Cottage Vacation This year same as the last
 

But this time for 2 wks Yeah We leave the 9th of August. One of my friends Ilona should be up the first week, and then another friend comes on the Friday. All dog lovers:D

Just finished paying for the vacation and enjoying planning for it too. We got a new 8x8 shelter for shade down by the dock. So the pups and I can hang out there all day in the shade. We bring their crates down and Xpen for Razzman. I bring the cooler with water for the pups, treats, cool ones for the 2 leggers, and of course their water bag, which includes their life jackets and toys and extra leads and the water collars and leads. So everything but the cooler stays overnight and each am we only need to bring ourselves and maybe towels down by the beach. Also I have their grooming supplies and a table set up down there to do their after swimming grooming:) Owning an abudance of crates comes in handy as I can have crates in the car for travelling, crates in the house for sleeping, and crates by the dock too!
The crates come in handy, cause usually I am alone for 1/2 day or more with them, and I train/play one by one. Also I am not too sure how busy it will be with our next door neighbours and if they will have dogs free off lead.

We have our electric motor for the small fishing boat, and some water toys for me too;)

This year I want to train Magic Razzle and Dara to come with me in the paddle boat, and Magic and Razzle to swim beside the paddle boat. Dara is still learning to swim, so I think by the end of our vacation or earlier she will be in full swimming enthusiast!

We also set aside time to do some hiking with all the dogs, hubby will forgo fishing those days :p And then we have late afternoon family swim time and then dinner walks and Yawns bedtime.

Simple pleasures for simple people.

Sounds awesome! Enjoy!

This sounds like an absolutely fabulous two weeks!!! I am sooooooo jealous! I wish I had 3 babies and could get away for 2 weeks! Have a WONDERFUL exciting fun, fun, fun time!!! Please take LOTS of pictures and share them...your videos are great too!!! Will you be doing dock diving with Dara and Magic? Razzle is also going to have a wonderful, happy time, swimming, fetching, playing with the BRT's, and socializing with the guests!

Well for sure RAzzle and Magic for dock diving, and depending on how Dara does and her confidence I might be able to get her to do a few dock dives too;) I always make sure a new dog is a very confident swimmer before introducing dock diving. It is scarey for a dog to jump off the dock, and if coupled with I am not too sure in the water, well lets just say it is better to have them comfy swimming.

And have you seen the video Gals and Dogs in Trent Hills? Ilona and I were up together with a dozen dogs for 4 or 5 days:) I had 2 she had 10 lol lol. That was the year I lost Zoey. But at least one of the videos showed me in the water introducing three of Ilona's dogs to dock diving.

I know it is rare to find a place that allows a multitude of dogs, but if you can convince them, and then show them you leave the place very clean, you leave no dog poop around etc, they are more open to the next visit.

I also bring covers for their furniture, although my big dogs are trained to not lay on the furniture, my Razzman is not, spoiled brat that he is:) And RAzzle is totally house trained and outside trained, but still I crate him at night, mainly to keep him safe from Blackies stepping on him.

I just need to purchase some more Xpens for the huge deck. My escape artist Razzle found out new and unique ways of confounding the gates and the couple of Xpens I had. okay so one way he did it, and get this the deck at this point is anywhere from 4-5 feet off the ground, he squeezed between the bars, and tiptoed along the 3" side of the deck that was outside of the bars to merrily go down the outside of the stairs and onto to ground. We had Xpenned off the three gates and had no more Xpens left... I barred off that exit with chairs slung sideways, then he went to the other gate. That got barred off too. Then he learnt to balance up on the side of the chair climb down and go out through the bars.... Sigh. Mostly he ran down to the water, or if a person was outside went to say hi. Not to mention the birds in the feeders, and the occasional squirrel that had the temerity to run past his deck! I should never have taught him agility!!

Eventually I was forced to keep him on a 20 foot lead while he was out on the deck . That scamp:p

Razzle is my kind of Yorkie! I love everything about him! Katie has Razzle's fire and spirit, but Ilona did such an amazing job training her. Katie has learned that she has an easy going mom, but she still listens so well. Despite that, she has a mind of her own, too, and she is so confident and courageous.

I am really excited for you, and I just can't wait to see your videos. Two of my favorites are of Razzle, the duck hunter, and the one of your boys dock diving and Magic's oops moment. Magic is quite a dog!

Your vacation sounds like heaven. I really enjoyed seeing your videos from last year and hope to see some this year too.

Hope to see pics!

Wow it sounds like a lot of fun ! . . Can't wait To see the pictures

Thanks Gals. Looking forward to it myself.

Well to say it has been an eventfull two weeks is an understatement! I am now the proud owner of a 2014 brand spanking new Dodge Grand Caravan SXT. I just got home an hour or so ago from picking it up! Of course this was unplanned as 2wks + ago I had an accident with my old Van and the Insurance company decided it was not worth fixing it up. My mechanic agreed, and so I settled with them, then it was car shopping time.

Vlad our foster went to his for-ever home last weekend, and he is doing well, but that meant full grooming before his Mom came to pick him up:)

I went toy shopping a few days ago for their new water toys, and put them in the water bag on top of a high crate. Yesterday I come home from shopping, and guess what? One of the new toys is on the floor with the cardboard ripped off. Now which one of my scamps got up there, went into the bag and picked out the new toy? The duffle bag is now safely zipped up.

Just packing up stuff now, we are trying to get by without a roof rack thingie, as I want to invest in a great rear bumper with sliding arm trunk thingie! lol words escape me - but it is ever so much more convenient then trying to haul stuff overhead onto a roof rack. So I am not going to lug my groceries from my favourite butcher and fish monger, nor my organic veges and just have to shop up there for the food. My camera equipment is all charged up and packed into my camera backpack, which is another signal to the dogs that big things are up and coming.

The dogs are staying very very near to me, as the living room is slowly accumulating the "stuff" we take. So next up will be the dogs grooming box(s), and I will really try to winnow down what I take. The the usual crate debate - like how many to take? Given we want to trim down on what we try to jam into the van:p

Oh and to top it off I get an email from the person who is renting us the cottage to say, that there have been bear sightings so be carefull when I walk the dogs:eek: So off to outward bound for some bear spray and a horn.

So going off to make up some more lists:D

Congrats on your new vehicle and have a wonderful time!

Sounds like a great vacation, enjoy.

Thanks Gals. I hope the van looks so very large inside that we can get 3 folks and 3 dogs and stuff all inside of it:)

Whoopee internet access. We are on vaccay. And I have to tell you we have had 4 full days of rain and very cold weather, going down to 8 celesius at night! Yuck. We finally got some sun today, but the weather is so very cold, and we fear for rain at any time, we can't take the pups in for swimming or dock diving. :thumbdown:thumbdown

Dara is finding her adolescent guarding instincts and is being a pain in the proverbial rear end!

Oh yes and we are almost out of wood, and the closest general store has none. So we shall husband our only source of heat for later on tonight.

Sorry to hear the weather is yucky. Hopefully, you are doing something else wonderful, like having a fire and curling up with a good book with the pups nearby.