So what's with the bells?

People find it amusing that Aluna has bells on her collar. Of course, she is usually jumping around like crazy, and all you see if fur, so that probably helps to add to everybody's amusement.

I first thougt of putting a bell on her collar when she was a puppy. That way, I would know at night that she is up and needs to go outside (I sleep like a rock) , and during the day I'd know where she was. Their use has since shifted: now these bells allow Aluna to roam as she pleases when she is off-leash because I know at all times where she is. When the jingles stop, I know I should check in case she is in alert-mode or up to something :) The good thing is that I usually don't need to turn around and check if she is following me because I can hear her. That keeps her on her toes, because she knows I will keep on going no matter what, so she better catch up to me. Reversely, when she runs ahead of me and disappears from view, I can hear that she is stopping to check for me. Looooove those bells...

I bought them at a regular pet store (Petsmart I think), and also found larger ones for ferrets that are much louder. The bad thing is that they tarnish really fast, so I am looking for stainless steel ones... unsuccessfully so far...

Nov 29-30

I woke up at the news that it was going to snow today, so I figured, we'd get out the door early to get to the farm before it would start to snow. Turns out, it did not snow at all: we had tons of wet snow, and I was the only crazy person out there today. I did not even bother taking the camera, so these pictures are from yesterday. I stopped at a store on the way home, and since here in the US dogs are not allowed inside.. well..really anywhere... I left Aluna in the car for an hour. It was around 2 degrees Celsius and she had blankets and towels around her.

When I got back to the car, my poor baby was shivering and had not dried a bit and I felt like a complete a$$ for leaving her there like this. So now I only have two options: not ever stop anywhere with her in the car in winter, or get myself a remote starter and leave the car on for her :( Since she was curled up on the seat, I turned the seat heating up full blast and she was almost dry by the time we got home. Poor thing!!

Nov 22-23: Aluna's first ice!

It was Northpole-cold here this weekend - what is it with this weather? It's either sunny but freezing or warm but rainy! Our favorite lake was half-frozen (you can see the line where the lake was frozen on the first two pictures) , and Aluna made her first attempts to walk on ice. So cute! I am always torn between letting her explore and keeping her safe, but being a careful little girl, she did not venture too far out onto the ice.

Nov 15-16 can you tell how windy it was?

On the way back to the car, I met a woman whose dog had run away. It got scared by some kids shooting rockets in the field. I heard her shout out his name from far away, tried to help look for him, but ultimately gave up as it was getting dark. What would I do if Aluna got scared and ran off? I have to find a way to desensitize her to .. everything!! I always carry a whistle and she is trained to come running to it, but what if she got so scared that she would run too far away to hear me?

I am so proud of her to not freak out with so many people and dogs around!!

Nov 8-9 - brrrrrr...cold and wet!!

Nevertheless, a dog is a dog and needs to get outside - we even went sheep herding for the first time on Sunday.. yeah, the filthy dog picture at the bottom is proof. I took me forever to scrub down the sheep sh@$!

These pictures are crappy, but that's all I have. Someone there shot a video during the herding instinct test (I had to go into the pen with the instructor) so I put some screens together. She did really well (barked at the sheep and nipped them when they were not moving quickly enough for her). She'd make a great herding dog!! It was mindblowing seeing Aluna do what she was meant to do. It's as if she simply knew what to do as soon as she got in there.

Last weekend

This last weekend was very cold, but Aluna still had fun.

Whenever she finds a stick, she can't let go of it :)