Sierra Chronicles - 1st week

It's now been a full week since Sierra joined the 'pack'. Everyone absolutely loves her. My Mom even lets her sleep beside her bed. Now, this is huge, considering my Mom has NEVER in my life, ever allowed the family dog past the front foyer or back enterance. So for her to allow Sierra upstairs....WOW!!!!

I took Sierra back to our usual North Shore trail on Saturday, so she could socialize with other puppies and because she likes to swim in the river there. Also, I wanted to try her off-leash in an area I knew well.

After explaining to her that she had to listen to me or she'd go right back on-leash, I let her off. And she was off!! Running, enjoying herself, I called her back, she looked at me and kept walking. I call again and kneel down to make it fun. She comes back about 20 feet then goes up a small hill. All this time I'm wondering how I'm going to catch her to leash her up. Then She comes back to me. I give her a hug and some praise and she continues on with her fun. Part of the problem is she didn't know her name really well.

After that she was an absolute gem. She never went too far and always looked back to see where I was. It was beautiful watching her so full of life and fun. Running down the bank and jumping headlong into the river, splashing around with other dogs. At one point she ran down a bank to splash around, I was still up on the trail walking. I call her, she tries to follow me while running in the shallow part of the river. Finds she can't get back up to me, so runs all the way back to where she went down, runs up, runs full speed towards me (huge smile too), sees a chocolate lab, runs past and while trying to stop, shakes the water off. One of the funniest things I've seen in a long time, a hundred pound dog doing a mid-air shake....all legs, tail and floppy ears.

I think I'm going to have to do this (go to the NS trails) once or twice a month, just so she can get in her socializing and fun time. In Port Coquitlam (where we will be living), I don't think there are any off-leash parks. Also, I think she has allergies to some of the grasses on the trails in PoCo., she gets a bit of a drippy nose after we go for walks there. Perhaps the forest trails are better than the savannah type.

Oh, and I may have found a garden apartment for us. We went to see it on Saturday, I put in a bid on Sun., it was countered and accepted, so now it's up to the bank. It's 2 bedrooms with a large patio right beside a small park. It seems like a nice quiet area and only a few blocks from a bunch of trails, also, a few blocks the other way is 'downtown' Poco.

If all goes well I will take posession of it in late July. Guess I should go pack!