Beach Spotty

I think it's safe to say that Derby is *officially* a swimmin' spotty. A few weekends ago (yes, I'm a bad blogger) I took him to a little dog beach on the bay and he had a grand time!

While I can't say juggling a spotty, a toy and my iphone *in* the water was the smartest thing I've ever done, these events have to be documented, right?

Please forgive the mediocre, unedited iphone pictures. :)

Beach Bums

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving! We sure did...it was so nice to spend the day with family, relaxing and enjoying a little trip to the beach with Indy and Derby.

Indy had a great time, as usual, and I think Derby had fun too - although he thought the water was COLD. I tried to take some video with my phone, but it was too bright to see the screen so I gave up after a few tries...

He did manage to get in the water up to his belly, but started shivering so we decided to go play in the sand instead. :)

Since Peyton HATES the beach, he stayed home, but did get to go to an agility trial up in Tampa today, which he thought was much more fun. We had two really nice runs with just a few handler errors. In JWW I sent him off-course, and in Standard, I almost pulled him off a tunnel and then attempted two awkward (unplanned) rear crosses and we missed the a-frame. I couldn't figure out why he would pull off a tunnel (seriously, how often does that happen??) until I watched the video and realized I said his name. Oops. Good spotty!

He was flyin' today...so much fun! We're taking the day off tomorrow (well he is; I have to work) but will be heading back up early on Sunday...providing I can manage to wake up on time. I will say my little spotted alarm clock (aka Derby) is almost turning me into a morning person. Almost. :)

Trial for Two!

Poor Indy...I have a ton of really fun pictures from our beach trip, but at the rate I'm going, I'll be lucky to have them up before Christmas.

That's okay; I think she'll forgive me. Maybe. She is going to run in her first AKC trial this weekend, so hopefully that will make her happy!

It should be...interesting. We haven't done much agility-wise all summer except for playing around in the backyard. I did take her out to the club this week to run a little novice jumpers course. Oh my. We haven't run a full course in forever and it definitely showed. I had forgotten how darn *careful* she is! She ticked one bar and then started stutter stepping right before the jumps. Physically, I think she's fine, but she definitely does *not* want to knock a bar. I'm hoping that with a little trial excitement she'll forget about worrying. We'll see...I just want her to have a good time and I have no other expectations.

I have a feeling Peyton is going to be wild. But that's okay too...I'm just ready to go play with my favorite spotties!

I think Indy is trying to channel her inner Border Collie here. Creepy.

Good Times

Hope everyone had a nice long holiday weekend! We took a (long overdue) trip down to Venice Beach on Saturday evening and have a lovely time!

Indy was the only spotty in attendance since Peyton seems think that the ocean (or the Gulf, in this case) is one big giant bathtub of doom. :)

Once again I was reminded of just how much fun Indy has at the beach and again, I will try very hard to not let so many months go by before our next trip. Please feel free to remind me!

Of course I took a TON of pictures and in most of them Indy looks like she on the verge of drowning, but I assure you that she just takes swimming *very seriously*.

Seriously though, how cute is she?? She cracks me up...I'm so lucky to have such entertaining spotty dogs. Look for more pictures soon!

Weekend Smiles

The spotties and I had a great weekend! On Friday evening we took Indy to the dog beach at Ft. Desoto and she had a BLAST. I think these pictures pretty much say it all...

Ah, these images make me *SMILE*. I just love seeing her so happy! :)

On Sunday evening Peyton got to come with me out to the club where I photographed his best friends, Riley and Finn. He wasn't very happy about hanging out in the car while the Goldens modeled, but he did have a great time playing with them when we were done.

Peyton says Goldens taste like chicken...yum!

*LOVE*

And finally, a Golden sandwich!

Pongo didn't get to go anywhere fun this weekend, but he did get some marshmallow bunnies for Easter, which he loves. And all three spotties were spared the humiliation of posing with bunny ears this year...lucky them!

We hope all of our friends had a great weekend!

Pongo Loves Thanksgiving

I'm so very thankful that Pongo and I were able to celebrate another Thanksgiving together this year. He was one very happy spotty boy - not only did he get some turkey, but he also got a trip to the beach! I've got lots of pictures to share, but I couldn't resist posting this one first - it might just be my favorite Pongo picture ever...

More Fun at the Beach!

Here are a few more Indy pics from our beach trip last weekend!

Peyton and I leave for our big DACOF weekend tomorrow morning! I feel a little out of practice - because of the rain we haven't done much for the last two weeks. Thankfully we'll have a couple practice runs tomorrow so I'm hoping that will help burn a little of the energy out of my wild spotty. Fingers and paws crossed for a fun weekend! Hopefully we won't embarrass ourselves too much. :)

Have an awesome (and safe) 4th of July weekend! 

Shark Spotted!

We were planning on attending "Bark in the Ballpark" up in Tampa tonight, but when we got there we found out it had been cancelled. Bummer! On the way home we decided to stop by the Ft. Desoto dog beach. Indy was soooo excited - she hasn't been to the beach in ages!

We had a great time, and even managed to spot a shark that was swimming *very* close to the shore. It was pretty big too - I heard someone say it was a hammerhead, but I couldn't tell. Fortunately the beach wasn't very crowded and we managed to get all of the dogs out of the water!



I just had to share what could possibly be one of most entertaining pictures of Indy *ever*...does she look like a happy (or crazed) spotty dog or what!?



I managed to get some really fun pictures of Indy this time - I'll try and post more later. Needless to say she had a blast and is now a very tired spotty girl! :)

Impromtu Beach Trip

I took a little trip down to the Venice dog beach Saturday evening. I was surprised that there weren't more doggies out enjoying the nice weather, but I did manage to capture some fun shots of the few that were there.

First - It's a bird, it's a plane...AND it's a dog!





Notice the little guy below...

I spotted these next two just hanging out enjoying the view. They caught my eye because not only were they beauties, but they do something my dogs never seem to do on the beach - relax.

I have to add a special thanks to the nice couple who graciously allowed me to interrupt their peaceful evening to take a few pictures of these two. And what great models they were!

Beach Spotty!

Indy looooves the beach. There a some great dog beaches in the area, but to her dismay we don't get the opportunity to go very often. This past weekend we met up with some friends at the Ft. Desoto beach and Indy had a blast! This was our first beach outing this year, and only Indy's third time swimming in the Gulf. She finally decided last year that she was brave enough to give it a try.

Despite her slight bug-eyed look, she's actually a good little swimmer! Our outing reminded me why I moved to Florida, and hopefully we can make time for several more beach trips this summer.