. I spent the first part of last week just getting caught up on all the stuff that piled up during my time away at camp. The first day back, Dazzle mostly slept. I think he was still recovering from camp too :-) But by Wed./Thursday he was starting to get stir crazy. Mike said he was making up his own games in the yard which included high leaps for no apparent reason other than joyful energy, rolling around, pouncing on invisible toys (bugs maybe?) and running full speed. The other dogs were giving him room and staying inside because his energy levels were higher than they wanted to deal with! So I had to be sure to put aside time for training and ball throwing to keep him happy :-)
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We're pretty much back on schedule now and I'm mostly caught up and Dazzle is sleeping in front of the A/C vent. I have gotten info on some herding trials coming up next month and in September and I hopefully now have a time set aside to work him with some sheep. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that his natural talent will get us through the instinct tests :-) After that, I'll need to do more work with him.
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As I suspected, Dazzle had NO problem with the fireworks on the 4th that we could see and hear all around our house. He went out and played in the yard like he didn't notice it sounded like WWIII was taking place :-) Bear also spent most of the evening sitting on the back step watching the light show. Coyote, on the other hand wasn't willing to stick more than the tip of his nose out the dog door even if Mike and I were outside. Thankfully for him, people around here only shoot fireworks ON the 4th of July and not every evening starting in June and going nearly into Aug. like it was at the old house.
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I took avantage of the overcast filtered light yesterday and took the photo shown above. I love the way it turned out! Dazzle is still 24" tall and also 24" long, so he fits the breed standard of being "square" in proportion :-) I haven't weighed him lately, but would guess he's between 55 (the last known weight) and 60 pounds. I need to get an updated "family" photo since the last one I have was from Christmas.
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I'll post more after we play with the sheep :-)
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