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morning run:
Alice
Lucy
Ginger
Frankie
Maggie
Floyd
(6)
To the tortuga sign via the middle land bridge and the intersection, home the usual way: ~4k. I was only going to go around the cow pasture the long way but they talked me into crossing that land bridge before the three-way intersection (Ginger, mainly). It was a bit late and hot but the distance was short and everyone had a good time. The tide was ridiculously low and the ocean was strange. Lucy rolled in poo.
GRADE: A
evening walk:
Zasu
Miles
Henry
(3)
Roni took these three around the cow pasture at dusk. They were all good even counting an encounter with some of the local strays. Bugs were bad.
GRADE: A
morning run:
Chester
Eve
Blue
Frijolita
Archie
Tuesday
Daisy
Luna
(8)
To the intersection via the tortuga cross-roads, east and then immediately south down the nearer trail around the southern charcos, out of the monte at the last turn onto the main road and home via the land bridge and the shrimpery: ~6k. Tuesday didn't show any signs of paranoia until we were already back inside the yard as I was taking her harness off. She was really good throughout and deserves a special gold star. Everyone else was also stellar. We didn't bother with the beach as there are many fine swimming holes with mostly fresh water in them throughout the monte. Bugs weren't as bad as I thought they'd be.
GRADE: A
morning jaunt:
Ginger
Floyd
(2)
Around the cow pasture the long way: ~2k. I threw Ginger in because she was on the porch. It was starting to get hot but it was still nice. The bugs were only bad on the dead goat trail, so we ran that as fast as we could.
GRADE: A
mid-day swims:
Greta
Shirley
Lucy
Twiggy
(4)
The sea is calm and strange today, so it was smooth sailing for everyone. Greta, Shirley and Lucy did 8 laps apiece. I threw Lucy into the mix because she's fat and can use the non-impact exercise. She loves to swim anyway, and although this mode of doing so isn't her favorite she still had a good time. Twiggy did 10 laps because she doubled up on every one and tired me out in the process - she is FAST in the water.
GRADE: A
morning run:
Bette
Gracie
Osita
Rita
Godzilla
Ziggy
Floyd
Xmul
(8)
To the intersection the usual way, east into the monte to the palapa road via the outer land bridge, south on the palapa road all the way around the southern charcos, home via the main road, the land bridge and the shrimpery: ~8k. It rained hard last night and the monte was mostly flooded - the land bridge nearest to us was high and dry but most of the other ways in and out of the monte were under substantial amounts of water. Ziggy was an ass in the first few kilometers: when he starts chasing water birds he turns his ears off and stops listening to me. This is unacceptable, so I finally had to grab him and put him on the other end of the leash with Floyd, where he stayed for the final ~6k or so. Irritating. Xmul was mouthy with someone on a moto near the tar paper shack on the main road, but it was only barking and she listened to me when I told her to stop; she continues to show improvement that way but she still barks too much. Other than those two bits of misbehavior everyone was really good and had a blast; there are crabs and lizards and who knows what other critters everywhere. The humidity was fairly high but the temperature was more bearable after the rain and the bugs didn't seem bad.
GRADE: B
morning jaunt:
Floyd
(1)
Around the cow pasture the long way: ~2k. Ran most of the way.
GRADE: A
morning run:
Archie
Chester
Truman
Posey
Rufus
Ernie
Lily
Jack
(8)
Hidden trail the standard way: ~8k. Otto is still down with a twisted leg / ligament issue; he went to the vet yesterday because it was taking so long to heal up and X-rays revealed no serious damage, so it's just more rest for him. This group was really good the majority of the way. At the north/south intersection where the Au Soleil Couchant road splits there were some salt workers to the south who had a little white dog; Lily, Posey and Ernie ran over to say "hi" but returned quickly and didn't bark or behave aggressively. Everyone was fine then until we hit the northern end of the coco trail. There was a lot of barking to the west in the general direction of the HoJo and further north. It was faint and must've been far away; several of our dogs took off to investigate, but again I heard no barking from our troops and they came back within 30 seconds or so (feels like an eternity when you're just standing there getting bitten). I had a feeling that Truman and/or Posey would pull some kind of jack-rabbit routine right as we were getting home so I intended to put them on either end of the leash at the shrimpery; sadly, I forgot that I had put the broken collar on Posey a while ago, just so she'd have something on - I intended to fix it but forgot, so when I went to use it it didn't work very well. What I should've done at that point was switch Posey's and Truman's collars and put Posey on the hook, since she's the "bad" one, but instead I just left Truman on. Naturally when we got near our gate it was Posey that took off north. I was not pleased with her. She's going to have to be on the leash coming home for a while now. Other than that it was a nice run.
GRADE: B (I had to yell at them too many times for an A)
morning jaunt:
Floyd
(1)
Immediately after the runners were in I took Floyd around the cow pasture. He was really good and just wanted to walk half the way, mainly so he could eat that plant they all love that grows under tall bushes everywhere. We heard no barking at the end of the coco trail nor did we see anyone or anything else.
GRADE: A
morning swims:
Greta
Shirley
Twiggy
Gowron
(4)
Went out relatively early this time so the sea was calm. Greta, Shirley and Twiggy all did eight laps. Greta made me haul her down to the water, but everyone else was good at the gate. I let PupG out with Twiggy and she swam enthusiastically the whole time.
GRADE: A
afternoon swims:
Greta
Shirley
Twiggy
(3)
Getting back on track with the swimming after an extended period of weirdness here. It was late when we went out, and thus choppy. We were all out of practice so everyone just did six laps but it was six laps with heart for each one. Greta and Shirley were both breathing hard by the time they were done; Twiggy is younger and not so easily tired but she was ready to come out after that. The water was a bit murky and very warm.
GRADE: A
morning run:
Ginger
Bette
Gracie
Blue
Osita
Maggie
Molly
Floyd
(8)
To the beach at Au Soleil Couchant via the shire and home via the tortuga sign: ~7k. Maggie had a hard time towards the end - she's pudgy and short and it was hot, but she's a trooper. When we leave earlier she's fine with this distance but when we leave too late she is not and I shouldn't do that again. I put Molly on the other end of the leash with Floyd during the last kilometer because she was getting too far ahead (excited to get back home and have a long drink); she was good about it and I should do this sort of thing with her routinely anyway, just to make sure she doesn't go "bad" on the leash. Everyone was stellar and had a good time.
GRADE: A
morning run:
Lucy
Rita
Eve
Lily
Monkey
Floyd
Mo
Xmul
(8)
To the beach at Au Soleil Couchant via the shire / swimming-hole: ~7k. It was hot and a little late but no matter, everyone did well. Lucy deserves special mention for being such a warrior; she may be pudgy but she can hold her own with a much younger crowd, looks good doing it and has no equal in the water, where she is queen. Floyd was good about the water bottle again and did well at a slightly slower pace than normal (for Lucy's sake). Everyone listened well and had a great time.
GRADE: A
morning run:
Archie
Chester
Truman
Reggie
Ernie
Rufus
Jack
Stella
(8)
Hidden trail the normal way: ~8k. I would've done the long and winding road but it just seemed like a bad idea. Stella is not to go out off the leash again for a long time. She's taken to misbehaving earlier and earlier in the run to the point where she just can't be off the hook. Today she was sort of listening until we got to the tortuga three-way heading out, and then she decided to break for the beach when we were going the other way; I had to run her down and put her on the leash, so she just stayed on the hook for the duration. We saw a photographer out on the Au Soleil Couchant road near where it bifurcates. He was taking pictures of some out-of-season flamingos in the charco and our dogs were perfect; I yelled once for them to come back to me and they all left him alone, didn't bark once at the flamingos or in any way harass them. The birds didn't budge and weren't bothered by us as we ran around the southern end of that charco. I was very proud. At the very end we saw one of those skittish strays that's been hanging around the beach at the next corner to the north from our house as we were rounding the bend. I saw it first and kept everyone back but, of course, Stella barked at it and sent everyone on a merry chase that she herself could not participate in. Everyone came back quickly enough and no harm was done, as usual.
GRADE: B
morning run:
Frijolita
Godzilla
Posey
Elewah
Molly
Floyd
Daisy*
Xmul
(8)
Weird route due to back-tracking. To the intersection and starting to head out, then back again to the beach at the tortuga sign and home: ~6k. The idea was to head to the swimming hole and maybe the hidden trail, but we left late so I wanted a plan B (swimming hole to beach at Au Soleil Couchant). I saw Daisy with us on the road to the tortuga three-way, but by the time we passed the intersection she was not. We went ahead a little to see and then turned around to find her, although I knew she had probably headed home. Elewah was a pain in the ass on the way and REALLY wanted to go to the beach, so we went to the beach at the tortuga sign since I thought it possible Daisy might've done that (but not really). In the end Daisy had come home early, probably due to the heat, and I was stressed out for nothing and irritated with Elewah.
GRADE: C
morning run:
Henry
Alice
Lucy
George
Chester
Gowron
Lily
Linda
(8)
To the beach at Au Soleil Couchant and home via the tortuga sign and the monte: ~5k. This was a funny group. It was Linda's first time out and she did well. When we got to the three-way intersection at the Au Soleil Couchant road I heard a moto coming west, which is the direction we were going to go; I put Lily on the hook just to be sure and waited for it to pass. It was a moto-taxi with what looked like Mexican tourists. After they passed by I saw that Linda was running away from them in the direction of the beach - she is obviously averse to vehicles, which is generally a good thing. In this case, however, it was a pain in the ass, as the driver of the taxi was typically and stupidly oblivious to both the little dog obviously running away from him in fear and me sprinting to catch him with seven dogs in tow not 100m behind (and gaining). I don't know how you can be so utterly oblivious to your surroundings - I was yelling for Linda and for him to stop the whole way and he certainly must've heard me. Finally we spilled out onto doce where he turned south. Linda did as well but found a place to get off the road and hide. She wasn't terribly traumatized, just tired and a little freaked out. I collected her from the bushes and got us back on track down to the beach, where she showed herself to be a class-A water dog: she jumped into the water and swam almost immediately, came out to get me and obviously enjoyed swimming. By the time we got to the tortuga sign all was well again and she ran home in the middle of the pack. Everyone else was stellar, including Lucy and Alice, who kept up and had a great time.
GRADE: A
morning run:
Ginger
Bette
Gracie
Blue
Osita
Ziggy
Floyd
Mo
(8)
Hidden trail the normal way: ~8k. The last few days have been stressful and strange for one reason or another and it just wasn't in the cards to go out. Everyone has been really good overall - Roni and I especially deserve treats. Today the clouds lifted a bit, so to speak, so I took this group out relatively early. It was hot, humid and really buggy - wow. Floyd and Ginger both insisted on lying down in shallow pools of water at a couple points and they accounted for most of the water from the bottle. We ran into those strange seashell-collecting tourists on the beach at Au Soleil Couchant and all of the dogs were absolutely perfect - listened, stayed close to me, didn't make a peep or a move.
GRADE: A
morning run:
Frijolita
Posey
Eve
Lily
Molly
Floyd
Daisy
Luna
(8)
North through the shire to the swimming hole, east on the Au Soleil Couchant road and then south on the palapa road, around the southern charcos and home via the main road and the land bridge behind the shrimpery: ~9k (maybe 10, have to check). Those strays are still at the outbuilding at the shrimpery - a couple of ours ran over to say hi but they were good and no problems ensued. Everyone was good otherwise.
GRADE: A
morning run:
Otto*
Archie
Chester
Truman
Rufus
Ernie
Elewah*
Jack
Stella**
(9)
We didn't all go at once and nobody went very far. I started with the first eight and it was going well until I noticed that Otto was lagging on the coco trail heading out. He had come up lame in his left rear leg for some reason. I looked him over and gave him a few meters to shake it off but it was not getting any better; it looked like perhaps he pulled it or twisted it somehow in that first 300m. When I realized Otto could not go I called the lead dogs back (Elewah, Jack) and we circled around the cow pasture to go home and drop Otto off. Everyone did pretty well at this; there were some strays hanging out at one of the small outbuildings at the shrimpery who barked at us as we ran back west next to the cow pasture and everyone was good about it. I scooped Elewah up when we got close because I didn't want her to go off and screw around while I was trying to deal with things. When we got back there was some general confusion, as we had only left a few minutes before. Otto and Elewah ended up going in and Stella came out so I (stupidly) thought "what the hell" and threw her in instead of Elewah, bringing the count down to seven for our second attempt. This turned out to be a bad idea as she began misbehaving almost immediately; she obviously smelled those strays and pulled everyone down in that direction to go bark at them. It was getting hot and I had pretty much already decided that this was not going to be a normal run but that sealed it. I put Stella on the hook for the rest of the run and took us just to the tortuga sign and back after all of that screwing around: a total of ~5k after all was said and done. It was pretty out and we saw nobody other than stray dogs and lizards so I decided to call it some kind of win. It wasn't the run I was hoping for but at least most of the dogs were good about the strangeness. We're watching Otto - so far no swelling or any other signs of something major.
GRADE: A
morning run:
Ginger
Bette
Gracie
Posey
Godzilla
Maggie
Lily
Floyd
(8)
To the tortuga sign, up the beach a little and back again the same way: ~5k. It was much too hot to go any farther but nobody minded. Perhaps it was the heat and humidity but everyone stayed close to me the whole way from right out of the gate. I took us up the beach a couple hundred meters so that everyone who wanted to swim could jump in the ocean a few times. We all ran fast, even Maggie. We ran into a bird trapper on a moto on the coco trail on the way back whose vehicle happened to stall just as we were passing him; everyone behaved themselves perfectly - not a bark or a glance in their direction.
GRADE: A
morning jaunt:
Lucy
Henry
George
Tuesday
(4)
To the tortuga sign plus a little north and south on the beach: ~5k. Tuesday did not get paranoid on me until near the very end when we turned onto our trail, and it wasn't a very bad spell. Otherwise she was great - she ran like a champ, had a good time, took a dip in the ocean (a bit choppy and chilly for her). We'll try this again soon. The rest of them were all perfect and had a great time. We got to the tortuga sign so fast that I took us north on the beach a few hundred meters just so Lucy could swim more.
GRADE: A
morning swims:
Twiggy
Shirley
(2)
Twiggy did 8 laps and Shirley did 6. It was a bit choppy for Greta.
GRADE: A
late morning jaunt:
Frankie
Stella
Floyd
(3)
To the tortuga sign and back: ~4k. Just a quickie on a strange, overcast day.
GRADE: A
