03.02.15

morning run:
Otto
Gracie
Blue
Posey
Chester
Shirley
Rufus
Frankie
MoMo
Tori
(10)

To the beach at Au Soleil Couchant via the swimming hole: ~7k. Blue got thrown in as tenth dog at the end; she's always good and was just dying to go. Rufus also sort of talked his way onto this one by following the new protocol perfectly and without prompting: he quietly put himself out in the front yard and ran into one of the crates near the casita, which is where we've been putting him before he goes out. He always needs it and he's generally an angel - an incredibly excited, energetic angel. He left on the leash, everyone else was loose. I decided on the blue.bag trail heading out; we had some rain last night / early morning so I didn't think anyone would be working out there early and I was right. We took the long way to the swimming hole heading out and got there in record time. The rain was hard enough to fill all the potholes and crevices with water and top off the swimming hole, much to everyone's delight. Once there I thought everyone would like the beach; I didn't want to go too far with Shirley so we skipped the hidden trail and ran straight to the ocean via the Au Soleil Couchant access road. I had Rufus and Tori on leashes before we got to the shore just in case we came out on top of Xmul and the gang; I don't think there would've been trouble but they're all too excitable and Xmul would surely have been loose. It turns out my spidey-sense was firing on all cylinders today: Nicole, Mel, Rudolph and Xmul were just south down the beach in front of the tortuga sign, far enough away that nobody wanted to charge down there but close enough that we would've caught them if we ran straight down. Instead I took us north a bit to give them time to get farther south, then we ran home via the tortuga sign and the blue.bag trail again. Everyone was really perfect and had a great time.
GRADE: A