The Life and Times of Dakota

Caden Grades Papers

2008-11-30T18:29:00.000-08:00

Today Caden worked very hard to grade papers with me. Mostly he kept me warm, but he was a great helper!

Thanksgiving break should mean no work, but of course it was a lot of catching up on work. For those of you not familiar with the joys of being a teacher, grading isn't really that much fun and takes a lot of brain work. So Caden worked hard all day to grade papers and ended up wearing himself out!

Friends

2008-11-16T13:46:00.000-08:00

Caden and Dakota have started to actually get along pretty well. I even had them cuddled up with me on the couch today and they were laying curled up on top of each other. I wish I hadn't had to move them to get the camera, they decided they probably wanted to get up and play instead of pose for pictures.

Caden thinks his kennel is a wonderful place. However, when using treats to play with the kennel it gets confusing for the dogs and they both wind up in it! Caden is up to about 18 lbs and we are increasing his food this weekend, so I'm sure he'll be over 20 in no time! He's almost half the size of Dakota now, but is almost as tall. He is really growing quickly!

And now for something completely different... What a cutie!

Learning to show a dog

2008-11-16T13:27:00.000-08:00

We are definitely not great show dog trainers! We've been trying to teach Caden to stack, but it is slow going because he isn't really interested in standing still or letting us position him in any certain way. He's a little crazy about food, so I think that also makes it hard. We're going to keep working away at it though!

We've also been taping his ears to attempt to get them to not go "wonky" on us. I think we've got things straitened out now!

Viking Valley

2008-11-07T06:56:00.000-08:00

Last weekend Dakota, Caden, and I joined a group to head up to a Recreation Area. I had high hopes of Dakota seeing so many birds she would really get the idea locked down about this hunting thing. She has seemed so excited when the gun comes out or when she finds a bird that I thought this would be an ideal setting. Little did I know, her intelligence would once again be our downfall. She very quickly learned that if she just had a good time doing what she wanted, the guides labs would do all the hard work. So there really wasn't any reason for her to go to all the work of actually finding birds! She liked to wait until the labs brought a bird back and then she would try to jump up and grab it away from the guide. We had one bright moment when a very silly pheasant walked up onto the road while we were about to get into the vehicles. So we held up the labs and sent Dakota after it. It took her a second to get the scent, but she found it and did a very nice job flushing the pheasant. One of the guys shot it and Dakota raced off after it. I think we were lucky in that the bird tried to get away from her, which of course Dakota wasn't having. So she grabbed the bird and brought it most of the way back to me. She then gave it to me when I went to her, and both of us were extremely proud. She expressed that by repeatedly trying to get it back! I tried to toss it for her to retrieve but she was only interested in smelling it at that point.

One of our friends is quite an amazing photographer, so thanks to Colleen for these great pictures!

Caden did a nice job of retrieving birds and wings we tossed for him, well as long as he was on a leash so we could pull him back. He would much rather chew on the birds than bring them to me. We'll have to keep working on that! Here he is trying to feast on a bird.

The two pups also stayed outside in a heated kennel/run for their first time ever. I think both of them did really extremely well. I think it was the labs that barked to wake us up at 6, not the Tollers. I think both of them were content to just wait for us to come play again! That was very nice and I'm glad they were okay. Good practice in case they ever have to be boarded.

Caden also did an amazing job of running through the fields and not getting tired out. We were all pretty shocked at how happy he was to be out running even in some pretty heavy cover. We didn't hunt over him, but he was happy to be getting the exercise in a field. He also got exposed to quite a bit of gunfire at the camp and on the sporting clays range. He really doesn't even registers shooting. Just keeps doing whatever it is he is doing. I would be worried he was deaf if he didn't hear trucks and show fear of them. Really pretty amazing that the shooting doesn't even faze him.

Dakota has a flat tire

2008-10-26T09:46:00.000-07:00

I know, the flat tire to foot reference is getting overused, but I had to go ahead and throw it out because I did not have the creativity for anything else. Dakota, Maggie (German Shorthair), two neighbors, and myself went out pheasant hunting and had a blast. Dakota appears to have an idea of what her job is now, so I of course was thrilled! She flushed a couple of hens and then a group of four birds (2 hen and 2 rooster). Man, was she excited when those birds popped up. I could definitely tell when she went from smelling around to smelling a pheasant, and it was really fun to watch. I can't wait to take her out again. Next weekend we've got a trip with Secret Agent Man to a hunting preserve and I'm hoping seeing such a huge number of birds will get he to want to actually pick them up. I'm not sure how we ruined her for that, but hopefully she'll start to enjoy it again once they are birds she's flushing not frozen wings!
The down side of the trip was Dakota got a few nicks inbetween her pads so we had to wrap her up with co-hesive tape (sticks only to itself, not hair and skin) and some antibiotic ointment. She did not care for that and spent the rest of the day limping. Once the tape came off she was fine and dandy though.

Dakota's one of the Girls

2008-10-26T09:35:00.000-07:00

In their classic pose, Nicole's college friends allowed Dakota to join them.

She loves the attention!

Birds of a feather apparently do flock together. These red heads love to visit!

Dad and the kids love to cuddle up!

Vino number 3

2008-10-12T18:50:00.000-07:00

Yep, the new dog apparently also likes wine. He has not had any yet, but he sure wanted it.

He's also always hungry! He loves his food.

Opening Duck!

2008-10-12T18:44:00.000-07:00

I found the camera and here is a picture of our trip up North! Thanks Tim, Deb, and Kari for sharing your cabin with us!!! Dakota and Caden stayed at the cabin and played with Mom until I came home and they got to chase the ducks. Caden promptly stole a wing while we weren't looking and did not want to give it back. He loves birds! We did not get many pictures in, we were busying exploring, but here's a great picture of Tim and his new Duck Plucker! Tim gave me the two woodies and mallard Deb and he shot, and they were fantastic! My parents came over and we thoroughly enjoyed the tasty treat.

Worn out dogs

2008-10-12T18:32:00.000-07:00

Today I managed to wear out both dogs, it was wonderful! We got up and went hunting, Dakota with me and Caden in the truck listening to the gunfire in the area (none from me). I swear Dakota was giving me the look for not shooting her anything. Then we scouted about a bit and both dogs played in the tall grass and smelled all kinds of good smells. Then Caden visiting the gun club and showed us that hearing gunfire is no big deal, it's just those big labs barking that he doesn't care for. After that we hit the river and the dogs ran through the water, Caden was charging right in so wonderfully! He even swam when he had to, but prefered to run in the water if possible. Then hanging out in the yard while we cleaned up was enough to keep them spent! Enjoy the pictures!

Duck Season!!!

2008-10-06T05:30:00.000-07:00

Well, the duck season has arrived. Sadly, I don't know where I put the camera so I'm missing the pictures of the dogs playing with the ducks and wings, but maybe I'll find it later. Neither dog is ready for the blind, but Caden is showing some amazing promise. He is really fired up about birds and the starter's pistol noise or shotgunning off in the distance didn't even cause him to blink (while Dakota raced around to find what had been shot). He isn't a fan of water yet, but had no trouble hopping into the boat while on land. We'll have to keep working the water. He also had a blast last week going down slides, so hopefully we can keep exposing him to all kinds of new things. We'll keep working hard with both of them. Dakota has moved her focus to agility class and is doing outstanding work so far! These pictures are two weeks old, but hopefully you'll still enjoy them. We'll work on getting newer ones up!

Visiting Austin

2008-09-21T09:19:00.000-07:00

Well, we certainly had a great visit down to Austin. Caden won everyone over with his cuteness, and even finally won Dakota over a little bit! Check out how they actually play together a little bit now.
Now it may look like Dakota wasn't really playing, but eventually she decided to! It's always tough for Caden to know when she barks to mean stay away and when she barks to say chase me! So Caden does a lot of running and hiding some days. Our video's are really quite large and I'm not sure I want to spend all day downloading them, so I'm just going to have to trust your imagination to give you a picture of Dakota running back and forth with the frisbee teasing Caden with it. They both love that toy! Thanks to my parents for getting it for us! Caden is most definitely a country dog. He was raised on a lake, so he didn't get to be around cars a lot it seems. He'll run and hide when a car drives by. But take him near some tall grass and he'll crash through it. Or find a home that needs some daisy's to be dead-headed (or hydrangeas that don't need to be dead-headed) and he's your pup! I may add a video of that later, but right now the upload is way too slow.
Someone got a little tired out from all the playing!

Caden enters the story!

2008-09-14T19:42:00.000-07:00

This weekend we picked up Caden, or Vermilion's Unrivaled Acadian. He is a gorgeous little guy, and of course Kyle is quite excited since he retrieved a pigeon today at 8 weeks old for us. He's currently yipping his displeasure of being in a new kennel without siblings, but hopefully he'll be really happy with our home.

Dakota starts Agility class tomorrow, so we are all hoping that we have tons of fun doing that!

Vermilion Fun

2008-08-12T08:00:00.000-07:00

It's been quite some time, but I figure it is about time to start posting again. We've been hard at work and have seen quite a few improvements. Dakota is an awesome house dog, and a wonderful part of our family. We're still way behind on hunting stuff, but what can you do. We've just learned that she is actually too long for a Toller, so some local breeders are worried about her back if we hunt her too much. So we'll have to see how that goes.
On to the fun vacation times!
Dakota is a really great car rider. However, she does prefer to be in my lap over Nicole's. On the way home we've started a new policy where she rides in the back and after some initial attempts to get back up front I think she has accepted her new fate.

She might look happy here, but Dakota really doesn't enjoy the waverunner. Especially when it takes us away from her. She does her best Toller whining to get us to come back! So, it's up for sale and hopefully we can replace it with a duck boat!

Our biggest accomplishment of the weekend was getting Dakota to jump into the water instead of her usually hopping through shallow water until she starts to float. Not that she would do it much, but we are constantly reminding ourselves- BABYSTEPS!

Dakota and Nicole enjoying a little sun. Dakota of course would rather be playing with her dummy, but we had to take the photo opp when it appeared.

Where is the focus? On the loving mom? No chance, on the dummy! Throw it so I can go get it!!!

Someone loves snow!

2007-03-05T19:59:00.000-08:00

Dakota most definitely loves the snow. She'll play all day if you let her. Such as this romp with the neighbor.

As you may be able to notice, she is getting bigger. She's almost at 30 lbs now. Here is another picture hopefully showing how big she is getting.

Long Time Gone

2007-03-05T19:34:00.000-08:00

Yep, we've been gone for some time now. Teaching that curling class got me off track, but man was it fun.
Under much pressure I'm finally getting a very important update. Dakota's cousin and hunting partner took a great picture with her, so here that is!

I Graduated!

2006-12-21T14:32:00.000-08:00

Dakota has completed her puppy class with flying colors (although she lost the puppy Olympics, and got 2nd place, due to Grandpa Bruce and his love of rough-housing with her!!!)

If you think puppy class taught me to actually wear this hat, you haven't met me yet. I'm way too excited to sit still and tolerate something on my head. So I guess we'll work on that in future classes. I am 100% puppy still, and I will run around like crazy any chance I get. Sitting still to be petted is about the worst punishment I can imagine. However, if I get to lay on my back while you scratch my belly and I can chew on something, then you are speaking my language!

Oh yeah, and it is NASTY weather today. So I am opening my own business. I am the newest snow removal (and leaf removal) company in town. I will eat right through any snow or leaves that are in the way. I can't think of many tastier treats than snow and leaves. Maybe the liver snaps the Vet gives me (you should have seen me race into the vets office and go right for them before I was even offered one), but I only see the vet once in a while, so the snow wins out.

The Field!!!

2006-12-21T14:02:00.000-08:00

Yes yes yes, I know. I'm terribly slow at updating the blog. I just have so much fun out and about with Dakota that I put it off. Oh yeah, and that whole thing called having a job.

To start things out with a bang!

Yes, that is lots of mud. Kyle and Dakota thought it would be fun to play in Grandpa Bruce's corn field right after the freeze thawed out. I'm not sure who got muddier, but it did require both of them to take a shower, and then Nicole had to clean the tub out with all the mud and corn still in it. This exercise started out with Kyle shooting some clays to get Dakota used to gunfire, but we've now learned that when mud is involved that takes precedence in Dakota's mind. Although I would like to brag that I was 100% on the clays two days in a row and Dakota did really quite well with the noise (although many will claim that while in the house you really can't hear the noise).

How muddy did they get the tub you ask? Hopefully this picture will give you an idea of what the tub looked like.

Yes, it was quite a disaster.

Dakota is having mixed results in the field. With short grass or with lots of distraction, she loves it in the field. She absolutely loves being outside, but would prefer it be the backyard and familiar territory. So we are trying to push the tall grass. So, it is time to play Where's Dakota, to infringe on Waldo's copyright.

She is there if you can find her. She did very well this day and we love the field and have been back a couple of times. Not too far from here is another water collection area and she did a great job of sneaking up on the ducks with daddy, we didn't even chase them and scare them off. Hopefully this bodes well for Duck Hunting adventures in the future. She's even started to hear the wings of the ducks as they fly over (see post 3 for how happy the sound of duck wings makes her dad), as well as the call of the Honkers during their flights over the house.

Did I hear the crow "caw"? Or was that cousin Aaron and his crow imitation or Buckwheat and his cat meow? Either way, I'm hot on the trail and I will find them. Next time you see my cousins ask them to do their animal impersonations so you can see how much fun it is when I chase them in the field. I will tackle the toughest hill to chase them, break through the toughest brush, and pounce on them when I find them.

The next time we visited the same field Dakota didn't really do as well, I guess she needs more friends to play with.

Well, I'm going to close this post so I can start another one to talk about Puppy class!

First SNOW!

2006-12-09T05:58:00.000-08:00

It's been a while, but we are back. Between caring for the puppy, grading my students, preparing their finals, and working on my chemistry I've been slow on the updates. Dakota is growing like crazy and having lots of fun! Although she isn't allowed out at school anymore, so she doesn't get to play with all my students as much and we are all very bummed about that.

The big event of the last two weeks was probably the first "snow". We really didn't get much and it didn't stay long, but Dakota loved it as you can see from her snow mustache!

Another big event was that we went on a two hour exploring trip into the underbrush in a nearby reserve. She prefers to take the easy route, but every once in a while she tackled the tall grass head on. Sadly, I forgot the camera so we don't have any good pictures. But it was a lot of fun (even if I had to crawl in a few spots to get wear she could). This trip led to her first brushing and the jury is out as to whether or not she survived it! She did pretty well with it, but would have much rather chewed on the brush then let it chew on her.

Apparently I take lots of pictures of her sleeping, although she isn't doing as much sleeping as she used to do when we are awake. We are much too exciting to let something like naps get in the way of playing. So if you ever need a cute picture of a puppy sleeping, let me know, I've got a lot of them!

Here is one of Dakota's favorite spots to explore. She also is a fan of going under the table and finding creative ways to get under/over/around the legs of the table and chairs. This knowledge came in useful when she had her first play session with her cousin Cooper. Cooper is a Westie that is pure muscle and could push her around pretty easily. So she would hide under a chair so he couldn't body check her and then take some swipes at him. After the two hours of playing I don't think either of them had slept more soundly. We'll be arranging more play time soon!

I'm told it is too early to start hunting with her, but we've got her working on this duck! Look at this retrieve! She is a huge fan of the duck and loves to chase it. The retrieving part comes and goes, so we are going to wait a while to really start working on fetch and games like that. She does do much better at fetching her rope chew than balls, so we'll work on that as she gets bigger.

I suppose I should get back to working on tests. Hope everyone else is having a little bit more fun on their Saturday morning!

Week One

2006-12-02T17:41:00.000-08:00

Dakota has decided to keep us it would appear. We came to the end of the first week and everyone survived. I think a lot of it had to do with her Grandpa Bruce spoiling her rotten! She had a great visit from family and then even won my mom over and was the first dog my mom has held in her lap in many many years! But, even Grandpa's get climbed on.

Although, I should tell you we are really pleased that Dakota does seem to understand when she has to be careful. She met some elementary kids while at work and did a very good job of letting them pet her and she said hi to them without biting or getting wild. Then the proud moment came when she met a baby at the vet's and was extremely gentle finding out what this little person was. This is good news as we are exploring the possibility of having Dakota be a Therapy Dog. Both Nicole and I would get a tremendous amount of satisfaction out of helping others heal through some dog therapy! Hopefully Dakota would enjoy it as well.

Would you believe that Dakota doesn't know what to make of the shower yet? She loves to get in and get some water, but she always reaches a point when she has just had enough. So we are trying to get her in every once in a while in short sessions since our lakes are frozen and who knows when she'll get to try swimming out! The part that makes us laugh most though is when she tries to bite the stream of water. This is quite entertaining. She also likes to wade for a little bit, but then she'll decide the water is trying to get her and she'll bark at it and jump out of the tub. Good thing she dries off really really fast.

Well, Dakota suffered her first lose on the golf course. I guess we'll stick to other sports like soccer which she is quite good at. I guess we won't enter her in the Haberer Open next year, she is too busy chasing the golf ball to chew it and can't be bothered to hit it.

I've got all kinds of pictures as the camera happy daddy, but I should leave it at this so I don't over do it.

Until next time!

She's Home!

2006-11-25T12:53:00.000-08:00

Well, Dakota is home. She had an excellent time playing with Ryan and Corinne and made it to the airport thanks to them. She was a little nervous at the airport, but quickly become curious and then frustrated with me for not letting her explore then entire place. Thanks to the kindness of our neighbors on the airplane, she even got to get out and play during the flight! It was a very fortunate event that we had dog friendly neighbors sharing the flight.

I know the suspense is killing them, so I'll mention that Dakota did not sleep in the bed, but slept in the crate in our bedroom instead. She whined for a bit, but then slept for quite some time.

We're having problems posting to the blog at the moment, so I'll just add a few quick pictures and then write again later.

Yes, I think she likes Ryan better.

Riding in the car the first day was not good on her tummy, but since then she has done great!

Mom and I like to play!

Annie

2006-11-17T10:24:00.000-08:00

We should also show you the dog that cemented Kyle's desire to own a dog and Dakota's cousin from North Carolina. Annie was kind enough to let me live with her for a while and taught me how to care for dogs. Of course, she was so well trained by Ryan that there weren't too many hard lessons learned, but learning was done none-the-less.

Annie enjoys riding in Ryan's Jeep, and anything water related, especially riding on the waverunner.

Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retrievers

2006-11-17T09:28:00.000-08:00

She's a Toller!

We often get blank and confused stares when we tell people that our puppy is a Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retriever (or Toller), so I thought I should share a little about them and why we chose one. If you want to learn more, please go to the Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retriever Club- USA or AKC webpage.
We choose the Toller because we wanted a dog that would live inside with us and be a family pet. Happy to play and cuddle with us, Nicole might even let her sit on the couch! Tollers actually prefer to live inside with the family because they want to be close to their family and participate in life, so that suits us well. They are also a medium breed, so they won't take up the entire indoors without allowing us to also live there! After seeing our first pictures and meeting our first Tollers, we were in love. Just like Nicole and I knew we were perfect for each other the first time we met (Yay Timmy and Sarah!) , we knew Tollers were perfect for us at that moment.
The other factor was that Kyle would very much like a dog that will enjoy hunting and retrieving as much as he does. You see, Kyle comes from a line of hunters feared throughout the duck and goose world. Just ask the next flock flying through about Grandpa Bob and see if they don't get riled up about it. Now Kyle can't claim any greatness like that, but he has spent his share of time out and about and if you have ever sat in the early pre-dawn and watched and heard the birds starting to move, heard the coyotes and foxes chat, dozed 10 feet from a flock of cormorants, had a beaver wake you up to say hello, or watched shooting stars from the boat without annoying lights to dim the view (Yes, all of those were actually in one day, THANKS TIM!) you'll know what his addiction feels like.

Tollers also have a ton of energy and are very smart. So we look forward to matching wits and seeing who has the most energy. Kyle will probably expect Dakota to be proficient at Differential Diagnosis by the age of 1, so it is good to have a smart puppy. As if Nicole didn't have her hands full with one thinker, but she will be able to handle them since they both love her so much.

Anyhow, I suddenly forgot this blog was about the puppy, not us, so I'll leave you with another picture of Dakota.

More about the puppy

2006-11-17T09:17:00.000-08:00

So, you may notice that I'm not as adept with computers and blogging as my brother and sister (Wily Jeneric), but I get to claim that is it because I'm so busy with puppy preperations and teaching. Oh wait, they just had a baby and Jenni teaches too. Nuts. Anyhow, forgive me as I play around with fonts, formats, sizing, etc.

But, here are a few more pictures.

Why yes, you are right. She is absolutely beautiful.

Just because you asked nicely, here is another picture showing how cute she is. I was told Wednesday that I acted like a ten year old, so I think this picture shows how much fun Dakota and I will be having playing together. She is busy exploring and getting herself ready for the difficult task of having all kinds of fun with us.

Welcome to the Family!!!

2006-11-17T08:59:00.000-08:00

Here is one of the pictures of our newest family member. As you might see, Dakota is absolutely adorable. These pictures were sent to us by the breeder, Phil and Shirl DeVore of Chesagrove Kennels.