Me and my Shadow...

Background: Back in the early '90s my wife and daughters brought home a German shepherd/Australian shepherd mix pup we named Kona. She was a really great dog and we had her for about a year and a half before I received orders to Hawaii. Having been stationed there a couple times before, I knew they had a 90 day rabies quarantine and I have seen several dogs come out of it pretty traumatized, one became quite aggressive. I could not put her through that so I found her a good home with a family in Oregon. I have been thinking about getting another shepherd mix pup for quite a while. Here's a pic of Kona.

In the beginning: One day early in October of 2006 my youngest daughter, Katelyn, was looking at the local animal shelter web sites to see what was available. Her boyfriend at the time had an old dog that had one foot in the grave and the other on a banana peel and she thought she would see if there was something out there he might be interested in. She called me into her room to show me this.

What a cute face! I couldn't resist and said I'd go check him out. He was at the county animal shelter about 25 miles from us. Before I could get up there my daughter went to check him out, the kennels were closed to the public due to a Parvo virus outbreak and a quarantine was imposed. Katelyn is pretty resourceful and found a way into the kennels when nobody was looking. When she returned she said "You have GOT to see this puppy!".

Two weeks later on a Saturday the quarantine was lifted and the shelter kennels were open for business. By the time I got there the place was packed with people looking at dogs. I finally found him in a kennel alone, looking just like the picture but something was a little different-no, it wasn't the lack of the bandana. I've got it! It's the feet, they don't look like the picture at all, they were HUGE!!!! This guy is going to be a big one when he grows up!! The card on the kennel gate said he was about 4 months old so I figured with the quarantine delay he was getting close to 5 months old by the time I got to meet him. It took a while to finally get a kennel technician to get him from the cage and we went into a small grassy area between the buildings. The pup was a little scared and unsure of the big guy (me) getting in his face and handling him. I was only given about 3 minutes to try and get to know him and make the decision to take him or leave him, not much time for a long term commitment decision! I almost didn't take him but decided to take the risk, hoping I would not regret it.

I filled out the paperwork, received approval from the supervisor (I'm not buying a new car here!!) and paid the $120 in fees. I had driven my wife's Honda Accord that day because it has a functioning air conditioner and it was very hot. We hopped in the car and headed south towards home. About 20 minutes into the trip the pup got sick and blew chunks all over the passenger front seat! I got off the freeway and found a place to park, it just happened to be in our vet's parking lot. I scooped out two large handfuls of half digested dog food and tried to scrape the rest off with some paper napkins I found in the glove box. I rinsed my hands off with a bottle of water and continued the rest of the journey home.

Over the next few days we got to know each other a little and I began to get a sense of his personality. I had forgotten how much work puppies can be, they have small bladders must be watched constantly, taken for walks and cleaned up after. We almost decided to call him "Moose" because of the huge feet and he pretty much just clomped through life. I finally decided to name him "Shadow" because he follows me everywhere. I soon realized he was smarter than the average bear, he quickly learned not to use the house for a toilet. He was quite well behaved on walks, though he tended to try and lead, pulling on the leash. He was too stubborn to just walk beside me and "heal". He likes to play rough which I don't mind at all but those needle-like puppy teeth can tear you up pretty quickly. I often had scabs from healing wounds on the backs of my hands and fore arms. I suppose most professional dog trainers would say I am encouraging aggressive behavior but it wasn't done aggressively, it's just the way dogs play. As a human I am at a disadvantage in that type of play, I don't have thick fur to protect the skin from damage like another dog would have. I want Shadow to know he's a dog and to behave like a dog. He's not the son I never had, I try not to "humanize" him in any way.

Shortly after arriving home Shadow began coughing, hard enough to make him gag. This called for a quick trip to the vet for a check up and some antibiotics to cure the kennel cough. He also needed two surgical staples removed from his muzzle that were used to close a small cut, apparently from another dog biting him. You can see the cut on his left cheek in the pic below. I told him "it's cool, chicks dig scars". So far it's been true, women seem to really be attracted to him.

Adventures at the dog park, part 1: Shadow has always been a very social dog, he really enjoys meeting other dogs and humans. After a couple weeks Katelyn suggested taking him to the dog park that's about 10 blocks from our house. I didn't even know there WAS a dog park nearby. It's a pretty good dog park on the very edge of town, it's quite large and open with a couple rolling hills and a slow moving creek on the east border. It could use a few trees and a sprinkler system, the grass dies out in the summer and leaves it a dust bowl.

Shadow quickly became well known at the dog park and began making friends with other dogs. He had to learn the hard way that some older dogs don't want a puppy bothering them. He figured it out pretty quickly. He spent his time running from group to group sniffing and playing and meeting all the people there. It was interesting to see him learn to fit in and interact with other dogs of varying personalities.

Many times when he was young other dogs would knock him down and he took his licks pretty well until one day when he was about five and a half months old. He was playing with a full grown pit bull and things began to escalate. Shadow had been knocked down twice pretty hard, on the third knock down he came up snarling and snapping-he had enough and wasn't going to take it any longer. He went after the pit bull and backed him up about 10 feet. I thought "He's toast now, that big suckers going to kill him for sure" but the pit bull just turned and walked away. Shadow had stood up for himself and made his point. The little guy maybe be fixed but he's still got balls!

This pattern has continued, he generally takes a lot from other dogs but two knock downs seems to be his limit then he comes up gunning, unfortunately a couple times he has come up and gone after an innocent bystander. Most of the altercations he has been in up to now have been triggered by a third party dog that seems to escape unscathed. For the most part I have managed to deal with these altercations in a dog like way to good effect. In one case Shadow was playing with a friend named Baxter, he's much smaller than Shadow and older but they played well together-a least Baxter tolerated an annoying puppy hanging around while he played with his ball. A third party dog, a known pot stirrer, got involved and provoked Shadow. When he lashed out the dog he grabbed was his buddy Baxter, the other had left quickly when Shadow spun around snarling! By the time I got there Shadow had Baxter pinned down with his mouth around Baxter's neck, it looked pretty ugly and could have had a very bad outcome. I snatched Shadow off Baxter by the scruff of his neck and laid him firmly on his side, he struggled to get up but I held him down flat and let Baxter come sniff him a couple times. This showed Shadow that he was NOT dominant over Baxter even though he was much larger and more powerful. After a couple minutes I let Shadow up and they have played very well ever since.

I have made one rather large mistake with Shadow's upbringing. I gave him too much freedom at the dog park in the beginning. He is completely convinced that there are no rules when he's there and for the most part he refuses to come when I call him. Anywhere else he comes immediately but at the dog park all bets are off. If you have a pup don't make that mistake, teach your dog to come when called when you first start going to the park. I'm playing catch up now, it's working but it's slow.

Our first big road trip: We had gone on all day drives before but never across country. In early April 2007 Katelyn and I loaded up Shadow and Bear, her old miniature Pomeranian, for the 1000mi drive to my mothers house in north Idaho where I grew up. It's about 50 miles south of the Canadian border in the mountains. My family used to own 45 acres of woods but now the property is down to about 10 acres. It doesn't really matter because very few of the other owners live in the area and most of the property is still undeveloped so we can enjoy the woods pretty much like when I was young.

For the first hour of the trip Shadow was a little anxious, like we were headed to town for a walk or the dog park. Little did he know he was in it for the long haul. About the time the second hour started and we showed no signs of getting to a destination he settled down and went to sleep. We stopped every 2 to 3 hours at a rest area and let him stretch his legs and pee. He quickly learned to pee on demand and we never had any issues during the trip. Now when we get in the car he's alert for the first 10 minutes or so then just lays down to go to sleep. Shadow can be a pest and takes up a lot of room so we put Bear in a small crate I used for our cat's trips to the vet, there is plenty of room and Shadow can't pester him. Here's a pic of Bear, he has his own interesting story on how he came to be with us.

I figure Shadow was born about the middle of June 2006, he had never seen rain until late November of that year, he was NOT impressed! When we went north we took him up the mountain to the snow, it was a cold, windy day with snow flurries broken up by rain and sleet-an all around ugly day. He put up with the weather but I'm sure he wondered why we were up there. He was quite glad to duck into the little cafe and lay down under our table while we had some hot chocolate.

My mother's back yard fades into a dense cedar forest that is frequented by deer, moose, skunks, squirrels and the occasional bear. Shadow LOVED going for walks and exploring the trails and all the unusual scents.

I don't think I have ever seen a dog grin so much while running through the woods! He would range off about 50-60 yards and explore then come charging back to where I was. He always came when called and healed when ever I asked him to.

He travels very well and I look forward to more long trips to explore these United States. We have moved cross country a couple times and have seen many interesting places but did not have the time to explore them as much as I would have liked. It's time to take up camping again!

Further adventures in the outdoors: We only saw a couple deer while hiking at my mothers and they were far enough away that he didn't show much interest in them. He HAS had a close encounter with a deer while hiking on the Coast Guard training center near Tomales CA. It's an 800 acre federal wildlife preserve with a large deer population, especially during hunting season. He encountered a large doe at close range that immediately bolted across a tall grass field, he followed for a short distance but did not follow it very far before turing back to continue the hike. I had seen a young mountain lion there two years before and it was known to still be in the area, it was late afternoon, just about the time a large cat would become active for the evening hunt. I kept him closer to me than usual after that, I figured the cat might try and take one of us alone but would not likely go for us together.

What kind of dog is that anyway?: People have often asked me what breed he is and I usually respond that he is a shepherd mix and they usually ask what the mix is. I can't really say with any certainty but I have spent considerable time looking around on the internet for mixed breeds that look like him. Many have speculated the other half was a "wild dog" such as wolf or coyote. Shepherd/coyote hybrids are smaller and have more pointy muzzles than Shadow so that is unlikely. Shepherd/wolf hybrids often look like him and tend to be large like him. One of my favorite dogs at the park is Nova, a 2 year old collie/wolf hybrid, she looks much like Shadow with a pointier muzzle from the collie influence. Their coloring is quite similar and their size is close but Shadow has a much stouter build to him and is thicker boned-especially his legs. I think he is more of a blend of many dogs such as shepherd, husky, and malamute. Check out the Tamaskan dog website to see other dogs that resemble Shadow. So maybe he's an accidental Tamaskan?? Here's a pic of Nova.

This is a great shot of her running on the beach, check out those powerfull shoulders!



Adventures at the dog park part 2: As Shadow gets close to being 1 year old he has become a "trouble magnet" at the dog park. He has been in several fights lately. Only once has he started a fight and that was my fault.

He used to share water readily with his friends at the dog park but at about 9 months old he started to become protective of his water supply. One day, even though I knew better, I gave him a drink near some other dogs. One of his playmates, a 2 year old Great Dane named Georgia wanted a drink too and Shadow quickly attacked her. Georgia weighs about 125lb and Shadow was about 60lb at the time, it was a pretty even match until we could break it up.

Other than that incident he has not fought with any dog that did not bite him first. He will not tolerate being bitten by any dog, big, little, old, young, he doesn't care. If you bite him you can expect to be in an all out fight in less than a second.

One afternoon he was playing with a 1 year old boxer named Kona. Shadow and Kona had played together previously and got along pretty well. Boxers tend to play pretty rough and so does Shadow so it's usually a pretty good match. On this day Shadow had a soft round "Frisbee" type toy and was just carrying it around looking for someone to chase him. Kona and another dog took after him and they played chase for several minutes. The second dog got distracted and wandered off. Shadow and Kona continued to run and bang into each other for a while. Kona kept trying to get the toy but Shadow had a near perfect strategy to prevent that. Every time Kona tried to get around the front to get the toy, Shadow would turn his head away from him and bump him with his shoulder. Kona could get close but could not reach the toy. After several minutes of this Kona became frustrated and escalated his aggressiveness but he still could not get the toy. Shadow was taunting him and he just could NOT stand it any longer! He jumped on Shadows back and bit his ear. Play time was over and school was in session in less than a heartbeat. Shadow dropped the toy, spun around, knocked Kona down and had him by his throat in an instant, the boxer never knew what hit him. I waded into the flailing legs and picked Shadow up by the scruff of his neck and the skin above his hind quarters and carried him about 10 feet away for a break. Both dogs had a short time out and got along the rest of the time. Shadow doesn't seem to hold a grudge at all, he lives in the moment and once the bad moment is over he moves on with no ill effects. The boxers owner made an interesting comment once it was over, he said "Maybe I had better get him fixed." Kona still had his testicles! Too many hormones in that dog for his own good.

My wife thinks I'm proud of him when he fights. Thinking about it, I AM proud of him! He behaves just like I tought my daughters-don't fight unless you have to but when you do, fight like you mean it! I taught by daughters to be proficient kick boxers. Katelyn took to it quite readily, she can whip a two punch combination and a kick to your kidney before you know what hit you. She defiantly does NOT hit like a girl, just ask her boy friends!

I AM concerned with one situation at the dog park though, a large shepherd named Wolf has taken a dislike to Shadow. Wolf is very protective of his rubber ball, Shadow learned this many months ago as a pup and has steered clear of Wolf ever since. As Shadow grew closer to being 1 year old Wolf has taken to jumping him from behind and starting a fight. Once Shadow recovers from the knockdown he comes back at Wolf with everything he's got. Wolf's owner has been close by both times and was able to break it up before either dog got hurt too badly. My concern is as Shadow continues to grow and becomes stronger, Wolf will not be able to contend with a much younger dog that is his equal or better in size and power and certainly fights with more ferocity and heart. One or both is likely to go home with stitches. I think Wolf sees Shadow as a threat to his "domain" and does not like the prospect of loosing some of his perceived status at the park. I have talked with Wolf's owner and we have agreed to try and keep them separated. Wolf has had issues with a couple other dogs as they grew up and seems to get over it as the other dogs mature. We'll have to wait and see.

The trouble with Terriers: Why is it that people think small dogs don't need manners? Is it because they are so small and cute? Well, I disagree! ALL dogs need manners and no dog has the right to bite another dog that has not been aggressive to them. Shadow has had both his cheeks pierced by small terriers that bit him while playing. Both are known trouble makers that instigate confrontations. Shadow took them both down hard. One owner came up to me upset that my "huge dog" would attack his "little dog", he quieted down pretty quickly when I pointed out that his dog bit Shadow twice before Shadow retaliated, once on the cheek and again on the foreleg as evidenced by the blood flowing from the wounds. Shadow has had so many holes poked in him he could be a punk rocker! I keep an antibiotic ointment handy.

Hmmm... That's several paragraphs documenting aggressive confrontations that Shadow has been involved in. He REALLY is a nice dog and prefers NOT to fight, though it often seems otherwise when a group of dogs are playing rough together. Shadow is still a pup and DOES get caught up in the gang mentality when playing rough. I can usually see this happening and intervene quickly for a time out before it escalates too far.

As a counter point to the confrontations he has many good friends at the dog park that play well with him. One of his best friends is a small Shiba Inu named Stormy. I had seen Stormy there a few times, she is a happy dog that ran from group to group looking for someone to play with. Mostly the other dogs seemed to just ignore her. One day Shadow and I arrived to a nearly deserted park, only an old lady with her small "Floofer" dog and Stormy with her owner. Shadow and Stormy hit it off and have been friends ever since. They love running over the hills together side by side as fast as they can go. They resemble a fighter plane with a wing man. One takes the lead then the other. He truly likes her and they play for quite a while, running together and jumping in the creek to cool off.

He also seems to have a soft spot for young female pups. I was working overtime one Sat. morning and took Shadow to the shop. After an hour he got restless and wanted to play. There is a park next to work that is frequented by many dogs so I took a break and went to the park. This morning there was a couple white shepherds and a young golden retriever named Emma. Emma wanted to play rough with the older dogs but was not large or strong enough to handle it well. After a while Shadow separated from the shepherds and was hanging out with Emma and playing a little rough but she kept coming back for more so I didn't interfere. After several minutes of playing like that it APPEARED that Emma managed to knock Shadow down. Hmmm, how did that happen? Shadow stayed down on his back and let Emma jump on him and bite his neck. He was LETTING her win!! I was thinking "Shadow has a girl friend...".

One of his best friends at the park as he reached a year old is Riley, he's a young American Bulldog we have watched grow from a wiggly little puppy to a formidable young dog. He's a good friend and playmate with Shadow-they knock the crap out of each other, if you didn't know they were good friends you would think they were trying to kill each other. Shadow is much larger and stronger with better skills but Riley will catch up and he has a lot of heart. One day Shadow, Riley and Jake-a 6 year old full shepherd were playing together and a young black lab they knew joined in. For some reason on this day the lab decided to dominate Riley pretty severely and tried to take him down. On his first attempt Jake did a great "pick" move and separated them but the lab circled around for another pass at Riley and Shadow took the lab head on and took HIM down hard. Riley had a couple of pretty tough older friends and the lab learned the hard way not to pick on him. I thought it was pretty cool that Shadow had used his size and power to protect a younger, less powerful and assertive friend. Just like Spiderman, with great power comes great responsibility!

Humping… It’s NOT about sex! 99% of the humping that happens at a dog park is about demonstrating dominance over the humped dog. It surprises me how many owners don't understand this, I have seen several types of dominance demonstrations at our dog park and I'm sure they happen everywhere. They range from very subtle to down right aggressive. Shadow has shown few signs of trying to exert dominance over other dogs so many dogs see him as a target, they are very mistaken! He REFUSES to be dominated by other dogs. Just like getting attacked, the consequences are quick, consistent and absolute. He does play rough and hates to “loose” so occasionally he will escalate the level of play to a point the other dog needs a break. I see this coming and intervene to force de-escalation so he doesn't work over the other dog too hard. Often the other dog comes to me and sits by my feet knowing I will not let Shadow continue the rough play while the other is taking a rest. Once rested the dog often goes back after Shadow and starts things up again. Some dogs ARE submissive to him but if a dog is not he doesn't take it personal or try to change things. He seems to have earned his place in the group by demonstrating his power, speed and personality in play rather than displays of dominance.

Many dog owners that visit our park don’t realize that the dogs ALWAYS have a hierarchy in ANY group. The total group in a dog park is much more loosely organized than in a strict pack setting but there IS a hierarchy. There are also subgroups of dogs that hang out and play together. Every dog needs to find its place in the group.

I'm no “dog whisperer” and I don't pretend to understand all the communications between dogs but here are a few examples of what I’ve recognized:

1. Passive Dominance: A group of dogs are playing together and a new dog joins in. As the new dog enters the group it holds its head high, its tail is up and it stands tall with rigid legs. It may also have its hackles up. It will stand there and allow the other dogs to sniff greetings. It may snap at an over zealous sniffer. Its message to the other dogs is “see me, fear me, I am the dominant member of this group now”. Once the greetings are done and play resumes the new member usually relaxes and everyone gets along. Shadow has no fear of other dogs and usually ignores dogs demonstrating this behavior or just gives them a good body check to send his message that the other dog’s demonstration had no impact on him.

2. Active Dominance: Humping or climbing on another dogs back. This is directed at a specific dog that the perpetrator has actively sought out and thinks it can dominate. This is the equivalent of the playground bully that pushes other kids around. Many owners don't understand this behavior at all. They think the dog is just horny or if it’s humping another male dog that it's just misguided or confused. The owners often try to get the dog to stop the behavior but the dog rarely stops and will continue trying to exert dominance over its victim. The dog knows EXACTLY what it's doing. The dog’s message to the victim is “I own you, you are submissive to me”. If the victim accepts the behavior it accepts a submissive position in the group. If a dog begins humping or climbing on Shadow’s back he will immediately stop playing and in less than a second will have the perpetrator knocked down on his back and have his mouth around it’s throat – This is the most positive, old school, wolf like, show of dominance. His message to the perpetrator is "You have GROSSLY underestimated me". I have seen some dogs get taken down twice before they got the message-just like people, some dogs are a little slow on the uptake.

3. Actively Aggressive Dominance: Some dogs look for a victim and attack them, usually from behind, knocking them down and aggressively snapping and snarling at them. I think this is usually a preemptive strike caused by either a perceived threat to their position in the group or by a dogs desire to elevate its position in the group. The message sent here is “Don't even think about challenging me!” This is the equivalent of the bully that beats other kids up just because he can. Shadow has experienced this several times since he was a puppy just starting out at the dog park. As a pup he usually took it twice and on the third time he came back at the attacker as hard as he could-always to good effect. Just like with people, bullies can rarely take what they dish out.

I felt the need to explain this because of an incident that happened recently. Shadow is now about 14 months old. After a good 45 minute play at the park I was about to leash him up and head to the car. As I approached to about 8 feet away from him a golden lab ran up to him and began humping him… As described earlier, the consequences were quick, consistent, and absolute. The lab found himself immediately on his back with large teeth squeezing on his throat. He began crying like a small puppy. I didn't immediately step in as the other dog started it and needed to learn a lesson-he had been cruising all evening looking for a victim-he chose poorly! After a couple seconds I grabbed Shadow like a large suitcase and carried him away, he was REALLY pissed and instantly tried to get the lab again-I guess he felt he hadn't made his point quite clear. As usual the owner of the lab didn't fully understand his dog's behavior and felt Shadow just started the fight out of the blue.

Looking back over the past several months it seems that most of the active dominance behavior I have seen at the park has been by Labs and golden retrievers, both of which have a reputation as pretty mellow dogs. Just something to think about, reputations are not always accurate-every dog has an individual personality and they are not all good.

As a counter point to this, Riley has tried to hump him and he has not gone after him as fiercely, he just plays a little rougher until Riley knows he's not the dominant dog. This is the same young dog he protected from the actively aggressive dominant lab a couple months ago.

Death of a friendship: It's been about 6 weeks since I wrote the paragraph above, I've had to give up going to the dog park. Two days ago Shadow and Riley got into a serious fight. Riley has recently decided to mature a little and not be pushed around by the older dogs that he played with. I expected it to happen fairly soon but did not expect it to happen the way it did. 3 days ago Riley was playing with Jingo, a medium size shepherd mix that I know pretty well. He and Shadow used to play a lot about 10 months ago, they got along ok but as Shadow grew and became stronger and larger, Jingo decided he wasn't much fun anymore. Jingo plays pretty rough like Shadow and apparently had played with Riley some before. Riley has a toy that is a big ball with a rope through the middle, he and Jingo were playing keep away and tug-of-war. Jingo pressed possession and Riley attacked him starting a fight. I don't know the complete outcome of that scuffle because Shadow and Riley were beginning to play in the exact same manner while the wife of the couple that owns him was telling me about the fight and in short order Riley and Shadow got into it hard. I didn't see what triggered the fight but I would guess it was the same situation, Shadow tried to press possession of the toy and Riley lashed out.

The following scene was pretty ugly-not just because of the dog fight but because the husband of the couple freaked out and tried to break up the fight-he was 10 feet closer to them than I was. When he grabbed Shadow from behind Shadow whipped around and bit him on his fore arm. Shadow spit him out as soon as he realized he had bitten a human but the guy REALLY freaked out now. He backed away and started yelling, cussing and threatening me and Shadow with bodily harm. That left me to break up the fight, no big deal-I'm not afraid of getting bit, it's no fun but I'm not afraid of it because I know it won't kill me and I will recover soon enough. I waded into the thrashing dogs and grabbed each collar and began to separate them. I had them apart briefly but they lunged back together. Riley's owners finally got him from behind and began to pull him back. Shadow still had one of his ears in his teeth and wasn't going to let go so I reached around his head and came in from each side with my fingers prying his mouth open. The husband was yanking on Riley the entire time and screaming, poor Riley's ear was getting seriously pulled as I pried Shadows mouth open. If he had not yanked Riley so hard he would not have been hurt so badly.

In the process of separating them Riley bit me twice, once on the left hand making a hole 3/8" deep in the web between my thumb and fore finger and a second smaller wound at the base of the thumb from the opposite tooth. The second bite was on the left thigh just inside the knee leaving a nice 1/2" deep hole in the fleshy part inside the knee cap and a second smaller hole further around the leg.

I don't hold it against Riley at all, in his mind he was just defending himself and I know when you get in the middle of a dog fight you are likely going to get bit. I could have used a couple stitches in each of the larger holes but it's hard to convince my medical insurance that two puncture wounds on your extremities are life threatening and require a trip to the ER... I have since figured out how to get "urgent care".

I have decided to not go to the dog park anymore, not because of the dogs but because of some of the people. This guy was really upset and wanted to fight. He expressed a couple times how he "Hated that dog" and was going to "knock him out and you too". I'm not afraid of him in any way, I've been a bouncer in a hard core biker bar and have military and law enforcement training so I can handle myself just fine. Once in a while I'm ready for a good knock down drag out fight myself but getting into it over a dog fight seems pretty silly to me. I think he had is ego invested in his dog-a fighting breed-and his ego got bruised when his dog "lost" at rough play and in the fight.

So the outcome was- I got chewed up the most, Riley was likely second worse off-though I didn't see his wounds, the husband was third and Shadow came out unscathed.

I have decided to take up rollerblading to exercise Shadow, walking 3 miles wears me out but he's still ready to go! I hope trotting a couple miles will do the trick and if I work it right he can tow me and do all the work!!

I still want him to socialize with other dogs but haven't figured out how to do that. When we walk downtown we often see other dogs but most are not socialized and try to attack him-by now you can guess what happens next. About 80% of the dogs we see in town are vicious so I don't let him greet them anymore, even little dogs go after him!

I will defiantly miss our trips to the dog park and I know Shadow already does. I enjoy most of the dogs there and especially watching the younger dogs grow up.

Here's a pic of Shadow at about 16 months old-winter '07.

This is his spot at the garage door where he watches the world go by. He has learned the seam in the concrete is his perimeter and he is not allowed past that unless invited, that makes it easier on me when I work on the car and not have to keep such a close eye on him.

More adventures on the road- Shadow does 'Vegas, March '08

My daughter had a cheerleading competition in Las Vegas, my wife was going to watch Shadow at home but wimped out so he went along. It's 600 miles of NOTHING between Nor Cal and Las Vegas, and I mean NOTHING!! Anyone that has ever driven I-5 down "the valley" or Hy 58 through the Mojave Desert knows exactly what I am talking about. The trip down was uneventful other than a multi car crash and a car fire east of Barstow on Hy 15 that tied up traffic. We bailed from the highway and had lunch while it all got sorted out. Arriving in Las Vegas was a little weird. We were driving along with the widows up and the A/C on and that was a good thing. As traffic slowed to a crawl we noticed swarms of really pissed off bees banging into the car windows!! I don't know where they came from or why they were pissed but I'm sure glad there was glass between us and them... I had to pity the 4 guys on Harleys stuck in the middle of it, but hey, they are tough Harley riders-right??

We stayed at the "Americas Best Value Inn" across from the MGM Grand, it's pretty pet friendly and the rates are decent. It's not the nicest motel around but we just wanted a place to sleep, not party and gamble.

Before leaving home I looked up a couple of dog parks on the internet so Shadow could get some time out of the motel room. Saturday morning we went looking for a park. It turned out to be quite nice and was adjacent to an equestrian park which made Shadow happy-he has a had a great interest in horses since he's been nose to nose with a couple. We met some of the local dogs and had a pretty good time. Shadow needed the exercise badly after the long drive. Later that afternoon we went for a walk around the "Strip". Most people reacted positively to Shadows presence but a few were frightened. Here's a shot of Shadow from just below the MGM lion looking across the street to New York/New York.

Here's one of him with his favorite bar poster...

He's a dog on many levels!

I was amazed at how grungy Las Vegas is. The place is just filthy! The entire strip needs pressure washed. Even the fancy hotels/casinos/resorts look grungy up close. When we got back to the motel I put him in the shower to wash his feet and a gross gray slime covered the tub!!

Sunday morning was an early one, Katelyn had to be at the competition venue by 9:00 AM so we hit the dog park at 7:00am. We met some more locals, one was a full wolf named Cochese (after the Apache Chief). I had heard about him the day before and was glad to meet him in person. He was very gentle and pretty social. He was playing with his buddy, a Husky named "Husky". Owned by an old hippy guy, I guess it's easy to remember your dogs name that way when you are stoned... Here's a pic of Shadow, Cochese and Husky. Shadow was by far the largest of the group.

Cochese is about Shadows age but only weighs about 50lb. His owner said he has had him since he was 3 days old. Shadow and these two got a long pretty well after a few tense minutes of introduction.

Now that we've done 'Vegas we won't likely return, neither of us really care for the desert all that much-give us mountains, trees and green fields any day!

New Critters for Shadow to meet.

Shadow is nearly 2 years old now. We went for a 3 mile hike at the Coast Guard training center a couple weeks ago and Shadow came across a large (for this area) water turtle in the deep grass. He is quite curious about different species. The turtle pulled his head inside his shell and I allowed Shadow to check him out and sniff him. He was quite intrigued by the turtle. A week later we were in the same area and I asked him where the turtle was and he went to the same spot and began looking for it. He searched the area for several minutes until he was distracted by other smells. He has a remarkable memory, especially when it comes to remembering a promise of a snack! This morning we were hiking in another part of the area and came across this...

He quickly moved into a defensive/strike posture and began shaking his tail and hissing quite loudly. Luckily it's just a Pacific Gopher Snake about 4 feet long. Shadow has a keen interest in other species so I used this chance to give him a little snake avoidance lesson. Rattle snakes are occasionally seen where we hike so it seemed like a good lesson for him to learn. I moved a 1 liter water bottle towards the snake and he immediately struck at it. After a little coaching Shadow would not get too close to the snake but still wanted to check it out and was reluctant to continue the hike. He will need a couple more lessons so his curiosity doesn't get him bit by a rattler.

August 2008, Trees and rivers "I'm in Heaven!!"

We took a day trip to the redwoods about 180 miles north of us. The area is called the "Avenue of the Giants". It's what I remember from my childhood as hwy. 101 but it has been bypassed by a freeway which is fine with me.

The weather was just about perfect, mid 70's with a light breeze and clear skies. We hit the first nice grove of redwoods that was not busy with other people. This grove has about a mile trail loop through it and we had it all to ourselves. Shadow loves jumping up on the downed logs and running from end to end. The view is definitely better from up there. He had no trouble climbing logs that were 6' high, taller logs gave him a little trouble though.

We stopped at the state park museum but they wouldn't let Shadow in so he took a break in the Blazer. The museum is small but has some cool stuff in it like the worlds first self propelled RV. It was built by Charles Kellogg from a single hunk of a redwood tree and mounted on a Nash-Quad chassis, the only chassis from that era that could haul such a load. It has 4 wheel drive and 4 wheel steer. An amazing achievement for the day.

After the stop at the museum we went on to Founders Grove where one of the tallest redwoods still stands, the "Founders Tree". It's about 360' tall and 12' in diameter. The lowest branches are at the 190' level! It is several thousand years old!

We headed back south and stopped at a grove that had access to the EEL river. The water was low and moving slow so the algae and slime had built up more than normal. Shadow loves a good dip in swampy water so he jumped right in and had a ball.

If you have never seen the redwoods of northern CA before I highly encourage you to visit. You will be humbled by nature and really enjoy the experience.

It was a GREAT morning - well mostly...

I was reluctant to go out in Labor Day traffic but Shadow had been cooped up in the house for several days with little exercise due to the high heat we've had this past week. I knew he needed exercise badly and the day dawned with a low foggy overcast and quite cool so I figured I would check out a place I had heard about from Abigail, Nova the Wolf/collie's owner. About 20 miles from home is the town of Point Reyes Station, it lies at the southern end of Tomales Bay. There was supposed to be a dog area on a creek at the edge of town.

As we left town the sky cleared to a beautiful clear blue and I immediately regretted wearing jeans instead of shorts. Traffic wasn't too heavy so we made good time and found the dog area just as it was described. It's on a small tidal stream that runs through town and into the bay. It was low tide so the stream was flowing out to the bay. As we got out of the car we saw another large dog down the road a ways. It was a large Wolf Hound and it hadn't seen us yet. Shadow has a tendancy to charge up to other dogs he's meeting and trying to play. Often the other dogs are surprised and it doesn't go over well. I kept Shadow close to me until we got much closer. As we got closer the other dog noticed us and became interested. It turned out to be Copine and her owners, we had met them over a year ago at our local dog park. It had been a year and a half since we had seen Copine and Shadows colors had changed and he is about a third larger so they did not recognize us either. It was cool to see Copine again and the dogs played hard in the water for a while.

At one point they came charging across the stream and nearly trampled a Coho Salmon that was in the way. I had never seen a salmon that had swum upstream before, I hope it found a mate and made it far enough to spawn.

The chase is on! For a really large dog she moves pretty quickly.

After about a half an hour of running amok the dogs came back to where we were hanging out on the gravel bar. Copine growled a warning at Shadow when he got too close to her owner. Shadow growled back and a tussle began to see who was the toughest. They were right next to me as it escalated so I grabbed them both by the scruff of the necks and told them to stop it. They relaxed and were fine after that. Dogs can be just like little kids playing, they get snarky when they get tired and stuff that is usually not a big deal can become a point of contention.

Copine and her owners headed back to the road and we went to explore the rest of the area. Other than the road along the creek there is little room to run in the area. It's on the edge of a wet land area that is under rehabilitation and no hiking is allowed off the road. Shadow did flush a really beautiful Coopers Hawk from the brush on the side of the road and we saw a pair of Harriers - often called Marsh Hawks- hunting just to the north of us.

Shadow was tired, wet and dirty so we headed for the car and the ride home. About half way home I heard something hit my outside rear view mirror and felt it ricochet off the side of my head. "Great, what the hell was that?" Shadow was about to have his first close encounter with a disoriented and quite angry hornet! He got stung a couple times and I pulled over to get the hornet out of the car so we could continue home. Shadow was reluctant to get back in the car, he had not seen the hornet fly away after we stopped and there was no way he was getting back in that car and get stung AGAIN! He finally got back in and we proceeded home and into the tub for a full dog shower.

It was a great morning seeing old friends and some cool birds of prey.
Here's a pic of a Coopers Hawk:

and one of a Harrier.

January 2009- A Day In The Snow:

My oldest daughter is married and has her own life going so we see her only occasionally, my youngest daughter is about to leave home and start her life in the big world. We all had a weekend off and decided to do one last road trip together.

We loaded up the Blazer and headed to the Sierra Mountains and Lake Tahoe. Places to stay on the mountain are expensive so we stayed in Reno NV at the La Quinta motel off Hy. 395 at the south end of town. I highly recommend this motel for pet owners. The rooms are decent the price is good and the staff is VERY pet friendly. The down side was it was 20* F. that night and when Shadow poked me with his nose to go out- I wasn't looking forward to escorting him to the "pet relief area" as they call it.

We got up pretty early, ate breakfast and hit the road. The first stop was the Cabella's store on the west end of Reno for a little shopping. It's on the edge of town so I let Shadow stretch his legs in the scrub fields and construction site next door. It was about 30* F as we headed up the mountains and quickly dropped back into the 20's as we went higher. We cruised around the lake through the small resort communities for a while. I'm sure even the smallest bungalow on the lake is worth over a million dollars!!

We headed for our next stop back on Hy. 80 for some snow tubing. We came to the Boreal ski area and pulled in to check it out. They have a dedicated tubing hill with a bunch of groomed lanes. The cool part is you don't have walk up the hill to slide back down, they have a lift called the "moving carpet". You just stand on the moving carpet and it takes you up the hill to the top of the tubing lanes. The bad part is you pay $25 for only 2 hours on the hill and they only allow a specific number of tubes so if it gets busy you have to wait for a tube and it cuts down on the number of runs you can make.

The girls set out to ride the tubes and mom and I hung out for some lunch with the dogs. Shadow and Bear made a few friends with the other folks in the parking lot but Shadow REALLY hit it off with Brenda Cortegana, the pretty young woman from Peru that was working the gate to the tubing hill. When the crowd thinned out enough she would come over to the Blazer and visit Shadow. Before we left she consented to having her picture taken with Shadow.

They don't allow dogs on the hill so he was mostly stuck in the parking lot and hung out in the back of the Blazer with Bear. I did take him across the parking lot to an area away from the hill where he could run through the snow. The day was bright and sunny but with a chilly wind that didn't seem to bother Shadow at all. He enjoyed running through the snow but REALLY wanted to do it with all the kids on the hill. Too bad they don't allow dogs on the hill.

When the girls were done on the tubes we headed back down the hill to the warmth of the low lands and home. As I type this Shadow is curled up asleep and dreaming on my bed, reliving the adventures no doubt. Road trips, new things and people are good but coming home is GREAT!!

March 2009- Hangin' in the Emerald City:

Late in March I made a Banzai run to Seattle to take my youngest daughter to her first Coast Guard unit after basic training. We left about 5:30am on a Friday morning and drove to Corvallis OR and spent the night at a friend of hers that goes to college there. We took Shadow and little Bear with us. As usual we stopped every two hours or so at a rest area to let them pee.

Most of the rest areas up I-5 are unremarkable but there is one north of Yreka that I like at the I-5/Hwy 99 junction. It's on the Klammath river and really pretty scenic. The dog area is pretty small but when we were there the restrooms at the south end were closed and that area completely deserted so I could let Shadow run a little and stretch his legs. Another nice rest area is in OR where the Rogue river crosses I-5.

When we reached Seattle on Saturday we spent a little time down town, I had been there several times but my daughter had not so I figured it would be good for her to get the "lay of the land". We parked below the Pike Street Public Market and walked up the interior stairs. As usual on a weekend the market was a total zoo full of tourists. Shadow did pretty well in the crowd but was a little anxious due to the pent up energy from being confined in the car for so long on the drive.




We had lunch on the waterfront then I dropped her off at her unit, a 378' high endurance cutter. We hit the road about 4:00 pm and headed south out of Seattle and into a snow storm in the Tacoma/Olympia area. The snow didn't stick to the road but made visibility very poor. As we traveled south the weather got better and by the time we reached Portland OR we had partly cloudy skies but a lot of wind. We stopped at a Super 8 Motel for the night and set up camp in the room with Shadow and Bear's beds on the floor next to mine. They did pretty well that night in the unfamiliar surroundings and only woke me up once at 2:00am to pee. There was a patch of grass across the driveway that worked well for pee breaks. We woke up at 6:00am and hit the road at 6:30am for the push home. It went pretty well until we got to Dunsmuir, a little town between Weed and Redding. Suddenly the three lanes of traffic slowed to a crawl and move to one lane on the right. There were several fire trucks and CHP cars blocking the entire freeway as a couple tow trucks cleaned up what appeared to be a serious crash. We actually went off the freeway on an exit, through the dirt around the bridge abutment and back on to the freeway. I couldn't figure out what caused the crash-this is a pretty good piece of road with no reason for anyone to do something stupid-then I saw this:

There was no sign of a trailer anywhere around...

Someone is going to be REALLY bummed when they get home and their boat trailer is EMPTY!!

The rest of the trip went pretty well and both dogs were REALLY glad to get home. It was nearly 2000mi of driving with not much fun for them. I'll have to make sure the next road trip we take is more dog oriented.

Next up will be a trip back to north Idaho with some tent camping thrown in just see how Shadow deals with that.

July 2009: Road trip-Oregon, Washington, Idaho and back. This deserves it's own page!

Click here to see the pics and read the adventure.

Feb. 2010: New pic of Shadow by my oldest daughter

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