Anticipation

I'll always remember walking around the lake at Twin Lakes Resort in North Carolina. It was fun.

Dad says we are leaving North Carolina soon on our way back to RedRock RV Park in Idaho for the summer. He has been talking to Mom all about it. I can't wait. I bet you thought that dogs didn't have a view of the future. We do, and we have what Dad told me was yearnings. Things that we want to happen now, but can wait for them. Actually we have no choice but to wait for them because they aren't happening now. Once they happen, we feel even better than if we hadn't yearned for them. Dad says that's the joy of anticipation. Well, then, I am in great anticipation of getting back to my summer home near the lakes and streams, the great animal smells, the sweet smells of wildflowers, the high soaring birds that keep me company during the day, the frequent day trips with Dad to photograph and all the people I know.

I'll miss my friend Annie. But I'll be back to see her.

Megan is my friend too. I'll miss her sloppy kisses!

Don't get me wrong. I have enjoyed North Carolina. It was especially fun to visit my human sister, Genevieve and her new husband Ronnie. But it was even more fun to romp and play with Annie and Megan, their wonderful (bouncy) dogs. Dad and Mom were proud to see Genevieve get married, but Dad was kind of sad, losing a daughter to another man. But, he says, that is the natural way with humans. So.. he accepts it.

My human sister Genevieve married Ronnie in North Carolina while we were there. I couldn't go to the ceremony (darn!), but I was glad Genny was happy!

I'll miss North Carolina. The ducks had little babies while we were here. They were afraid of me though.

Every morning we walk around the lakes here at the Twin Lakes Resort, see the big turtles with the RVs on their back basking in the sun, hear the little dogs bark at me every time I pass, see the 9 little ducklings with their mother looking over them protectively as I sniff past them, watching the fish jump from the lake and splash loud noises, and playing with my little human friend, Owen and his friends. It's all been fun, but nothing like my summer at RedRock RV Park will be.

Here's RedRock RV Park before Spring arrives. Soon there will be flowers everywhere. See Henrys Lake in the back?

The memories of walking along Red Rock Road are still fresh in my mind and will be fresher soon.

I remember the daily walks down Red Rock road with Dad looking for Wildflowers. I remember the cows that crowd the fence along the road watching me pass like I was a human rock star. The smell of the cows and the horses are fond memories that I'm waiting to have again, and soon. Dad says we will be there in about 8 to 9 days, if the snow melts as it should.

I feel like a human Rock Star when I walk on Red Rock road and the cows come to greet me.

I remember walking to Henry's Lake and romping in the water, watching the ducks and big White Pelicans fly away from me. I even remember seeing the noses of the badgers sticking out of their holes as Dad tries to restrain me from investigating further. Badgers have very sharp claws and teeth, so Dad says it is best to stay away from them.

The sweet smell of the sagebrush and the squirrels that dart in and out of the holes under the sagebrush are all fond memories that I'll repeat soon.

I remember my favorite walk down the forest road, smelling the bears, and the deer, sniffing the wildflowers, turning over a rotting log and watching the insects scatter, drinking from the creek and being able to run free without Dad or Mom yelling at me! I'll get to do that soon again.

The forest road next to RedRock RV Park awaits my nose!

I know that we will have another month of cold weather there and maybe some snow to roll in. That feels really good on my back. I like cold weather, but this time I don't know if I'll get too cold with my haircut from surgery still leaving me pretty naked. I can always go into the warm RV with Mom and Dad.

I can't wait to get on the snow. Here we are on one of Dad's short trips to the top of Henry's Mountains.

Most of all I like the people that come to see me each day, including Gordon, the owner of the RV Park, and sometimes Karen (his human wife), Steve and Karen with their leader, Casey ( their wonderful beagle), Ron and Gloria and their dog, John, Georgiana and Arlean with all their cats (who greet me every day with an extended paw under the RV's screen door). There are also new people that come to see me each day and some bring their dogs to visit. I like meeting all the new people at RedRock RV Park. I especially like the tiny humans that visit me.

Ah, the sweet smell of the wildflowers near RedRock RV Park. I can't wait to refresh my memories.

Dad and Mom love to be there too. Dad likes the mountains, and they will be full of snow when we arrive to make them even more photogenic. Mom likes to walk to Henry's Lake and enjoy the quiet sounds of the water lapping at the shore. She likes to throw sticks for me to fetch. Dad likes to drive to Yellowstone National Park and take me. I get to watch the huge cows (Dad calls them Bison) and the huge deer (Dad calls them Elk). Sometimes we see a bear eating an Elk, or sometimes a small marmot run across the road. There's always something for me to see at Yellowstone. Sometimes he goes without me to photograph because they don't allow dogs just anywhere there, but I get to go enough times to remember the fun.

I love to roll around in the snow at RedRock RV Park in early May.

I remember the great hikes that we take along the Snake River. The smells are incredible. I smell the moose, the deer, the squirrels, the foxes, the other dogs that have been waking here before us, and so much more. I get to run down to the river and splash around whenever I want to. It's so much fun that I can't wait to be there again.

So, if I can't have it right now, I ANTICPATE and YEARN for it now and I'll know that soon, after a very long RV trip, that I have have it. I also think about all the cows and horses I can bark at (to keep them from attacking us) as we drive in the RV to get there. It's fun to be the guard for the RV. I really feel like I'm helping Dad and Mom. After all, I can't imagine what would happen if one of those cows walked in front of our RV while we were driving so fast. It might make a good meal for me, but the poor RV might get smashed!


So, if you are traveling somewhere in the United States next week, look for our big white Alfa motorhome rolling down the highway and honk! I'll bark back at you! Oh, and don't forget to come visit me at RedRock RV Park this summer. I'll be glad to visit with you and show you some of my favorite places to sniff.

Check back and I'll let you know when we get there and tell you about all the fun I'm having. I'm sure I will.

Arf,

Reggie

Litter hurts dogs

As the readers of my blog know, I am a dog that is fortunate enough to travel all over the world, or at least that part of it that Dad calls the United States of America. I’m old enough to know that this freedom is a good one, because so many of my fellow canine’s are fenced in a backyard or chained to a post and rarely see more than the area around their backyard for their entire life. So, I am grateful for this. This gives me a different perspective on my life than a typical dog writing his blog. They don’t see everything I do.

Are humans really this disrepectful of their dens? Litter at a Florida beach. Some party!

Today, litter is on my mind. Not litters of little puppies (those days are long past), but trash. Pure and simple trash. Stuff that no one wants so they throw it hoping to be distant from it and not have to decide what to do with it again. It is all around you. Being a dog, my nose is much closer to the ground than most humans so I see it up close (I do see little humans crawling on the ground like a dog though). Their trash falls to the ground and is much more a part of my world than a humans world. I get to smell it (most smells are not those that a dog would like), I get to step on and in it, and I get to swallow it, due in part to the curious nature of us dogs. Further, in spite of opinions by humans to the contrary, it spoils my sense of beauty. Yes, dogs have a sense of beauty and trash messes that up. I enjoy a lovely babbling stream and prefer not to have little pieces of those ugly white sticks that humans put in their mouths and burn bobbing along the stream or stuck between the rocks along the stream banks.

This is NOT the litter I'm talking about. These guys are hurt by human litter.

Being a dog that spends most of his time in RV parks, I see a lot of trash. Not so much as to cause undue attention to humans mind you, but little pieces here and there. Some of the stuff my nose is drawn to includes lots of soda cans (smashed, or whole, or crinkled), brightly colored wrappers from candy bars (some of these do smell good), lots of crumpled bags, pieces of paper and cardboard of all shapes and sizes, old shoes and human underwear (phew!), plastic bags of all colors, cups from McDonalds, Burger King and others human eating places, sharp metal bottle caps, beer bottles (broken and whole), fishing hooks, rusty nails, sticky stuff that nobody would know what it is, discarded pieces of rotting food , and lots of those little white sticks that humans burn in their mouths (with and without little brown things on the end.) Now I’m as curious as the next dog and often will sample some of the more interesting of these discarded morsels. I gag on some, swallow some and often have a delayed reaction to others as I lose all my food and the offending morsel of decayed food. My nose is supposed to tell me what is OK to eat and what is not, but it doesn’t always work right. Sometimes I’ll step on a broken bottle and cut my pad and that really hurts.

I sniff around a lot and find a lot of litter. Sometimes I step on it and hurt myself.

Dad gets really upset with litter too. He is a photographer and most people do not like to see photos of lovely hillsides with discarded beer bottles, white fast-food cups or anything else that nature herself has not made directly appear in the photo. Dad also respects what nature has grown. He says that it has taken years and sometimes thousands of years to make a beautiful scene and only a few minutes for a human to mess it up. We don’t understand what makes humans want to spoil it by throwing their unwanted STUFF in such beautiful areas.

Some humans toss their unwanted bottles anywhere and others break them so I step on them and cut myself.

Dad was wondering WHO it was that threw the litter on the ground, especially the candy wrappers. He thought it was the kids. Maybe they haven’t been taught yet that it is bad to do that. After all there are a lot of things a young humans has to learn. Not to litter is just one and I’m sure their Moms can’t teach them everything at once. The other day while Dad and I were walking around the RV park here in Chocowinity, North Carolina, we saw an example of WHO was doing it. First we saw two young boys unwrapping a candy bar. Dad was sure they were going to throw the wrappers on the ground, but NO.. they both walked at least 50 dog steps back to a trash can and put it in that. A little bit later we were walking around the lake here and two older men passed us in a golf cart. Immediately one of them threw a candy wrapper on the ground and continued on to find a spot to fish. Dad picked it up. Boy, were we surprised! Maybe it’s not always those kids! Some humans just haven’t learned much in all their many years I guess.

Little white sticks lie all around RV parks and roadsides. Can't humans swallow them or put them in trays?

We stop at a lot of REST STOPS along the highways during our RVing trips. I like to sniff and pee and Dad likes to rest his tired muscles. Wow, this is a treasure trove of trash. There are piles of paper and cans and all sorts of stuff against fences, at the edges of forests and along the gutter. Sometimes we see a pile of many already burned white sticks and ash in the parking lot where someone dumped their ashtray onto the ground. What’s strange is that there are trash cans all over the place at most rest stops, but some humans decide that it’s just too much trouble to walk a few steps and put it there. Instead, us dogs get to step in and on it, sometimes cutting our pads, and sometimes getting poisoned by the bad stuff that we find and with a typical curiosity, sample. We also find lots of examples at rest stops and even at WalMart’s where people have left puddles of sticky black oil for me to step in. That really gets Mom mad when I come back to the RV!

Cans are the most I see. You'd think that humans would pick them up for the money they bring!

Even in really pretty places, like Idaho, Wyoming and Montana, there are often beer cans and bottles, water bottles, McDonalds cups, and straws and much more scattered along the roadway. When we are at RedRock RV park near Island Park, Idaho, Dad gets on his Segway sometimes and we go out together picking up the trash along the road. Then Dad can photograph it.

Even my arch enemy the squirrel is hurt by eating harmful litter.

Oh, yes, one more thing! Us dogs aren’t guiltless in this matter either. Some of my canine friends poop right on the trail so that I have to step around it or in it and Dad sometimes steps on it. Most humans don’t like to step in a dog’s poop. So, please do like I do and poop in the high weeds at the side of the forest or make sure your human picks it up and puts it in a trash can or buries it. It’s very easy to train him to do so.

Please don't litter. It hurts my feet, and sometimes I get poisoned by rotting food. Just pick it up and throw it in the trash can. Thanks!

I think that humans should know that their mother will not come along the road after them and pick up the trash they throw out of the car window. She is back home, fixing their dinner, so please let your friends know to stow their litter in the trash cans, their little white sticks of burning plant in their car’s ashtray and please help to pick up the litter you see that other thoughtless humans have discarded. You might save a dog’s life one day, and make the land more beautiful for others and that would be really nice of you.

Arf,

Reggie

Human Training

I thought it was time to give a lesson to my canine readers about HUMAN TRAINING. It's not much fun to live in a house hold where the humans have not been trained. Oh sure, you get to do whatever you want, whenever you want to do it, but.. you have to put up with the consequences and that can be bad. If you don't train them properly, you are probably missing out on a lot of good treats.

Let me define Human Training. I think it means that you can cause the humans to do what you want and when you want to for some worthy cause. Humans are merely animals. Studies have shown that they will respond to the basic behavior/reward system as well as other more advanced species.

First, make sure that you choose the right TIME to train them. If they are distracted by other things, like the yelling kids, or visitors, or their stupid computers, you'll never get them trained. Find a quiet time, in a quiet place to begin training them. A time when they seem to be interested in what YOU are doing.

The stare is worth mastering. It is used a lot in training humans. They have this thing called guilt that responds well in training to the stare.

There are many things you can train them to do. We will cover some of the more basic items needed for your own pleasure and survival. Things like, sit, stay, down, feed me, pet me, give me a snack, come, let me out, let me in.

The stare works in training humans to FEED ME.

See, it worked. Here Dad is responding to my stare command to toss me some of his food.

Probably the most important one is FEED ME. Although many humans have learned to do this on their own, sometimes they need help in remembering that it's time for you to eat. The most effective way to accomplish this is to find your bowl and either move it with your nose until it makes noise or sit next to it and STARE at the human that normally feeds you. It's important to NOT give up. Keep staring until they feed you. This make take some time. In some cases, you'll have to get their attention first. A couple short barks will get their attention and then start staring at them. Soon they will remember and you'll not have to do this as often.

Sometimes you have to roll over on your back to get a treat. It's worth it to train the human properly.

GIVE ME A SNACK is a great thing to train them for. Often all it takes is a smile and a short bark, but mostly it takes performing some stupid trick for them. So, if they ask YOU to sit, do so and quickly. Lick your chops and stare at them. If they refuse you a treat, nudge their hand and sit again. Don't get up until they give you one. Sometimes you'll have to do something like roll over on your back or sit up and beg (for you smaller dogs), but whatever it is, always demand that treat by refusing to move until you have it. Sometimes they won't ask you to do a trick. You'll have to do one without them asking. If you hear them say the word sit or down to a friend, SIT or lay DOWN immediately. The humans think that is cute and often will reward you with a treat. Doing this repeatedly will train the human to associate the word SIT or DOWN to giving you a treat.

LET ME OUT is an important trick to teach humans. There will be times when peeing on the carpet is your only choice, but hopefully it won't come to that. To train your human, go to the door and stare at it. A little bark will get their attention if they are reading the newspaper or have their head in a computer screen. Doing this repeatedly will allow the human to associate your staring at the door with opening the door for you. Once they open the door, go outside quickly and give the human a treat by making sure to poop or pee as soon as possible. Humans seem to really like to see us dogs poop or pee.

Rock the RV by standing on the stairs to train them to LET ME IN.

LET ME IN can be just as important. Once you are out, often the humans will just tie you up and go back in. So getting their attention is important. In our RV, I have a way that works every time. I jump up on the bottom stair and the RV rocks. Dad or Mom comes quickly and after a few false starts, they learned that I wanted to come in. If you don't have a rocking motorhome, a few scratches to the screen door will do the trick. A variation of this trick is the TAKE ME FOR A WALK. Once you have them opening the door, don't go in, but turn and look away. After a few times, the smart human will understand that you want to go for a walk. (It works for me.)

Here Petting was accomplished easily after some very mild crotch smelling.

Go right up and lick their hand to get attention.

PET ME is a trick that you can show your canine friends. When your humans are standing around talking together and neglecting you, just go up to one of them and lick their hands or nudge them with your nose. Most humans will learn that a few affectionate pets to the head is all it takes for you to calm down. Some aren't so smart. For those, put your nose in their crotch. If that doesn't work, jump up on them. Finally, for the very dumbest, just lift your leg and pretend to pee on their leg. That usually gets action, though not always a petting gesture.

Just turn an RUN to teach the human the COME command. They will follow you.

COME is a difficult one to teach a human because they usually want to go some different place than you do. If you are in the backyard or off-leash in a field, sit down and make sure you have their attention. Once they are looking turn around and run the opposite direction. Hide behind a bush. They will come. It works almost every time. Just in case it doesn't work, keep an eye on the human and if he turns to walk the other way, don't let him get out of your sight. I suggest running before he does. Some humans are just mean enough to leave you out for the night without supper for that trick.

Just pull on the leash to get the human to go where you want.

If you are on a leash, the best method is to stop and stare at them for a few seconds and then pull with your strong neck in the direction you want to go. They will pull back, but eventually you will win, at least for a while. You might get them mad enough that you'll be dangling from the end of your leash (for you small dogs) or tied to the bumper of the car (for us larger dogs). Eventually, for most of the humans (especially the female ones and young ones), you'll get to go in YOUR direction when ever you give a small tug on the leash.

Mom responded to my running on the trail and she did the COME command very obediently here.

There are other tricks that I'll try to go over in other blogs in the future, but these are the most important. Others yet to come include SIT, STAY, STAND, GET YOUR OWN NEWSPAPER, GET RID OF THE CAT, TURN OFF THE TV, GIVE ME TABLE SCRAPS and my favorite, MOVE OVER I'M COMING INTO YOUR BED.

Well, until next time.

Arf

Reggie

We finally reached the end of our trip to the East coast of the USA after traveling through 10 States from the big Pacific pond to the big Atlantic pond. Dad says we drove almost 2700 miles in the RV. Dad says this area is known to humans as Chocowinity in the state of North Carolina. To me it's just fishy. Don't get me wrong, I like fishy. We are next to a big river (called the Tar River) and that makes the fishy smells I guess.

Megan wants to be out with her Dad, Ronnie, who is riding my Dad's Segway.

I like it here though. I finally got to see my big sister, Genevieve for the first time in a very long time, like 14 dog years!. She has two dogs living with her now, Megan and Annie. I met Megan when I visited her last time. Megan and Annie act like they are chasing invisible squirrels all the time, running, jumping and nipping each other (and me) and such. They are fun but it becomes quite a bit tiring for me after a little while. After all, I'm still recovering from surgery. I'm really doing pretty good though, considering all I had to endure.


We are staying at a very big RV park with lots of water to see and interesting things to smell. It's called Twin Lakes Camping Resort in Chocowinity, North Carolina. The humans that named it either didn't bother to walk around it or they can't count very well because even me, with my not so good ability for counting, count three big ponds here. It should be called Triple Ponds Camp Resort!


The humans here have a lot of boats that carry them on the water from their RVs to the Tar/Pamlico River (this according to Dad's research) and then to the giant Atlantic pond. The ponds here are nice because Dad and I walk a couple times per day around them. The back pond is away from the RVs and I can go walking there without my leash! Hurray! Because other dogs have the same idea, I get to smell many of them on my walk. The ponds have ducks and today we saw a big tall heron with a fish in his mouth. They also have these little swimming animals that live in a small and round RV under the water. Dad calls them turtles. They come and lay on the side of the ponds until I come near and then they quickly drive their RVs under water so I can't get them. They should know that I wouldn't hurt them. I just want to smell them.

I just saw a turtle drive his RV into the water. Strange creatures.

There are lots of tall trees here too. That means there are a lot of squirrels for me to find. Yesterday I was looking out of our RV window and a squirrel stood up below me and stared at me. I got a little excited and barked but he stayed right there. Dad threw him a peanut and he grabbed it and he ran away with it. But, he soon came right back and asked for another peanut. Squirrels are all over this RV park so I'm not as excited now as I first was, but it makes for a more interesting day when I lay outside or take a walk to watch them run from tree to tree.


Some humans live at the RV Park all around the year or part of the year. Dad says a lot of them come here each weekend and use the RVs as a second home. A lot of them are right next to the water and many have pretty yards with flowers and little statues of funny looking humans. I guess they like to ride on the water a lot because some have boats tied next to their RVs. Dad and Mom said they wouldn't want to live here because it gets real hot and humid (that means water is floating in the air all the time so you are always wet!) and that I wouldn't like it at all. Plus there are those pesky, noisy mosquitoes that live here in springtime. They land on my nose and drink my blood, then my nose itches. So far I haven't seen any yet. But Dad says April is a good time to visit here. I'm glad its April now.

Humans here have little statues of themselves all over the place! Strange.

On the end of the weeks here lots of people come and bring their dogs and children. They play with balls and ride their bikes. I like to watch them when I'm lying down outside. Some come up to talk to me and pet me. Mostly the little girls do that. I like that.

Ronnie is riding Dad's Segway. Ronnie's a nice man who my sister wants to marry.

We came here because my big sister, Genevieve is getting married to Ronnie in a couple weeks. Dad says that married means that two humans who are in love decide it is cheaper to live together and share their food and house and everything else. Mom and Dad are married, but they still spend too much money, so I don't know if it is cheaper. As far as love goes, I'm not sure what that is, except that it is a word I hear a lot. Humans seem to think it is something important and worth having. Dad says that he and Mom love me, so it must be something good! Ronnie is a nice human and Dad let him ride his Segway. Ronnie liked to ride the Segway. I would too, but Dad won't let me get on it.

There's Dad and I on the big bridge at the RV Park. Walking here is fun.

I enjoy walking around the RV Park here. It is big and there are so many nice places to walk. There's a big bridge to walk across and a walk over the water that Mom calls a dock. Sometimes Dad glides on his Segway while I walk along the side. We can go faster that way. I like that! I am still wearing a sock on my back foot. My pad is still sore so Mom and Dad put a sock on me. It's OK. It makes it hurt less. Dad says he knows why dogs don't normally wear socks. He said that after I pee'd and stepped in it and got my sock wet. Hey, my backward visibility isn't so good. If humans had to know where four feet were at the same time, they'd have trouble too!


The ducks and birds on the big ponds are fun to watch too. I can also visit all the other dogs that live here. I even saw one other Golden Retriever walking around here. They leave p-mail and it says they are happy here. I'm not sure that cats are so happy. I saw a sign on one of the RVs that said: "So many cats, so few recipes." Not a cat lover I'm guessing.


Dad says we will explore this area in our car soon. He says that we are only 16 miles from Bath, North Carolina where the pirate Blackbeard used to live. I guess a pirate is a nasty human that uses boats to steal things from other humans with boats. Sounds boring to me.

We will also go to the big Atlantic pond soon and maybe even to a place Dad calls Kitty Hawk where humans first learned how to fly machines. Well, it will probably not be too interesting to me, but I like to ride in the car, especially when I can see cows and horses and other dogs. Maybe we will stop and I'll get to run off my leash. That will be fun.

So, come see me and visit the Twin (Triple) Lakes (Ponds) Camping Resort if you get a chance (in April).

Arf

Reggie