A Fetching Time At Batting Practice

She did this for 45 minutes on Thursday and even though she was a melting mess after all that time, I still had to be the one to call it off.

If She had a Man

Noise Desensitizing

He'd rather be the one doing the killing but, all in all, Stoic could care less about firearms.

Sparta has developed a reactivity to sudden loud noises that, if I can not eliminate, I would like to reduce.

A local 4-H group had an air rifle competition this last weekend.  There were a lot of snaps and pops from the air rifles and some shotgun blasts from a trap shoot a few hundred yards away.  She's not cured.  It will take a lot of ongoing work.  By the end of the three hours, however, she was resting under a picnic table not thirty yards from where trap was being shot.

Aim to the left and a little low,
'cause those old iron sights shoot high and to the right."

The Good Old Days

Not every stage in life is the right time to train a dog to accompany you on every adventure.

Not every dog is an appropriate candidate for such training.

Yet the joy that comes from being able to take your dog with you is real and worth the effort and the present age provides more opportunities than any other time in human history.

When I was a kid, there was no such thing as a dog friendly business.  Taking your dog with, meant they sat in the back of the truck while you ran your errands.  Today their are, for the well-behaved canine, dog friendly bars, box stores, and dog night at the ball game.

Every day can be a dog party: a big dog party.

That pitcher just hasn't got it today.

Didn't your Father teach you, "pretzels are sweeter when shared?"

"♫Root, root, root for the home team...♫"

The she-child has glad she could take her "first friend" along.

Hammock Camping

I took the kids and two terriers camping a couple of weeks ago.  Despite the fact that dogs and children required some time to acclimate to camp life, I think everyone had a good time.

I think I am really going to enjoy my camping hammock.  The only draw back being that my mummy bag makes it real hard to get settled in at night or out of an evening.  You want to make sure you lay off the beverages a couple hours before going to bed.  That or you need to make sure you have a well labeled pee bottle available.

The temperatures on our first night hit freezing.  Once the nights warm up a bit and I don't feel the need to be quite so enveloped in synthetic down, it might be a good fit for my summer plans.

Sparta slept with me and and settled in quite well.  Stoic slept in the kids' tent and had to deal with the flopping of three pre-teens
.
We'll head out again in June.  This time for a little backwoods fishing.

California Building

Northeast Minneapolis has been revitalized over the last few years as older manufacturing era buildings have been made into studios and homes for local artists.

Every year the California Building hosts a bring your dog to the studios event.  The kids, Sparta, and I took the opportunity to check out some art.  

Everyone loves bunnies.

A mirror into the future?

Did Mom know about this?

The mermaid wanna-be stands transfixed.

No trip to the big city is complete without a stop at Jimmy Johns.