Tic, Tac, Toe in the Park

During our park outing, we also played puppy tic tac toe.

We were divided into two teams: here is the yellow team (plus one chocolate!).

Here is team black!

Essie and Brian sat out tic tac toe.  But you can tell she really wants to play.

Brian loves him some Essie!  Here he is captured giving her a big bear hug, which she loves. 

You might think it is a tic, tac, toe, but it is actually two blacks and a chocolate.

Hershey played for the yellows, so the above photo was not a win for the black team.  Sigh.

In the end we kept coming up with a draw.

Do you see it?  Every dog on a square?  It's a draw!

Pretty impressive, everyone on a down stay, everyone so close together!  Go North Pinellas puppies!

Liberty and Lightning, just chilling.  Of course, Karen and Steve are chilling too.

Denny, the old golden pro, was a ringer. 

Coastie looked for Stephanie and Denny looked for Sylvia.

Each dog looking for his raiser.

In the end though, it was a fun game.  I put together a little video of the game itself.  You'll have to click off the ads.

Puppies in the Park

Yesterday, we had our Saturday meeting in the park. We did the usual line up and drill for obedience.

Photo looking down the line of the raisers and their dogs all in a down stay to their left.

But then we moved on to practice the new come command.  At least the new way we are teaching the command: with treats!

Stephanie and Coastie, a yellow lab male practice the come command perfectly.  Coastie is waiting in front of her for the treat.

At first, all went well.  All the dogs were doing great.

Little Lightning is paying rapt attention to what raiser Karen is telling him.

Chocolate lab female Hershey waits patiently for the come command to be issued from raiser Tim.

Lightning leaps into action as Karen gives the command.

Hershey is still waiting patiently.

Liz, a black lab female is on her way to raiser Brian after he gives the command.

Then our AC mixed it up.  Change dogs, she said.

"Oh my!" If you watch the video at the end of the post, you will see that our pups were still 100% on the money for this command.  Right on!!!  Go PUPS!

Then we headed off for some duck and dock distractions and after that to some bleachers to experience metal seating.

Coach is a bit of a show off at the bleachers and he climbed right up to the top.

Lightning isn't afraid of bleachers, though.  Here he is with his front paws up on the seats.

After the seating experiment, we did puppy bingo like we have in the past.  I think I will save that for another blog post though! Enjoy the video. 8-)

New Puppy Parade: Liberty, Lightning, Charity, Hershey, Ava

We have some new puppies in our group! Five to be exact.  It's a little strange to be so generational.  We have the older dogs, who are getting things down, and then we have the little nut balls, who are just getting the hang of it.  

Although, I must admit, these puppies are very calm and collected. Not many true nut balls in the bunch! So, here are your official introductions of our newest members!

Lois holds Charity in front of her.  Charity is in a sit.  Lois is kneeling.

 This is Charity, being raised by Lois and Bill.  She is a black lab female and was born on June 28th.  She got a little timid when walking to the lake, but Lois got her over that real quick.  As you can see from the photo below, she has a beautiful sit.  I love the way she looks at Lois.

Side view of Lois giving Charity the sit command.  Charity is intently looking at Lois.  Charity's head is perfectly positioned.

Next up is Ava.  I may have talked about Ava before, but this is her official debut with the puppies.  Ava is being raised by Nancy and her boys.  Blair is the one who comes with her to the meetings.

Photo of Nancy holding Ava under the front paws so that Ava's belly is exposed to the viewer.  She has a big pink belly and is very cute.

Ava is so sweet, being a very tiny black lab female.  In the photo below, she is with Blair in the grocery store on her first visit and I think she is barely bigger than his tennis shoe!

Blair holding teeny tiny Ava in the produce section of the grocery.  Ava is in a sit by his tennis shoes.  Blair is smiling.

Next up is one of our potentially famous pups: Lightning!  Famous you say?  Well, perhaps.  Lightning is sponsored by the Tampa Bay Lightning Hockey team, but there is currently no hockey being played due to the lock out.  (wa-wah!) So, poor Lightning and his raiser Karen won't be able to go to any hockey games!  I was sort of looking forward to a meeting on ice.

Photo of Lightning and his raiser Karen sitting on a park bench.  Lightning is wearing his blue coat.

Here is a photo of yellow lab male Lightning with his raiser Karen. 

Photo of Lightning posing on the tile floor. He is lying down and looking back over his shoulder!

Photo of Karen and Liberty at the Lion's donation event at Publix.  Karen is walking up with Liberty on the leash.  Liberty is in coat.

I couldn't wait for a photo of Liberty, so I went with what I had. Liberty is the tiny yellow lab puppy in the center of the shot.  She is being raiser by veteran raisers Bob and Karen.  Liberty is sponsored by the courthouse where Karen works.

Photo of Hershey's raiser family.  Hershey is sitting in front sideways but looking at the camera.  She is in coat.

Here we have Hershey, named by the Hersh family who sponsored her, and her raiser family.  Hershey is a chocolate (of course!) lab female.

Photo of Carolyn standing with puppy Hershey in her arms.  Hershey is very small and looking into the camera.

Our area coordinator Carolyn Hersh and her husband Steve sponsored Hershey.  Carolyn is holding Hershey in the photo above.

So now you have the run down on all of our new pups.  Tomorrow I will get you the info on puppy bingo! Don't miss it!!!