Millbrook Dog Park Pictures up - finally!

I'm way behind on getting these pictures up, but when we went to the Duke Canine Cognition Center we spent the night with cousin Jenn and then went to check out the Millbrook Exchange Dog park. Which we have found listed on the top twenty dog parks in the country by two different publications -- so how could we miss such an opportunity.

At first, I thought 'well what is so special about this?', but once you get inside it's really very lovely. Nicely wooded and lots of room to spread out in the shade and enjoy some time with your puppy. Which was a treat because it was very hot the weekend we were there, but with so much coverage it was comfortable.
Zeke and mom made a complete tour of the park.

Interesting approach to waste management, this way I suppose the city park guys don't have to come into the dog area to haul away the trash bins.
An area in between the big dog section and little guy section was gated separately with a covered area and several picnic tables.
Zeke and his cousin Jenn, thanks for giving us a place to crash, we had a blast!

good weekend

Zeke had full and fun weekend. Saturday he went to the dog park and went running with mom while she rollerbladed. Then Saturday evening some family came over and he helped play a game of wiffle ball (he is an excellent fielder). On Sunday we got up and went for a swim and a short hike, then capped it all off with lunch at McAlister's Deli.

Graduation Day!

We're so proud! Zeke is now a graduate from Intermediate Class at Pet Smart. Today's class was a whirlwind of testing all of Zeke's skills and some fun games. We played 'Tic Tac Toe' and 'X Marks the Spot'. Thanks so much to our trainer Lisa.
Graduating Dogs (from L-R): Moose [teacher's assistant], Betty, Buddy, Scamp, and Zeke

And here is the link to the album with the rest of the pictures

saying bye and graduation tonight

Well, my new friend McGruber has gone home. So no more tugging with pip-squeaks for awhile.

Tonight however, is graduation night from intermediate class! We skipped last week to go to North Carolina, so I hope we got what it takes to graduate.

McGruber visits!

McGruber has come to visit from West Virginia! He plays with Zeke.

And naps with Sadie.

Day one of the Triangle Trip

Today was Zeke's big day at Duke, we got there early to give Zeke a chance to see the gardens.
It was really hot out, so we didn't get to explore too much. Plus part of the gardens were blocked off for construction.
At last! The secret entrance to the Canine Cognition Center. (Just go past the camel)
Zeke had a blast with the tests/games. His task was to identify which cup had the treat based on pointing. He was a champ and he made two new friends!
Zeke's first elevator ride in the parking garage. He was pretty unsure about this experience.

The rest of the day was pretty fantastic. Playing games for treats and riding in the truck. Cousin Jenn went with us to do a quick stop in at the Millbrook Dog Park we are going to check out tomorrow.

Great 4th of July weekend!

So Zeke and his mom have been a little slack with posting, but that's only because we have been having such a fun time.Zeke got a new squeaky toy! (And surprisingly has yet to destroy the squeaker part)

Dad was off with the long weekend so we went to two different dog parks! Above Zeke meets a Saint Bernard who was trying to enjoy a cooler than normal morning at Wassamasaw park.

Zeke eventually wore out the evening we went to Wannamaker Park and decided resting on the picnic table offered the best view.

We also logged another 3 miles on the Swamp Fox passage. Scheduled for today is baths and nail grinding (not fun but necessary) .

And TOMORROW! Zeke is going to the Raleigh/Durham area. First his is going to be a participant in the studies at the Duke Canine Cognition Center. Then we are going to celebrate a belated birthday with our cousin Jennifer and maybe check out one of the top dog parks in the nation. So we hope to have lots to share when we get back from that trip.

making new friends at wannamaker

We tried to head out early to the dog park yesterday morning to avoid the worst heat of the day, it still did not take long for everyone to get tired. Here we are in this big dog park and everyone (dogs and dog parents alike) was kinda camped out in this little shady section.

We met Craig, a yellow lab who came to play but unfortunately got stuck with a bunch of dogs who mostly wanted to lay around in the shade. We found out Craig is the Tour Guide dog who did the video dog park tours for LowcountryDog.com. And his mom and dad made the video we linked to from Whirlin' Waters Dog Day, how cool is that!
Zeke and Midnight, a pretty darn big black lab!
Here is Bentley a 7 month old Great Dane puppy, who despite his tall stature, found a way under the picnic table.

bama trip 2010

Zeke made the trip back to Alabama to visit with family again and play in the lake. This time around he finally got over his fear of jumping off the dock. We're not launching record breaking SRS leaps here, but it's a start.
The trick to getting over that fear was having mom jump in first and then call Zeke in.
C'mon in Sadie the water's nice. (Sadie could not be convinced jumping off the dock was the best way to get in the lake)

Zeke watches the sunrise and contemplates life before the ride back to South Carolina.

can't beat the heat

You really can't get up early enough to avoid the serious heat we have going on here. We took a walk early and then went to All is Well to pick up some new antler chews for our upcoming. Now we well spend the rest of the day trying to cool off.

doh! no camera

Didn't have the camera with us this weekend but the good times still happened. Zeke and Sadie made new friends at Wassamasaw Dog Park with Buddy (named after Buddy the Elf) and Cali. They had a great time playing Friday evening. The goal of the rest of the weekend was to try and stay cool so that meant play time was mostly restricted to early in the morning and late in the evening. Planning on heading to the lake next weekend to visit some family.

Riverdogs Dog Day

Dogs and baseball, what's not to love! Zeke just had to have his picture made like a real Riverdog player.
Charlie T. Riverdog the mascot stopped by to say hello or woof or whatever they said.
A little lab meet and greet at the cooling off pools.
Our neighbor one row behind us. Her family brought good treats!

Next dog day is the 27th of June.

playing at the boat landing

We were out exploring the tri-county area this weekend and ended up at the boat landing in Russellville. Found an area that had a sandy slope and was open (i.e. lower gator potential), so we took the opportunity to cool off and fetch the bumper.

Saturday in the (dog) park

This morning we loaded up and headed for Wannamaker Dog Park. And man did we luck out, got to meet two really cool labs.
This is Cocoa, a 4 month old chocolate lab baby girl. She had no fear of running with the big dogs and loved to splash in the water bowl.
Cocoa did not like having her picture taken, but the lab paparazzi was determined to get a photo of her interacting with her older male doppelganger Zeke.
Then we met Doug the black lab, who was from Lowcountry Lab Rescue just like Sadie. But how he found his mom was such a great story: he was at the beach with his foster and got free and ran right up to this stranger, his foster parent came up apologized and asked if she wanted to adopt him. They got the opportunity to play some more and every time Doug got called back he came straight to her and sat at her feet. So he new who needed to be his new mom!
We just had to get an alumni shot to post on the LLR facebook page.

Memorial Day Weekend

This past weekend was way fun! Dad was off for the holiday and we all had a big time!
Monday we all went to Marrington for a walk and then McAlister's for lunch. Zeke wanted to show off his new scarf.
Sunday we went to Wannamaker and spent some time at the dog park (Zeke met Dozer, see above) and Zeke went running with mom while she roller-bladed. Sadie and Dad hung out at the park and she got to play with a great dane.
Saturday we took a hike in the national forest. And covered another 3 miles on our quest to hike the Swamp Fox passage this year! At the halfway creek campsite there was a water station that the kids enjoyed. Sadie in particular thought it was very refreshing.