Dazzle and a few of his friends:
Well it was a long and tiring visit to camp, but Dazzle had SO much fun! At first, I think I mentioned, that he didn't even want to get back in the van for fear that the fun might end! Eventually he realized the van just went from the camp to the office and back and was willing to go for the short ride. By the time I loaded all my stuff to head home, he was very willing to get in and fell asleep before we got out of the driveway! Other than one potty break, he slept the whole way home :-) Of course after 8 hours of sleep, he was ready to go again when we got home! LOL
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It's normally a 6 hour drive, but I had to take a 15 minute nap and then I ran into 2 very minor traffic snares that had traffic at a stand still for over an hour! One was in MI, just a bump of fenders, only damage I saw was a broken tail light, but of course everyone had to slow down to look. The other was in Dayton, a big guy in a tiny little car with an over heated radiator that stopped right in the lane of traffic. Of course it was also in a construction area, so that took the already reduced 2 lanes down to one lane. I was so mad when I saw him just sitting there when the shoulder was only 25' away. Heck, even with a bad back I could have pushed the car THAT far! But instead he chose to sit there and traffic was backed up for literally 10 miles! I was very happy to finally get home.
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I'm back out of town this evening, leaving right after I get this posted actually. But I did manage to get some videos uploaded to youtube. One was a short clip of the egg hunt showing a few of Dazzle's finds:
.VIDEO: egg hunt
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The other video is about a 5 minute clip of the dogs making ice cream! Doree put in the contents, but then the dogs turned it into some very delicious ice cream! It was a hoot to watch!
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VIDEO: dogs making ice cream
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Dazzle got his Rally level I and level II badges. His level I run wasn't his best, but it was passing. His level II run was much better and he did fine with the jump. It was set lower than his regular jump height, but that still counts for the badge. His first time he wasn't sure what I wanted and didn't jump it. But the second time he went right over it and back to heel. I'm looking forward to the next level of Rally competition in a couple months once he's old enough to compete.
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We also worked a little bit with the agility equipment and I think he is going to be a speed demon! I had to work hard on the A-frame to get him to go slowly enough that he hit the down contact. I didn't do very many repetitions and it was set low for most of the runs, but he was having SO much fun he was zooming from one thing to the next. He definitely loves the tunnel and after doing the obstacle I wanted, he often ran through the nearest tunnel. I can see that will also be something I need to work on :-) But I'd rather he was that enthusiastic than having to try to keep him motivated. I think he could have gotten the level I agility badge (which is just a jump, A-frame and tunnel) but I didn't want to push it and I wanted him to be sure to do it correctly. So that will need more work to teach him to do it with self-control.
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His Dock Diving really improved during our time at camp! Pretty good considering he did his first real swimming shortly after we arrived! He took to swimming like a fish and had very little issue with the diving. I did get some photos below (I hate that the first and best one is so blurry) and I got the video uploaded. I didn't get video of his best dives he was doing by the end of our stay, but I think you'll get the idea. Even if I hold or throw the toy high, he jumps toward the water instead of up. I think that will get better with practice though of tossing the toy high right in front of him. He got his puppy paddler badge and is ready for the dock diving badge, but the steps were not set-up. Getting out of water using steps or a ramp is required for the badge. So we'll get that during camp.
I think we created a monster though. When he was in the lodge, he did a lot of staring longingly at the pond :-) Anytime I asked if he needed to go out, he ran to the door to the pond. Good thing is that I was able to call him back from the water before he reached it each time that I didn't want him wet and he was able to do his rally tests right next to the pond without an issue.
I spent a lot of time on the golf cart during the clean-up part of the week. Dazzle ran along side or in front but I captured the photo below when he was willing to get on the cart to rest. He's ready to jump off at a moment's notice though if I needed to move it more than a few feet :-) Who knows how many miles he put in running with the cart and 4 wheeler, but I do know that he can now do a 5 minute mile and not even breathe hard at the end! He did several laps of the 1 mile trail and I timed one of the speed rounds at 5 minutes :-) He did get his Hiking badge though. I also got some video of him on the trail. Forgive the bouncyness in a few places.
VIDEO: hiking off-leash:
.At one point Dazzle saw deer cross the trail in front of him and take off through the woods. He started to chase, but I called his name and said "leave it" and he returned to the trail and continued on, though he checked over his shoulder a few times looking where they went into the trees. I was SO proud of him for listening to me with such an exciting distraction! One of the dogs at camp wasn't so lucky and got some porcupine quills in his face and feet. The owner thought he was going for a chipmunk so she didn't call him right away. Thankfully the quills came out easily and the dog didn't have any lasting effects from the encounter. There were also coyotes very close to camp one evening. One (or more) had several of the dogs pretty spooked. Dazzle didn't seem to see or smell them when we went outside so he had no reaction. Lots of wildlife in them thar woods!
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We worked a bit on Directional Control. The idea is to be able to send your dog from one spot to another at a distance. It is used as part of the FEMA Search and Rescue training for dogs that search rubble and other urban disaster sites where the handler might not be able to reach all parts of the scene. For the first level badge the targets are 35' apart with the handler 35' from the nearest target. In the level II badge they are 75' apart and the handler is 75' from the nearest target. Dazzle is doing really well with this, but not yet ready to go the full distance. Hopefully by camp time he will be ready. I'm able to send him to any of the bases pictured without my moving closer.
I tried to get Dazzle in the kayak with me, but all he wanted to do was swim. At first, he was afraid of the movement of the paddle, but I desensitized him to that and now he's fine with the paddle. I tried a few different times to get him in with me when the kayak was mostly in the water, but he wasn't interested. I think he will be fine with it when there aren't other dogs playing and chasing toys in the water nearby that are more fun than sitting still. I did paddle around the lake a bit and he swam out to me but didn't try to climb on the kayak, which is good. He was willing to sit in it on shore by himself though. Good news is that despite how it looks in the photo, I do think there will be enough room in it for both of us. 
One of the campers brought this little tent and Dazzle seemed to like it. So I took a few photos of him in it. He was so tired that while I was taking photos, he just put his head down and started to take a nap! Hopefully now that his pop-up crate (that is made of the same material) is a bit tighter fit, he will enjoy it as much as the small tents :-)
Dazzle and Mango (the DSA office cat) really liked each other. Each evening and any time during the day that I went to the office, they played. These photos were taken after dark on the porch.
We did the "leave-it" from the bike needed to get the biking badge. He already had his miles that he completed here. The leave-it wasn't photographed, but I like this photo of us biking. It's not my bike, just one from camp, so it's not adjusted correctly for me and I only did a few times up and back on the driveway because of that. Because he already earned his miles, I didn't bother taking my bike to camp. He got plenty of exercise in spite of that :-)
Dazzle had an absolute blast and came home tired and dirty but very happy and fit! He earned 5 new badges and learned lots of useful behaviors. I'm sure he is looking forward to camp next month!
