My Sunday walk in the park

Well the young one is now five months old now, so it was time to take him to one of my favourite Auckland parks. The park is called Cornwall Park and is about 15 minutes drive away from where we live, so we also get to enjoy being chauffeured around.

Dogs are are allowed in this park as long as they are on a leash. I think this is because otherwise we would follow our noses and find the source of all those interesting cow pat and sheep deposit smells.

However Enzo and I managed to find enough other things to keep us busy like greeting other dogs and sniffing the smoke from people cooking food on the barbecues in the park, and generally leading our humans where we wanted to go.

Now Enzo is a worry sometimes as he thinks the light just shines only on him, but it was just the way mum took the photo below. However you can see he's finally starting to get Golden Retriever fur on his tail and legs, though he needs lots of practice walking on a leash. This was just a Sunday walk and not the stuff he is learning in obedience classes, so we didn't have to walk at "heal" all the time.

This photo shows the monument at the top of One Tree Hill, and half of the puppy! I tied to tell Enzo about the park, but he had his nose to the ground most of the time.

Below is the view from the top today. If you are interested have a look at one of my old posts  Climbing a volcano as I wrote about this park (and the views from the top) last year.

Then it was time for a quick photo opportunity with the autumn colours behind us. Even though it is autumn now here in New Zealand it is still quite warm. 

Bookend dogs - are his ears are bigger than mine?

 And then he is off again...

I hope you have all had a good weekend.

Woofs,

Riley

Wordless Wednesday

Synchronized Sunday

Yesterday afternoon I decided it was finally time to take the young one under my paw and show him how to do things my way.

That's it ... put your right feet forward  and keep your left feet back.

Now put your left feet forward and keep your right feet back to match mine.

We practiced walking side by side for a while in our garden, and then we went for our very first car ride together.

I travel in my mobile kennel often as you can tell by all the fur on my travel mat. Up until now Enzo has traveled in this box (on the back seat with someone beside him when he was very young, then in his box in the back of the car). However I always think of the back of the car as my very own area, but on Sunday it was finally time for us to try travelling in the car at the same time to see if we could share the space.  

Good Enzo... sit up straight, put your tongue out.

Now look as cute as you can for anyone behind the car.

It might help if you opened your eyes though!  

Mum decided to keep his box in the car so I didn't use him as a cushion, but after a while she realised that we were OK together (as Enzo had climbed out of his box to be closer to me which meant that we shared an even smaller space and the box was empty) so she took the box away and we travelled happily side by side. He didn't even try to climb over the back seats to escape from me.

We went to a few different places, dropped the trailer off (being followed by a trailer didn't seem to bother him), saw some people and then headed to the park for our first walk together. Up until now I've been going for daily walks without him as my walks are on hard ground and I like to walk long distances.

 

At the park I reminded Enzo to always put his "best foot forward". I was very impressed that he managed to keep his tail to the same side as I held mine the whole time (mum thinks it had something to do with the wind but I know is it because I've taught him so well). His feet are perfect in the photos.

During our walk we saw a chicken and I resisted the temptation to chase it. Chasing chickens is not a good habit for a young  pup to learn - trust me on this as I had a foul experience the day before, with small black feathers left all over my dog bed, the neighbours cat nowhere to be seen and mum not sure exactly what to accuse me of.

Anyway I enjoyed my walk in the park with Enzo. It was short, but we spent about twenty minutes walking side by side (not obedience walking at "heal") without getting tangled up or tripping mum, although I do think she needs to sort out the length of my lead better so I can be head of the pack! 

Then another car ride, and back home to relax together in our "family  dog room"

Paws out front and left leg to the left side, right leg tucked under.

So what do you think - am I doing OK training my very own mini-me?

Lots of woofs,

Riley

Almost Wordless Wednesday

I've been so busy looking after the young one since he arrived here at the end of February, that I haven't had time to post much or even chase my tail, but hopefully I will get my P.A. back to her keyboard soon so I can tell you what Enzo and I have been up to!

Woofs,
Riley

Playing with the big dogs!

Last Sunday morning my family took me to meet up with some friends for a "dog walk" arranged by my Golden Retriever Club. Needless to say I had lots of fun running, jumping, swimming and getting pats. That is good pats from human hands, which are not to be confused with the cow pats and horse pats which some of the dogs found, sniffed, sampled and even rolled in during our walk!

Here are some of mum's photos - I'm on the left in the first photo...

Me waiting for my humans to catch up!

Now for a quick lesson as many of you have commented on my pale blond colour (or "color" if you are American), but here our breed standard is similar to the British breed Standard so us goldies are often lighter than our American friends.


The British Kennel Club breed standard is:
Colour
Any shade of gold or cream, neither red nor mahogany. A few white hairs on chest only, permissible.


Our NZ Kennel Club breed standard is:
Colour:
Any shade of gold or cream, but neither red nor mahogany. The presence of a few white hairs on chest permissible. White collar, feet, toes or blaze should be penalised. Nose should be black.

Americans tend to prefer their dogs darker so that is what they are more used to seeing. The American Kennel Club standard is:
Color
Rich, lustrous golden of various shades. Feathering may be lighter than rest of coat. With the exception of graying or whitening of face or body due to age, any white marking, other than a few white hairs on the chest, should be penalized according to its extent. Allowable light shadings are not to be confused with white markings. Predominant body color which is either extremely pale or extremely dark is undesirable. Some latitude should be given to the light puppy whose coloring shows promise of deepening with maturity. Any noticeable area of black or other off-color hair is a serious fault.

Here is a picture of me - I am the one on the left.

The darker and lighter dogs in the water with me both meet our standard for colour (both of these dogs have won prizes at breed shows) so while I am pale (especially if you are used to seeing American GR's), I'm not as pale as some of the dogs in New Zealand.



Here are some more photos of the chaos and fun...

Wishing you all a good weekend,

Woofs,

Riley

Wordless Wednesday - 11kg. of bark and fluff versus 33kg. of Riley