Weekend of Firsts

Chris and I headed down to his parent's lake house this weekend with Jack, Hilga and Lemon. Jim and Rita weren't able to go, so it was just us and the dogs at the house. It was Lemon's first trip to the lake. All in all she had a great weekend. For a puppy it is a really exciting and stimulating environment. Lots of new sniffs, the actual lake, lots of tools around the house that are new and different, etc... I am so mad at myself because I forgot our camera, but hopefully we'll get some pictures from Jeff in the next few days that I'll post.

On Saturday, Chris and I went to Preston (about 40 mintues from the lake house) to visit my grandparents. Chris's uncle and aunt, Jeff and Diane, live down the road and Jeff watched Lemon for us while we were gone. Jeff and Diane have a house full of goldens, and they are the perfect pack to socialize a puppy in. It is important for Lemon to learn that she can't be as abrasive with all dogs as Jackson and Hilga allow her to be, and this was a great opportunity for her to be put in her place and given limits in a safe environment. Jackson also spent a lot of time with the goldens as a puppy, and I think it was really good for him, although he proved to be very resilient to any 'lessons' regarding being abrasive. So anyways, it was Lemon's first golden experience!

It started snowing about the time Chris and I left for my grandparents, and by the time we got back about 4 hours later, the snow had really started accumulating. When we left the main road to head towards the lake house, I was terrified. These days, I can be a little tense in the car anyway, but when the anti-lock brakes kick in and we hardly have any control of the truck, I freak out! I was just glad the dogs weren't in the car. Somehow we made it back to Jeff's house to pick up Lemon and went in and talked for a few minutes. It continued to snow. Jeff lives at the bottom of a long, very steep hill that we have to go up to get back to our lake house. The truck would not make it up! We ended up having to leave the truck at Jeff's house, grab Lemon, her crate and our coats and hike back home.

Jackson and Hilga (who were left at our lake house) were so excited to see us coming down the hill. Jackson was jumping at the door and...knocked the dead bolt into the lock position (we learned our lesson about carrying a key with us!). Chris and I just kind of looked at each other in disbelief. We started checking windows and amazingly (we couldn't believe this), one was actually open. So, we were able to get into the house after only about 20 minutes of panic. In the meantime a huge chunk of snow fell out of a tree and landed on Chris's head. I had to giggle.

So, Lemon got to enjoy her first snow. And it was a real deal first snow. We must have gotten 6 inches. She loved it! We had a hard time getting her to come inside. It ended up being a beautiful day, and it was kind of fun being snowed in for the day. It was my first time getting snowed in somewhere! We ended up making it out of the neighborhood Saturday night in Jeff's big car to go to dinner, and Lemon slept peacefully in her crate for almost 3 hours while we were gone!

The snow brought out an interesting side to Hilga. Our perfect, velco dog lost her invisible leash yesterday, another first. I was so shocked the first time she flipped me the bird that I wondered whether she was starting to lose her hearing. With me calling her name, she trotted away from me and down the ravine over to the neighbors at the lake house. Of course, once I started after her she came right back, but she ignored the recall. Then, we were all out playing in the back and she ignored me again. When we got home from the lake, everyone jumped out of the car and we were all walking inside and I looked around to do my three-count and only had two. Hilga was actually across the road in our neighborhood which is just unheard of. It isn't a busy road, but even Jackson knows you don't cross the road. In the two years we've lived in our house, this is the first time one of the dogs has gotten that far away from us off-leash in our neighborhood. We always make the trip from the car to the house off-leash, and I was shocked that it was Hilga who pushed that boundary. For now I'm hoping she was just having an off day (a snow day if you will), but I will certainly be paying close attention to her for a while.

We took Jack and Lemon down to the water before we left and she got her toes in without really even noticing she was in the water. Lemon's first water experience! Jack waded in up to his knees, but I'm sure the water was pretty cold so he didn't go much further. Hopefully Lemon likes the water like Jack but is a better swimmer!

Sunday we walked down to Jeff's to pick up the truck (all 6 inches of snow were almost gone by Sunday afternoon) and took Lemon with us to hopefully tire her out before the ride back to Olathe. She walked great on her little leash. When we got close to Jeff's, all the golden's came running to the fence barking and her eyes got wide and she turned right back around and started up the hill the way we'd come. It was pretty funny, especially since a few minutes later, after she realized they weren't going to trample her, she was right up at the fence barking at them.

So anyways, that was a really long post without even a single picture! But, it was a really fun weekend and an exciting puppy weekend. I'll try and post some pictures later on!