out one more of G&G's pups than I had originally planned, bringing the total to eight. After I had everyone separated, I gave the ones who were going their Ivermectina pills and by the time I did all of that and realized I had eight out I there wasn't anyone who obviously didn't belong in the group besides George, and I had promised him to start out with. Because we had him, I did the southern ~10k, but backwards, heading north first and coming home from the south. I made sure George got most of the water and that he was never lagging too much; it was a little over a year ago that he was unable to walk and had to be carried out to the beach every day for physical therapy. He's kind of like an old linebacker that has gotten a little soft around the middle, but still has it. This run was a little long and up-tempo for him, but he did it in fine fashion and had a good time. The only bad spot was near the very end, after we had crossed the still-inundated land bridge behind the shrimpery and were heading home on that road. There was a moto way off in the distance, almost to doce, and Posey decided she wanted to chase it or check it out or something, but she took off and didn't listen to me at first, dragging her three siblings with her. They did finally listen to me and turned around about halfway to doce, but the fact that Posey took off at all irritated me, so she was on the leash until we got home, which I guess was more symbolic than anything else. Otherwise a great run.
GRADE: B
morning run:
Truman
Godzilla
Eve
Frankie
Lily
Jack
Monkey
Molly
(8)
Roni remarked that this was a young group before we left, and it's true. I've sort of been subconsciously making sure there were always two or three Senior Dogs on most runs, but as I looked around before we left I realized that Truman, Godzilla and Eve are all just over 3 years old now; Roni and I had just been talking about it yesterday. They all listen well, don't break the rules and are good influences, which are the basic requirements for Senior Dog status. They certainly acted like it today. This group was another really fast one, maybe the fastest yet. We did the long and winding road backwards, which is a little over 10k, with many sloggy bits still, and the pace was almost at the edge of what I could do. They were all good about sticking with me, but I noticed that the central tendency of this group was to pick up the pace and keep it up. The few times we did stop I noticed that Molly is getting much better about drinking out of the bottle: less of a spaz. Everyone had a really good time, behaved themselves and ran their asses off.
GRADE: A
morning run:
Alice
Lucy
Ginger
George
Posey
Shirley
Ziggy
(7)
Good group. Only went a little over 8k, via the southern charcos. It's a bit of a pain mixing fast dogs (Shirley, Posey) with slow dogs (pretty much everyone else), but they all had fun and ran well... the fast dogs just did a lot of larking about in the bushes and chased a lot of lizards, that's all. Cows were studiously avoided.
GRADE: A
morning run:
Oscar
Otto
Archie
Chester
Rufus
Ernie
Truman
Elewah
(8)
I suppose I should not have thrown Elewah in... she talked me into it with her violins-and-pathos routine at the gate, and I need to toughen up and not fall for it so often. On the other hand, it had been a couple days (well past the doggie memory threshold), I really was only going to go with the first seven today and we were going to go for a long one anyway, so what the hell. Right off the bat Elewah led a spirited bark-at-the-cows brigade charge, so at least I got to regret my weakness immediately. The cows were fairly unimpressed, but I decided that we would avoid them entirely by crossing the flooded "bridge" behind the shrimpery to start with. We made our way to the main road by fording those middle charcos, then headed north and east to finally catch the inland road to Xixim, and came home via the long and winding road and the northern charcos. It felt like a tough one for some reason, although I've done it several times now; I must be tired from working all the time. The dogs certainly had fun. Other than the shenanigans at the start everyone was good; Rufus and I are still working on his exits, but this one wasn't as bad as the last time.
GRADE: B
morning run:
Bette
Gracie
Frijolita
Osita
Rita
Blue
Elewah
Monkey
(8)
As dysfunctional and screwed up as the last run was, that's how lovely and fine this one was. It ended up being the longest run I've ever done, in any epoch of my life: 14.1km according to Google Earth. This group just wanted to run. For the first time I felt like Elewah was running with us and not just ahead of us. She also now drinks out of the bottle right with Bette instead of always deferring to her, and Monkey has taken to getting on her hind legs and pushing everyone out of her way with her front paws to get a drink (aptly named, that one). We went to Playa Maya, but via the long and winding road from the west; we picked it up going "backwards" from the northern charcos to the western intersection, then cutting east into the monte to get to the inland road to Xixim. We turned towards the beach at the main road just east of Playa Maya, came south down the beach to the Au Soleil Couchant outlet and then re-entered the monte and came home the way we went out. About 500m to the south of Playa Maya, just north of two ruined buildings on the beach we found the body of a dead sea turtle, a little over 1 meter in length. It probably weighed several hundred pounds, and didn't look like it had died all that long ago, or at least it hadn't been lying on the beach for that long. I suppose it must happen from natural causes once in a while; I'll inform someone at the turtle place later today. Other than that nothing odd or untoward happened; there was nobody out there, as we left early. Elewah came in at the same time as everyone else with no prompting or interference on my part, which made me happy.
GRADE: A
morning run:
Godzilla
Tuesday
Gowron
Frankie
Lily
Molly
(6)
Tuesday continued to give me problems, even though I tried a different approach this time. Instead of starting out with her on the leash and keeping tight control of her, I decided to try leaving with her off the leash, and just work with her as much as I could. Roni suggested I take one less dog than normal, and this turned out to be a good idea. For once I had a clear plan of exactly where I wanted to go before we left: out the dirty road to the intersection, through the shire and north to the hidden trail, down the beach to Au Soleil Couchant and home in the monte. We started out extremely well: everyone stayed with me and was listening. This is a fast group. Yesterday I felt like I hardly broke a sweat because the dogs were so all over the place, but this bunch just wanted to run, so we kicked ass all the way down the hidden trail to doce, which is where Tuesday got weird. Until that point she had done extremely well, had fun, and even drank from the bottle twice. For some reason, just after we crossed doce to pick up the trail to the beach Tuesday got that paranoid look and started hanging back, glaring at me suspiciously. I have no idea why. Things had been nothing but light and fun until that point, and we had just run a little over 5km at a flat out gallop, so you'd think she'd be a little tired, but instead she decided she didn't want to go any further, and turned around. I know I've had her out on that very trail before, so she knew we were already heading home anyway. She was not to be reasoned with, and insisted on heading back exactly the way we came, back up the hidden trail; my standard Doggie Psych 101 technique of ignoring her and moving on, expecting her to decide it's okay and catch up, was not going to work, so I got us all turned around and it was off to the races, only this time Tuesday wasn't with me, she was trying to beat me home. If I didn't have concerns about her chasing cars or doing other stupid things when out of my sight I might've just said to hell with it and let her go home alone; I did that with Archie once (a long time ago), but Archie doesn't have a history of acting like Tuesday when we're in the monte. In the end, we ended up tracking her (Lily is a good tracker), and caught her as she tried to ford the crossing right at the dead goat 3-way intersection. Amazing. I got her on the leash in the water, which was a little more contentious than I would've liked. I made a point of not losing my temper or demonstrating strong emotions, because I'm convinced that it is counter-productive in the end, so at least the last 1km home wasn't as much of a pain as it might've been in the past. Everyone else on the run was stellar.
GRADE: C
morning run:
Alice
Lucy
Ginger
George
Shirley
April
Ziggy
(7)
Strange group, and we started strangely as well. Alice has what could be called crippling bovinophobia: she simply will not go by cows if they are close to the road. I intended to start out going down the dirty road, but the cows were all near the gate in their pasture; Alice balked, and comically so. I didn't want to fight it, and all of these dogs like water, so we crossed the "land" "bridge" (which is still up to my knee under water) and went out south, down the main road into town from the monte. We hadn't gone that way in a while. There was a group of salt workers eating their morning donuts on the road near the large tar-paper shack, and all of the dogs were angels. We entered the monte via that southern entrance we used to use all the time, which is now overgrown to the point that you almost can't see it. The way was high and dry for the most part, and very pretty. No flamingos at all. We took the road that goes by the palapa on stilts all the way to the Au Soleil Couchant access road, and then home via the monte... about 8k according to Google maps. Everyone did well. April was off the leash for almost the entire run (first time in a long while).
GRADE: A
afternoon walk:
Zasu
Henry
Greta
Tito
(4)
Shorty down the dirty road, to the dead goat intersection and around the loop home. Everyone was good.
GRADE: A
morning run:
Oscar
Otto
Archie
Chester
Rufus
Ernie
Maggie
Monkey
(8)
Rufus was terrible at the gate. I had him calmed down before I opened it, but he was still too riled, and I had to be very stern with him down past the shrimpery to get him back on the leash and calm him down again. Not our best exit. Also, a strange group, but Maggie needed it and Monkey is still on fatty patrol... as is Ernie, although less so. Ernie is frequently the fastest or one of the fastest dogs for the length of a run, in spite of his girth. Once we got going everyone settled in and did well. My intention was to do the southern 10k, but it ended up being the southern ~8.5k because Oscar developed a limp somewhere in the first ~5km. He was fine to start with, so I'm guessing he slipped in the mud while playing; I didn't want to take any chances, so we came home at the first turn after the palapa on stilts. It seemed like maybe he was shaking it off by the time we got home, but we'll watch him today to make sure.
GRADE: B
morning:
Bette
Gracie
Posey
Blue
Eve
Truman
Jack
Molly
(8)
Good group. Did the long and winding road. Uneventful. Everyone was good.
GRADE: A
morning run:
Alice
Lucy
Ginger
Frijolita
Gowron
Ziggy
Lily
(7)
Another odd group, but it worked out well. We did the southern 10k, via a slightly different route than normal; we crossed over one more charco than we usually do before heading south, and we didn't go the entire way to the Au Soleil Couchant road, opting to cross the big charco at a man-made berm and head around through the shire. We ran into one of "los profesionales", heading south on his moto as we were heading north, and the dogs all acquitted themselves perfectly by larking around in the charco quietly while we talked for a couple of seconds. Nobody made a move towards him or barked. Lily and Frijolita had a good time paling around with each other. Lily deserves special mention for showing constant improvement in listening and behaving herself when we're out there; she likes to run fast, but she'll always come back when called, and understands that when I tell her "no" it means "no, don't go chase those flamingos". The sisters kept up well and had fun.
GRADE: A
morning run:
Osita
Blue
Rita
Ernie
Frankie
Monkey
Molly
Elewah*
(8)
I left early with the first seven, and headed out to do the southern 10k. Almost exactly halfway, where you cross the little land bridge between charcos to get onto the road that goes by the palapa on stilts, we ran into Elewah and The Brethren, or at least two of them. Everyone behaved themselves to a degree that I still find surprising: there wasn't even a single bark, and the ones with me just sort of crowded around Elewah and said hi. She was covered in that sticky plant, and extremely happy/snorty; her pals sort of melted into the monte quickly, and nobody seemed to notice. I was thinking they were following us after that, but I never caught sight of them. Elewah continued on with us and came home; she drank most of the water, so who knows what she got into out there. We never went near the beach.
GRADE: A
morning run:
Bette
Oscar
Otto
Archie
Chester
Rufus
Truman
Reggie
(8)
An energetic and fun group. I dealt with Rufus today by forcing him to calm down on the leash inside the yard, and then not opening the gate until everyone was quiet. This took a little while, as Bette and Rufus were both incredibly wound up. However, true to form, by the shripmery intersection Rufus had calmed down, and Bette was having a good time. We went the long and winding road to the northern charcos, the "right" way (counter-clockwise if viewed from above). At the place where you must turn off of the road to playa maya and go west back into the charcos, there is a mini-charco not 20m off of the "road". Usually it is empty, but today we left early and there were at least 100 huge birds of all kinds jammed into it in the morning cold. Flamingos (little ones), egrets, lots of those little birds that follow them both around, ducks ... they were silent, and so were we, but we couldn't help startling about 50 of them into flight just by walking by single-file. Quite a sight. Nice to go early this time of year. Everyone was stellar.
GRADE: A
morning run:
Alice
Lucy
Ginger
Gracie
Shirley
Godzilla
Molly
(7)
Turned out to be a good group. Alice was scared of a group of cows early; we had to slog around them in the charco so that she couldn't see them through the bushes... if she can't see it, she can't be scared of it. Past that we did half of the long and winding road, just like 05.11.10, but in the opposite direction. We went out like we were going to the hidden trail via the northern charcos, but we kept heading north, slogged across the rump of that charco and hit the trail that leads to the road. We then took it east to the road to playa maya; on two occasions I got crossed up a bit, since things look different when you're going in the opposite direction. However, we persevered and slogged our way through to the north/south playa maya route, turned south and came home via the charcos (Lucy likes to swim so much). We took the short-cut home from the intersection where the crossing is still under water past my hip. The dogs were adorable as they huffed and puffed their way across, and Lucy truly showed her mettle: she hit the water last (she was getting tired of all that damned running), and ended up on the other side first. A warrior at heart.
GRADE: A
evening walk:
Zasu
Miles
Alice
Lucy
Ginger
Henry
Greta
(7)
Miles, Miles, Miles... the monte echoes with our voices calling (yelling, hollering, screaming) his name whenever he hits the road. He dawdles and screws around and waits until you walk ALL THE WAY BACK to get him before sprinting off ahead of everyone and pissing you off even more. His shenanigans aside, everyone was good. Just a shorty loop down the dirty road to the dead goat intersection and around the cow pasture.
GRADE: B
morning run:
Oscar
Otto
Archie
Chester
Rufus
Blue
Rita
Elewah
(8)
A group built for speed and endurance, we blazed a new trail today... at least new to us. We went north, out to the long and winding road (subject of 28.10.10), but instead of taking it all the way to doce I paid close attention to find the turn back south, which ends up connecting to the northern charcos. The intersection is overgrown, but this time I found it and it worked out exactly as planned; there's only one sloggy patch, perhaps 50m, and a few dodgy bits directly west of the road to playa maya. Other than that, the whole way was high and dry, albeit insanely overgrown for stretches. There are some beautiful little places on that route, and the dogs loved running around out there; yet another route for the must-go-with-Roni tour. Everyone was good, and although Elewah didn't come back in with everyone else, she only screwed around for 15m and then came in of her own accord (she still is titular Queen of the Monte, so I guess she has to check in on things). Not a very long run, but a really nice one.
GRADE: A
morning run:
Gracie
Bette
George
Osita
Eve
Frijolita
Ernie
Molly
(8)
Sort of a strange round-up of dogs, but it worked out well. There's a norte blowing through right now, so we avoided the beach and did the southern ~9k again. It was perhaps a bit long for George, but he drank most of the water and did well. Monte drying out bit by bit, but still some slogging. Everyone was good and had fun.
GRADE: A
morning walk:
Zasu
Lucy
Greta
Ziggy
Elewah
(5)
Short walk down the dirty road to the dead goat intersection and back again. Elewah was a bit of a jerk at first (predictable), but things evened out and everyone had a good time swimming in the over-full charcos (even Zasu). It was a bit hot, and Greta was not allowed to run so she had to be told that constantly, but everyone was pretty good and had a good time.
GRADE: B
morning run:
Alice
Ginger
Henry
Ernie
Gowron
Monkey
Molly
(7)
Lucy didn't feel like going, which worries me. She doesn't seem to be particularly ill or anything, but she wasn't up for a run. Everyone who went did well. We did the southern 8-9k, which we hadn't done in a while; I did this mainly to limit the amount of xmul we ran through, given that I had a couple of little hairy dogs. there are still flamingos, but not nearly so many, and we didn't disturb them. Still quite flooded; the "land bridge" behind the shrimpery is under water up to my thigh in places. Hardly any bugs at all. Molly did well on her first post-surgery run.
GRADE: A
