[diane0905]

Oh, and this is just me rambling but I believe the lady who owned the other conformation Golden said he was a Powderhorn Golden. I find it so interesting how the same breed of dog can look very different. Her dog is pretty, but definitely a different look than Logan. I just find it fascinating. I suppose people who know the breed well can tell (perhaps) by looking which line they come from?

The field Golden, obviously, looked very different. Not bad — I think they are cool dogs. He (I think a he — can’t remember) was much smaller and gangly. Very cute. Much easier to clean up, I imagine, post field training. Lol

Anyway, I love Logan’s face. ”Lately I’ve Been Thinking” works perfectly for him.

 

[diane0905]

Today’s walk before we set out on the road. It was slightly warm, but there’s a nice breeze going on. This coming week, the temps are getting up to 100+ in Columbia. No thank you. We shall try to stay in the mountains as much as we can.

 

[diane0905]

Hiking and then Slab Town Pizza for lunch. Oh my goodness — there were at least 20 kids at lunch. Friendly, running, playing corn hole. Logan had such fun. He also was approached by a four pound toy Poodle on our hike. Both very calm. I’d be scared to own a four pound dog. 😅 I was less amused when an off leash working dog German Shepherd came running right up. I had Logan off to the side because I saw the off leash dog approaching. The owners must have noticed my look because they said they were sorry. They could prove that by leashing their dog. Luckily, no shenanigans.

One that shows the view. It’s gorgeous.

 

[diane0905]

Morning walk. We saw a lady (actually met her first last summer) who just retired from the Board of Directors for Nasdaq, which is funny since our son just got a full time job at Nasdaq. She was very nice and complimented Logan on how much he has grown up and how beautiful he is. She asked me if I got him from somewhere special because he seemed more special than most Goldens. I think I like that lady. Lol

Today is my husband’s birthday — 62!! We are getting old.

Next, we are loading up in the golf cart and going to lunch. Logan will like that action.

 

[diane0905]

Logan really enjoyed his golf cart ride and lunch at the golf club. Abby says hello also.

I have mixed feelings about what to do in a golf cart. Logan sits in between us and I have him hooked into the cart via a seatbelt harness. I wonder if it would be better to leave him with some avenue of escape, should it roll… I could just hold him as he sits because he’s still.

He’s very, very fascinated by golf. Luke used to be also. Funny.

 

[Ontariodogsitter]

He has such a beautiful muzzle, I think I would just smoosh it all the time.

 

[diane0905]

He has such a beautiful muzzle, I think I would just smoosh it all the time.

Thank you. He is very smooshed. 😍

 

[diane0905]

We went to Gorges State Park and took a nice hike today. The trail is only three miles in total, but it’s classified as strenuous and indeed it is. I will say having taught Logan ”Slow” comes in real handy when crossing creeks via rocks and when coming down steep rocky stairs and banks.

Rainbow Falls Trail | NC State Parks

This popular trail is jointly maintained by Gorges State Park and the Pisgah Ranger District. The trail accesses the Horse Pasture River and follows it upstream. The marked trail ends at Rainbow Falls, however hikers can continue upstream about 1/4 mile to Turtleback Falls. Once the trail leaves...

www.ncparks.gov

Logan had the best time. We let him get in the water, which he loved. In one of these photos you can see people sitting in the water. They asked if they could meet Logan so I let him get out there with them. He thought that was pretty fun.

After the hike, we headed to Ugly Dog Cafe and had lunch. There was another Golden there (white — and looked to be about the same age as Logan) and at another table was a dog the man told me was a rescue and it looked like a taller Shiba Inu (but not near Akita size.) Logan was great there and we had to walk through the restaurant front door to get to the outside area. I figure it’s all good for him.

And these are the falls we were treated to at the top – I had water for Logan and the trail was shaded all the way except the very top. It’s getting in the upper 80s up here by Thursday, which is unusual for up here.

 

[diane0905]

I decided to cancel Logan’s field training until cooler days. The real feel for tomorrow is 110 degrees. That’s a big no way. Cara said we will just mix it up and try to schedule when we have acceptable temperature days.

 

[diane0905]

Today’s walk. It warmed up today for the mountains of NC — we are at 4,000 elevation and hit 85 degrees. Luckily it wasn’t quite there yet and the neighborhood is shaded mostly on the roads.

Abby has IBD and gluten intolerance. She’s been acting funny for about a month. A few quirky things and runny poop. I gave her chicken/rice and a seven day dosage of Metro. Even that didn’t completely firm up her stool. I decided the vet should do a work up on her and her levels for IBD and whatever shows gluten intolerance were over double what they should be.

They suggested hydrolyzed protein diet and weekly B vitamin shots until her levels are where they should be — then they will be monthly. I can give them.

 

[diane0905]

Oh — and we had something happen on the hiking trail that wasn’t an incident, but could have very easily been a bad incident.

We had gotten to the top of an overlook and were going to turn back to go back down. I looked up and there was a German Shepherd coming our way and not on a leash. The dog’s owners were at least 10ft behind him chatting with each other. I was in a more open area and if I headed on in to pass him it got more narrow. I decided to just step off to the side and have Logan sit.

As luck goes, the German Shepherd trotted right up to us. It took about two seconds and I heard a growl starting from the GS and then Logan was getting antsy. I looked at the people and said, “Your dog is growling and he (talking about Logan) is getting excited.” The woman said, “Oh. Sorry.” and used his e-collar to call him off. I didn’t like that either because my trainer told me if dogs are head to head to not use an e-collar stimulation because that can cause a dog fight.

Anyway, the German Shepherd responded and went back to his owner. The dog was big. A longer haired version. Logan walked off with me just fine.

People irritate the H E double hockey sticks out of me sometimes. North Carolina does not have a leash law. I carry pepper spray on more crowded public trails. I take bear spray when we are on less crowded trails and more on our own. I like the bears more than some people.

 

[Coastal Pup]

People can be so aggravating! I never realized how bad owners can be until I started to run into them everywhere. Glad that it didn’t escalate and everyone is safe

 

[diane0905]

I took Logan out in our meadow to play fetch for a bit this morning before we took our two hour trek to competition obedience class. I’m in Cashiers, NC so my drive time has extended 30 minutes to class, but it is way worth it to be out of the heat. I don’t have to worry about bears so much right now because there is a house being constructed next door and all the banging will keep them away from our meadow more than likely.

It was muggy even up here at 4,000 ft elevation at 8:00 a.m.

I love our new obedience class and Logan appears to also. Today we did attention drills. We were to have them just sit in heel and look up at us 30 seconds at a time. Logan does that well. The instructors walk around close trying to distract the dogs and have class members walk their dogs by.

After that we did pivots, which Logan knows but we haven’t done them in a while and we were given a Bosu ball type disk, which he has not used. He did well though. He’s used to pivoting on an upside down metal bowl. I need to go buy a rubber pivot bowl from a feed supply place — either that or the Bosu type ball.

After that we practiced just a few steps of heeling. I think Logan was kind of thrown off by that because at Dog Trainer’s Workshop we were already heeling in circles around the entire room. I’m glad we’re going back to basics though.

Next we did recalls and they split us into groups of who had titled in obedience and who had not. We were in the have nots, but I had my front mat and Logan recalled from across the ring and came into front each time.

After that, I just worked on his fronts being straighter. She told me to use bigger PVC for his fronts mat and that made me giggle on the inside because I have one with bigger PVC, but when I saw the ones at Dog Trainer’s Workshop I went out and made one with smaller PVC. 🙃 I will keep both and he can graduate to the smaller one.

All in all a good training class. We really like our instructor and classmates. Everyone is so friendly.

 

[diane0905]

Logan keeps bringing a Chuck-it ball to the coffee table in front of me on our screened porch. He then knocks it off the table and runs and gets it. I wonder what he is trying to tell me? No respect for coffee time at all.

 

[diane0905]

Today took Logan down to our front gate and back (only two miles, but a steep climb back) and we explored down a couple of side streets. I then took him out into the meadows to be off leash, which he loves, but not for long because there’s no shade out there.

He enjoyed. We’ve been back about 10 minutes and he just dropped his ball at my feet. 😅

If I walk him towards this rock formation, he just jumps up on it because he’s so used to me taking his photo up there. Lol

This is coming up from the meadows to our house. It’s steep. He kept turning back and around to wait for my slow behind.

In the meadow next to ours. There’s a house being constructed there. I hope they have a nice Golden Retriever also. I haven’t met them yet.

 

[diane0905]

We’ve had a busy Father’s Day weekend with the grands visiting. Logan and I took a walk today with the man of honor also.

 

[diane0905]

We took a walk and played in the meadows today before heading home to Hades. We’ll just be there until Thursday and then back up here.

Logan loves running in the meadows. We have construction workers next door, so he entertains them also.

When we get home, I’ll be sure to let him swim early and give him a bath — guaranteed he will dry quickly.

 

[diane0905]

And here he is running. Walking up these hills will gas you (me definitely) quickly.

 

[diane0905]

Swimming for 50 minutes, fetch for 20, and bath/blow dry today. We will train this afternoon after I go to an appointment.

 

[diane0905]

All clean and pretty. Still needs a trim.