Category: dogs

Rion at Day Camp

Meanwhile, back in Colorado, Rion had a good day:

Rion Normandy-Heneghan spent the day at Old Ranch Stables.  There was a open play session, a roll in the sand event,  freestyle tug toy pull,  an observation class on cat behavior, cookie time (a real favorite), and naptime (when the counselor left to get her hair cut).  He and his cousin got kicked out of the photo session; whenever the camera came out they would not even begin to do anything interesting (other than jump on the photographer).  As a result no photos of the event are available.  I will say Rion looked pretty much the same when he left as when he arrived, except dirtier and quieter.  A very nice day.  The counselor had to stay home most of the day to wait for the guy to come clean the portapotty, while the Nanny left to help paint trim on her dad’s house.

Cheney and Orion


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Jack said I had to upload a photo with Cheney and Orion so viewers could see how much smaller Cheney is compared to Orion. I think Orion was blinking from the flash during this photo. I decided to go with it anyway, since it is very difficult to keep two terrier type dogs sitting at the same time. I tried to photograph Cheney next to a soft drink can, but Cheney was deeply suspicious of it.

Cheney

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Cheney is a very small, three year old Rat Terrier with Issues who was adopted by my friend when he was about one and a half years old. A couple of months ago, my friend was bemoaning the fact that she would never go on vacation again because she wouldn’t ask a critter sitter to take care of Cheney. My friend is our backup for whoever takes care of our critters when we travel, so I told her he could come stay here. He is also Orion’s best friend, at least when Orion is visiting his house.

Since we were worried about how Cheney would get on, she brought him out for several trial runs. The first time he was worried, but at least not catatonic. (If Cheney was a person, I would say he had some sort of severe anxiety disorder.) During the second, longer trial a few days ago when my friend left for a few hours, he was still worried but actually showed signs of interacting with me, the environment and the other dogs. So yesterday I went to pick up Cheney so he could stay for a few days.

It is going quite well. Yesterday, I was gating dogs into various groups inside the house so they wouldn’t be in a critical mass while they adjusted. I also put Cheney in his crate a few times when he seemed overloaded. After the first few hours, Lody, the old Collie, decided he could be safely ignored. Lightning, the Sheltie, seems to like him. Lily seems to like him. And Orion thinks it is terrific, though I’ve had to put Rion in time out when he gets too boisterous for the other dogs.

Gate

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When we moved here, there was a small pen with privacy fencing for the previous owner’s dog, and a few strands of barb wire around what we now call the horse field. We had a larger dog pen built the first month we were here in December 1992. We didn’t get around to building the barn until the summer of 1996,  and fenced a little over two acres for the horse field in October 1996. In September of 2000, we fenced another two acres  for what we still call the new field, and also fenced an adjacent area to replace our previous dog run. The dog run shared a fence line with the new field.

About five minutes are the dog run and new field were finished, I realized we should have put a gate between the new field and the dog run, but could never convince Jack that it was a good idea. When I learned that Lily and Lightning were coming to live with us, I told Jack I wanted to put a gate in so I could take the dogs out to the new field to play fetch without having to put dogs on leads to get them there safely.

On our way to the restaurant Sunday, Jack spotted a place that sells Preifert gates. Preifert gates are lightweight and recommended for use around horses. Yesterday morning I called and asked the owner if he had anyone who could install a gate for me. The young man he recommended came by a few hours later to check things out, and then came back this morning and installed our new gate. I am very pleased. It only took nine years. (The four-foot gate to the horse field is to the left in this photo, and the new gate is the one on the right.)