Back and Forth

Last weekend was wonderful, we finally got some sun and it meant staying out as much as possible. On Friday morning me and Bella took two short tracks and since the weather was so good we went on a walk where she could be off leash.

 

I did the track to decide whether to sign up for the tracking test on 7th July. I thought it might be alright to go with the sole purpose of seeing how it would go. Another part of me wanted to be ready/was scared. I ended up deciding not to and wasn't too bothered.

 

Today I went and laid a rather complicated track, I meant to do a longer fairly simple one but I found such a nice spot with tall trees that I had to do all sorts of turns. It went well and Bella is already getting very good at marking with the method I eventually chose.

 

Then came the kicker. After I come home I check my facebook and the first thing I see is a notice that the sign-up date for the tracking test was pushed back until July 1st. Cue the start of yet another rollercoaster of what I want to do!

If I enter it won't be because I know we will pass for certain but rather as a test and seeing where we stand. I have until July 1st to make up my mind.

Those Warm Summer Days

Bella has received some comments that she appears too busy and must be careful to not forget her naps. So here's some proof that there is downtime in our household.

Today we had the first super good summer day so me and Bella tanned out on the deck we are building in our back yard.

In the evening, I went to watch an Obedience test while Bella practiced lying still in the sofa while I was gone. Last time I went she dumped the trash all over the floor so we're already improving in the sport, right?

A Different Sort of Adventure

I recently tried my new bike carrier recently and took Bella and my rarely used Mountain Bike to a very exotic (ha! ha!) place right next to highway number 1. Like under 25 yards away from it. In my defense a small river separated us from the highway and it was late in the evening and I live in Iceland after all.

Considering the photos were taken around midnight I'm not sure I should say the lighting conditions were crappy, but it explains the blue hue.

Anyway, I biked 2 miles on a dirt rode with Bella unleashed and I haven't seen her this genuinely ecstatic for a long time. She ran like around the little devil she is, running some distance in front of me and stopped to sniff and enjoy the scenery before running off again. She ran alongside me and looked at me with pure joy in her face.

I'm glad she had so much fun because I love mountain biking and have been wanting to do this kind of biking with her for over two years but due to physical constraints and not having a bike carrier I haven't been able to. I'm not ready for more than dirt packed roads but we'll get there. I'm healing fantastically!

On a worse note, after getting home tonight from biking in the neighborhood I saw an announcement that a foreign guest judge will be judging Tracking tests for the German Shepherd division in early July and that other breeds are welcome to enter. My competitive side really really wants to enter but I'm not sure we'll be fully ready by then. Too many challenges, so little time! We'll see what we can do, at least I can observe the test if I fail to be ready.

A Dog and her Hats

Things are crazy in every sort of way here at home. We received seven large boxes full of baby clothes for the little one. They were so many we lost them all. When Bella had finished locating the kids under the stashes of clothes we started a hat party.

Magnus was easiest to find, he screams the loudest

We also discovered an 80's baby, we tried to bring her back to our time by adding a classy hat.

The big sister was even buried under everything. Bella was getting bored of her own party by then and hid under her hat.

Yet she couldn't resist trying on one more hat before calling it quits and returning to her daylong nap.

We're also building a deck. I would be lying if I said that my home is clean and tidy these days. However, me and Bella are very patient for now as we foresee a lot of late night cocktails in July in the privacy of our fenced deck.