This SO needs a caption!

This is Indy, sound asleep this morning on the dog couch.  That's Cody in the background.

Post your caption ideas in the comments section.

Dog Day Afternoon

Clear

96 °F

Feels Like 97 °F

17 Wind from SSW
Gusts 24 mph

Today is forecast to be nearly the same temperature as yesterday.

Today

High 97 | Low 76 °F

0% Chance of Precip.

These are the Dog Days of Summer.  Public school starts up next week.  Seems like they only just got out for summer vacation.  DH will have to be extra careful for the next month or so commuting by bike to work and back, as his route takes him past a school or two, and his transit time in the afternoon is right as they dismiss.  It would not be good to get flattened by Susie Soccermom in her SUV as she multitasks driving, texting on her tablet while updating Twitter and Facebook, and yelling at her yard apes who are waging jihad in the back seats.

Wanting to do something to entertain the Monkeys before we have movie & pizza night, I opted to take Indy, by himself, to the local dog park.  It is a several acre facility, all high fenced and wood chipped, with drinking water for dogs, and a doggie water park even!  There are actually two separate enclosures, one for big dogs, and one for little dogs.  All access is 'air locked', with multiple doors you pass through to enter/exit, to reduce the chance for a dog to escape.

North and east, where it is shady.

Looking toward the small dog area.

Looking south.  Large shady area to the left.

The gazebo has the water park for dogs.

 I settled in under the trees at one of several metal table/bench combos.  There were several other folks out there, and one young boy struck up a friendship with the Monkeys and they began to play frisbee.  Indy thought this was great fun, chasing the children and the frisbee.

Charge!

Hey quit throwing that thing!

And away he goes...

As the temp is near enough to 100*F, I did not want to keep Indy out too long.  He was definitely getting hot from running around everywhere.  Luckily the city provides a dog watering station, and doggie landmine clean up bags...because I forgot to bring any!

Hey this feels nice on my paws!

Indy decided he was hot and wanted to cool off.  Unfortunately he really does not like water except to drink.  So imagine my surprise when he tried to get all 4 paws into the dog fountain!   I thought for a minute he was going to lay down in it.

Hmm...all four paws are in.

I wonder if I keep turning around, can I lay down in it?

 Alas, Indy wouldn't fit in the water dish fountain.  Poor Indy.  When the kids turned on the water park section, and the spray fountains turned on, Indy shied away from it.  After all, they might be drowning dogs in that water spray!  I swear, it's going to be a challenge finally giving him a bath.

I hope everyone has a fun and safe weekend planned.  I'm not sure what else we will be doing this weekend, but I think it involves steak, pork spare ribs on the smoker, and a tasty beverage!

Weekend Update

It's been sort of a sluggish week for me.  I think I only went riding once since last Saturday, not counting any dog runs I did with Indy, and Shiloh not at all.  See, last Friday, we noticed Shiloh had a laceration on her back paw, right next to and parallel with the back of the main pad.  No good way to close the injury, so we opted for conservatively applying topical antibiotics, and restricting her activity.

It did not appear to be healing like I thought it should, so today was vet-day.  We are blessed to have a good vet's office not too far off (Allen Veterinary Hospital, Allen TX), so I told her it was a two-way trip, and off we went.

$18 later, we had seen the vet, and gotten some antibiotic spray that is designed to taste bad!  Doc Mac says it should prevent her licking the wound open like she has been doing.  Doc Mac also said in her opinion it was actually healing nicely, and Shiloh could resume her runs behind the bike next week.

I've been a bit tired this week too, for some reason.  I find I have been sleeping ok, so I don't know just what is causing it.  It has served to keep me off the bike some though.  Plus with DH getting prepped for Hotter 'N Hell this weekend, and trying to get the CA2 ready for that (new rear derailleur, Rival $72, new TT900 carbon shifters, $120...), I was just a little 'biked out'.  He's trying for the full Imperial Century, and weather will be, well, hotter 'n hell this weekend, with a forecast of 99*F Saturday, with a 12-18mph wind from the south, which means a strong headwind the last 30 miles or so.  He will have fun, and the new bike is FAST!  So he is hoping for a sub-6 hour century.  Yes, for those that don't know, that is 100 miles on the bicycle.

Me?  I will likely take Shiloh and Indy to the dog park for a bit, and maybe take the kids out on their bikes to the dog park MUP.  Then it's pizza and a movie rental for Friday evening.  I will take it easy, and try to have some fun.  I wonder if there's anything worth renting?

Indy update

Indy has settled into our household routine.  He seems to appreciate the creature comforts, and two meals a day.  He is a pretty good timekeeper dog, playful but still gentle, though he does at times conjure up a mental image of the bull in the china shop! 

Hi Mom, I like this dog bed.

He has learned the basics of running with the bike, though he still needs leash practice.  He has mastered the basic housebreaking, and eventually I will trust him uncrated for long times, but not yet!

I like this House Dog gig!

Dragging the Diva Around!

The Diva dog lives to run.  I do NOT!  I have never enjoyed running, not even as a child.  So how does one wear out a Ridgeback so she will sleep all night?  Long walks of 3+miles are insufficient as I do not walk fast enough for her.  Hmm...a treadmill?  But where would I put it?

Enter the Walky Dog attachment.  The answer to our problem, provided she can learn how to run beside the bike.  Well, THAT proved amazingly simple to teach her.  We just hooked her up and away we went! And rest assured, I do not drag her around, though sometimes, if she sees her arch nemesis, Mr. Bunny, she might drag me!

The Diva, ready to run!

We've actually been using the Walky Dog since early this year, so Shiloh is well adapted to it.  She may hate her Gentle Leader, but she adores going for a run with the bike.

 It attaches to the seatpost of a regular frame bike, though I recommend you NOT attach it to a carbon fiber seatpost as the dog can apply lateral stresses the CF seatpost may not be designed to handle.  If you ride a trike, it can be attached to a rear triangle frame member.

The mount attaches with a pair of long bolts, which I then covered with the red wire nuts to keep from tearing up my cycling shorts and my legs.  Inelegant perhaps, but it works.

The baton-like attachment has a spring loaded collar that fits over the mount fitting (sort of like on an air compressor with interchangeable fittings).  The baton does not collapse (no it is not an ASPBaton!) though it is certainly heavy enough to use as a club if you were in need of a club.  The leash part has a snap link fitting on the end, and is secured inside the baton, and is also spring loaded so if your dog suddenly stops, it has some 'give' to the line, reducing stress on the dog and your risk of crashing.

 We see all sorts of things on our morning runs.  We go by the fishing ponds, where we saw the heron fishing one day.  We go under the Troll Bridge, where the teenagers hang out to smoke, etc.  We go all the way down to the Bridge to Nowhere, and turn around.  On the return trip, somebody is usually hot and thirsty, so we stop for a few so she can cool off.

Cooling off.

 I like to keep her at a modest trot, her ground-eating pace, of around 5-7mph.  This is enough to tire her out, but not overwork her.  She is young and strong, so we generally only take one walk break on her run.  The MUP (multi-user path) we travel on, is wide and in good condition so it helps keep her nails worn down some.  Ridgebacks have big nails...

Surprisingly, I've been working with Indy to see if he could adapt to the Walky Dog and bike.  He can be skittish, and doesn't do super well on a leash and Gentle Leader yet.  But once I actually got on the bike and rode it with him attached, he did marvelous!  Wednesday was his first try with the bike, and we made it to the culdesac and back without crashing.  Today, only his second try with it, we went all the way to the pond and back!  For him, that was about a mile round trip, whereas Shiloh usually does 3.5 miles.

Now I have a house full of tired dogs!  The Dog Whisperer would be proud!