Boat Show Babe

Hey Tribe,

Fly attended the Anchorage Boat Show this past weekend. Our SAR team was a vendor for the show and we had a booth set up for the public to learn about the services we provide and meet some of our dogs.

Her bandana from Alaska Goldens Co was appropriately themed.

Our booth was very popular with dog lovers of all ages.

Fly is under there somewhere.

A fair amount of baby kissing happened.

This guy was Fly's favorite baby.

We also occasionally took a break from the booth to wander the event and chat with the other vendors.  At the Alaska State Trooper's booth, Fly caught a whiff of the Brown Bear skull that was on display and she barked at it, to the entertainment of the people around us.  She would go in for a sniff, jump backwards and bark, then go in for another sniff.

"Excuse me, Sir, do you know you're holding a bear's head? Are you crazy?"

The Trooper, a fellow dog lover, was a good sport and let Fly get a closer look at everything.

Fly demonstrated her very best public behavior skills: she walked beside me without pulling on her leash, remained calm as people of all varieties touched her, ignored other dogs (including some poorly behaved and rather questionable "service dogs"), and remained in a "stay" wherever I placed her.

I couldn't ask for a better partner at events like this; she represented our SAR team well!

Mushing Update

Hey Tribe,

Just a quick mushing update: we're hooked (literally and figuratively)!

More soon!

If You're Going to Climb Trees...

Another Fly and Rex story installment.

During their forest walk this past weekend, Fly continued her agility training with Rex.  She demonstrated how to load onto stumps and of course she made it look very easy.

Rex didn't always pay attention.

Rex tried a few times, but the snow on the stumps made him awkwardly slide off, with long legs and tail flailing wildly for balance.  Luckily, the snow was soft and his thuds onto the ground were not painful.  He is a tough boy anyway, so he wouldn't have said anything even if it did hurt a little bit.

Rex was determined to climb a tree.  He examined several trees, but Fly rolled her eyes and said he couldn't climb those.

Too skinny, she said.

They practiced walking on a few trees together to build confidence.

Then, Rex spotted a tree that looked perfect!  But spoilsport Fly said it was too dangerous.

See how the broken half is not attached to the trunk?

So, when Fly wasn't looking...

Maybe there are squirrels up there!

He climbed!

See Fly?  She wasn't supervising.

It was so easy - even if he did have to jump the last few feet.

Rex was very proud of himself.  He sniffed for squirrels while he was up there, but nobody was home.

Humom said "Come down, Rex!" but brave tree climbing Rex realized he couldn't come down the way he had climbed up and it was too high to jump to the ground where Humom and Fly stood waiting for him.

He cried a little bit, but didn't panic.

So, Humom had to call for help and stood on TheFather's back so she could reach Rex and help him.  It was very embarrassing.  Rex learned if you're going to climb trees, make sure you can get back down again!