I finally got bored of holding his leash and just let him go on ahead of me.
This next picture isn't actually good by any stretch of the imagination. But it looks like he is flying up out of the picture.
Sit-stays at a short distance.
Recall. He has started to make sure I'm not faking him out when I call him back. As in, he has to see that I am not still coming before he actually comes. But if I turn around he comes charging back. But sometimes he comes without waiting to see what I'm doing.
There was some bird chirp that really got his attention.
I brought along a second leash, which turned out to be a good thing because the first one got super dirty.
I tried to get him to climb like Matsu, but it didn't really work. @WrylyBrindle
I elected to turn back earlier than I expected due to a few reasons, but I do want to go back and explore even more.
I like to pretend his was bowing instead of wondering if it would be okay to jump down.
I thought the initials above his head were kind of ironic.
This garbage can is, apparently, very evil. We passed this at the beginning of the hike right after Meitou had pooped. I personally felt it was a good spot to through the poop away, but when I went to approach it Meitou started alert barking. I spent a good five minutes looking around for people or animals that might be a threat. I couldn't see anything and started to worry there might be a really dangerous animal around. I tried a couple times to throw the poop away but Meitou kept running away and I almost fell over so I gave up and found a different garbage can and Meitou was normal again. Later when he passed this again I realized....I think he was barking at the garbage can.
I wanted to give Meitou a chance to play in the water again before heading back to the car. Unfortunately, Meitou decided to pick his own path to the river. Bad idea. He ended up on a small rock ledge and decided he couldn't get back up on his own.
And then he fell in. So I had to climb down and haul him out of the river. And he fell in two more times. Each time I had to haul him out and try to get him back up the rocks. Afterward he had some zoomies; stress relief I guess. I got some video of it I will add in a bit.
Hopefully you can hear the bird that Meitou thought was interesting.
And what Meitou is like after falling in the river (oh yeah, he also snuggled a bit with me right after I pulled him out, but no evidence of that this time).
P.S. The part he fell into was not super deep. Or fast.
Okay. Now for the Monday hike. Which ended up more of a Monday nature walk. It wasn't quite what I thought it would be. I had planned on going somewhere else until I read about bear, rattlesnake and scorpion sightings. I may eventually be brave enough to go to a place like that, but today was not that day. So I went for something I thought would be cool...and it was, a bit, but it was busier than I was hoping for a poor weather morning and when the sun came out suddenly there were a ton of dogs out. Meitou ignored most, except for a polite husky running next to a bike. Not sure why that one bothered him when it was one of the calm ones we saw. Once I saw that there were going to be more dogs than I wanted to deal with and went to a different nature trail that someone with me knew about that happened to be close. That ended up being short because halfway through the trail was flooded.
But it was still a fun day.
First place---
They had some replica canoes and I made Meitou pose in them. Not Meitou's favorite moment, but he did it.
There was a fishing party going on near the parking area.
Have I mentioned Meitou loves tall grass? Cuz he does.
Second place----
Yes. There are a lot of bridge pictures. It's important. You'll see.
*insert frantic horror music here*
Meitou took a few steps onto the bridge....and decided the the Powers of Hell Itself must reside within that bridge. He did not want to walk across it. So I carried him over it both times we had to cross. He was okay with that. I got some video of it, but he is a bit more calm that the first time I tried to take video (and realized after that I hadn't actually taken video). This is the only time he was even vaguely willing to explore the bridge. Before and after he was adamant about not stepping foot on it.
You can see here that we reached the flooded part of the trail. For some reason the trail/bridges here were fine, but the wooden bridge was not (and he has crossed many other wooden bridges with no problem).
Just prior to reaching the flooded area Meitou decided to hop over the side of the bridge. The area was wet and marshy and had signs about not disturbing the habitat. And I had just told Meitou not to go off the trail and boing he hops over. And he discovered it was a bunch of water and not just soggy ground. It was only a foot or so of water where he happened to jump in (later we measured with a blade of super long grass and found places that were over two or three feet deep). So lucky for him he found a shallow patch.
Anyway, he got wet. And he ate grass.
"Oh, hi. Let's not ever go over the bridge again, kthanksbye."
No bridge
No bridge?
Dang it.
Yeah. I had to carry him over again (this would be the second time) even though he was sopping wet. I'm sensing a trend with our "hikes" recently.
The end.
Edited to add: On the way back to the car from the second trail Meitou started nosing in some plants and I could hear something rustling around in there. I caught I glimpse of what Meitou had found, and it was a little snake. He tried to hunt it down. I'm not sure if it was barn hunt kicking in or if he just really was intent on finding the snake just because it was cool to him.
There were quite a few dogs, so as long as that isn't an issue it's nice. At one point we went by the West Columbia Gorge Humane Society and they tend to walk their shelter dogs there at the dike.
You've probably been, but have you taken Keanu to Round Lake/Lacamas Lake? If not, that's a fun place to go though pretty popular so there are a lot of people and dogs, and there's a good chance of running into off-leash dogs there. At least I always seem to run into the off-leash dogs.
--
OK, so random Meitou story. Tonight I was doing a deep brushing of Amy because my grandmother wants dog hair put in nylons so she (my grandmother) can put dog hair out in her rose bushes to try and keep the deer from eating the roses. And Amy has tons of hair to give. Normally she doesn't care for Meitou in her space, but while I was brushing her Meitou came up next to her and started licking her back and nibbling her sides (and at one point was tugging on her fur and trying to eat it) and she was totally fine with it. Unfortunately for Meitou, it got him a little too excited and he kept trying to sneak in some humping....which she was not okay with. But as long as he didn't hump (or only faintly air humped next to her) then she was fine with him grooming her. He was so happy.
Another hike. This one was interesting in that the first mile of the trail we followed goes through private property and you walk right through a herd of cows unless they've wandered away into another pasture. Meitou and I got to walk through the cows on the way in, but they had moved on by the time we made it back. Well, they were just on the other side of fence this time.
Anyway, the hike was fun. It started out seeming pretty empty. We only saw a few other hikers a several groups of mountain bikers. But the last part of the hike had several dog encounters, which I'll explain later (whether you like it or not ).
This is his "Why are you taking pictures of me peeing, Woman?!" face.
The Nemesis of Meitou: The Cow.
He thinks he's all tough guy far away, but when we got close and the little brown calf started walking and the black mama cow started 'talking' to us he kind of freaked out a little. And apparently I operate under the assumption that all cows want to gore me (which I did not know prior to this, lol) because when Meitou started dancing around acting like surely the cows were all well-trained assassins out to get him my first thought was "they are going to gore me because my dog is an idiot," but the cows just watched us....like we were idiots. Meitou probably was not giving a very good impression at that point, lol.
Lower falls. I climbed out onto a rock outcropping to get any decent pictures because according to the instructions I printed, to get a good view I'd have to brave a semi-steep bushwhacking experience and there is no way I was doing that with Meitou. Who gleefully tries to run down slopes.
Finally. A picture with a dog in it.
At this point we realized we missed the trail we meant to take, so we took a break.
Meitou got some water (well, he wasn't the only one) and he got a moment to lie down. Which he didn't really appreciate because, as I have learned, Meitou is ACTION MEITOU. He doesn't like waiting around doing nothing. He must be doing.
OMgosh so bored.
Down one side of the path
Up the other
Back onto the right trail
Meitou did not appreciate the other hikers on this narrow bit of trail. All trail are belong to Meitou?
That little guy (er....) was a cutie. Meitou was super excited by him, but calmed down since the puppy was calm. So it turned into a decent encounter (no saying hello, though, just to be safe). But after this we continued on the trail from the campground the puppy was at and ran into an off leash dog that silently appeared around a corner and then just stood there staring at Meitou. Meitou tried pulling over to greet it, but I got him to follow me off trail a bit and let the other dog and his owner pass.
Slightly less good of an encounter, but not the worst.... And then a little further down the trail a couple approached us with a cute black and tan Shiba. Moved Meitou off the trail and tried to distract him, and it didn't work so well this time. Three is not always the magic charm. He lunged around me and the Shiba, who already seemed on guard, snarked at him and so Meitou snarked back. Luckily no contact was made and once the Shiba was out of sight we continued. Meitou was worked up a bit after that so he was on "bad boy status," also known as, you have to walk by me instead of roaming ahead on the trail. This was useful because there were some steep stairs not long after that encounter. We didn't meet any other dogs for a while after that until we got back to the private property where me met a golden (happened to be carrying Meitou because I thought we were closer to a cattle guard), a pretty liver Doberman (which Meitou ignored with a little coaxing), and a mix of some kind that Meitou also ignored with some direction. Anyway... the next pictures are along the trail after the Shiba. Actually, the first two were before the Shiba now that I think about it.
Water was dripping off the rock here right over the trail.
So, funny story. Apparently Meitou's weirdness about bridges is an actual thing and not just a fluke from the previous weekend. Not sure why as there are plenty of bridges he crosses with no problem, but all the bridges today were super scary. I was able to coax him over most, but one was practically just a fallen log and luckily for Meitou the creek it was over was very shallow, so I let him off leash for a moment to run across the creek while I went over the bridge.
Here is a video from one of the last bridges when I actually remembered to hit the record button on my camera (sigh).
And a video from on our way out, back past where the cows were. In the video you'll see one of the many cattle guards. On the way in I carried Meitou over most of them. One or two had a wood plank over for people to cross, and Meitou did not like that. I only noticed one that had a path around it on the way in, but noticed on the way back that all but one had a way for Meitou to get around them (even if I couldn't). Also, in this video Meitou is distracted by cows.
Just wanted to give a little update on Meitou: We started up a new class on Saturdays to work on his on leash reactivity to other dogs. We get to go walk around neighborhoods in Portland with other dogs (plus trainers). Normally this open air class is more advanced but since Meitou was starting to shut down in his other classes I had a private meeting with the trainer (to observe if Meitou could handle skipping the next level and go straight to the open air class). Our trainer thought Meitou would do well in the outdoor classes so let us jump ahead.
June 7th was the first day and the location was at Waterfront Park...right after the Grand Floral Parade had finished up. Traffic was special (shudder). But Meitou did really well on his first day. For some reason Meitou is always good when the trainer is around to watch so he's never seen Meitou being naughty, lol. By the end I think Meitou was starting to get a little overwhelmed by the hordes of people and traffic. Interestingly a fire truck driving right by us with its siren going didn't bother him, but the sound of one of the MAX trains weirded him out.
I took my camera in case I got a chance to takes pictures, but I never had the time. Too busy walking and training. Luckily for all of you.
Edited to add: Also, his harness seemed to be rubbing at his fur a little. He's starting to get harness marks that don't quite go away.... And he is getting a funny dip in his tail from where it rests on his back. Anyway way I can combat that? Or should I just leave it be?
I feel that Hokkas are tough to train. Or at least Oni. I hate his reaction to other dogs, he wants to go say hi to every single one do bad that he hops like a bunny on his hind legs or screeches like a monkey. Drives me nuts !!
Meitou does the hopping thing. It's always reminded me of a kangaroo.
Meitou can be pretty fun to train and he's very clever and can learn pretty quickly (he's so evil, lol). But he does have his tough moments. I think it's because he's so gosh darn persistent.
That's so funny that meitou does that also! People walking by think it funny.
Oni is fast to learn commands and was fast to potty train but it's the way he reacts to other dogs it leash training that I find to be tuff. Does Meitou do pretty well on the leash?
Good job to advocate for Meitou and get him in the class that's better for him! Let us know how that About Town class goes in the next few sessions! Several Hokkas are working on leash reactivity vs dogs right now- maybe you guys should start a new specific thread to gather and support each other? (because this info here is deep within Meitou's thread and may not be easy to find, plus people wont want to derail with their own stories) It's not fun to feel all alone with that, but as I remember from when I was first learning to work with Sage years ago, it also sucks to be a pet owner working a reactive NK and be surrounded by sport/performance trainers working with reactive goldens, BC and Aussies, in that you feel left behind and not understood, so stick together!
LOL Katana does this as well. He is the ultimate barrier frustrated dog, if he can't get to something he'll SCREAM! and chew on whatever it is that is keeping him from getting to that thing. I have contemplated getting a chain leash for him 'cause I don't want him to chew through my nice leather ones...
@laurenmarie How does he do on leash? Short answer: sometimes good, sometimes bad. He's actually always been better at walking on leash than my Border Collie. Amy was a nightmare to walk for half her life. She pulled like a freight train and it wasn't until she was around five or six that someone thought to suggest a harness to me and then things became way easier. Yeah, my learning curve for training dogs was an ugly one, shhhh. I know. However, while Meitou is better he's not always good. He still likes to veer off unexpectedly to sniff things, but he is doing much better with that. He got pretty bad when he hit 11 to 12 months old and was bad for several months. That's also when his dog reactivity started showing up. He still pulls a little bit, but with treats and following some tips from trainers/stuff I read on the forum the last couple months he has been doing a lot better. His worst behavior is his dog reactivity (sometimes he seems to just be way overexcited and other times it seems more negative).
@Losech Thankfully Meitou doesn't scream. He will growl and make weird grunting noises on occasion, but no screaming. Hopefully he doesn't try to prove me wrong. And luckily he hasn't chewed through any leashes.
@WrylyBrindle I will certainly keep everyone updated on how everything goes with the around town class. And I think that could be a good idea to have a reactive Hokka support thread. I think this weekend I should have some time to start a thread. I'll even check with our trainer and see if can post any of the information from some handouts he has emailed me. And maybe he'd be open to someone taking some video clips of Meitou in his class. Hmn....things to think about.
The class for this upcoming Saturday should be interesting, as it will be taking place on a trail and as I've mentioned before Meitou doesn't take treats on trails so distracting him is difficult. However.....! Today I took him to a local walking trail with a sister and Meitou actually took treats willingly when dogs passed us by (one was a super cute, leggy Shiba)! Totally shocked me as he's refused so many things up until today. But apparently chicken is magical. He's refused other, smellier meats and a variety of other things I have tried. But for some reason chicken worked today. I'm hopeful that he will continue to take chicken, because that's super easy for me to prepare. I was pretty proud of him. I think I'm going to take him to this trail more often. I've been avoiding it since he's been difficult there and I spent more time working on streets downtown and in a ton of neighborhoods (where he usually does better, but sometimes things just don't quite right). But now that I seem a glimmer of hope for trails (and since our class is going to be at a trail anyway) I think I should really practice more.
The other interesting thing about the trail walk today.... @lindsayt@sandrat888 Meitou flushed a mouse from some grass and got all excited and chased it. I let him chase it some and get excited (without letting him catch and eat it because it was acting a little strange). He was trying to find mice for a long time after that.
I'm posting in Meitou's thread again, so you know what that means...photo-dump!
Back in June, after a long day of Barn Hunt and his Open Air class. Dainty Sleepy-paws.
Yeah, he really likes to sleep with his head and the track of the sliding door. I guess he gets a good breeze there?
On another day in June, just before it decided to rain....
Check out Action Cat in the background. I did not catch that on purpose. He looks Photoshopped in, but he isn't.
Hokkaido bokeh?
Here is a clip of Meitou trying to play with Amy (warning: Amy barks. A lot). At the point where Amy falls over, I almost fell over, too. Meitou collided with my shins.
Taking a break up on the deck.
Daintily tucking his paws in.
Yeah, these are a series of pictures of Meitou with a big glob of drool on his face like some slimy little goatee.
Sorry. That's my phone going off in the background. I decided to ignore it while I was videoing Meitou to see if he would pay any attention to the noise. He doesn't really care about it.
Random cat again. Still looks so fake, but it is so real.
So, I went on a week long vacation to Idaho and Wyoming (and Montana) and since Meitou is "special" (aka: TROUBLE) he got to come with. And of course Meitou has been (and still is) shedding buckets of Hokkaido.
Our first stop was visiting family near Boise.
"Please let me in your house."
He totally ignored these handcarts my Aunt and Uncle randomly had in their yard.
Taking a break during a walk around town. These took place near where Meitou got a painful burr thing in his paw the next day. It looked like a little grey sea urchin. Luckily we managed to get it out. He didn't want me touching it after I started pulling it out the first couple times I tried to get rid of it, so I carried him to some soft grass and he licked it out pretty quickly.
The next day I let Meitou meet my aunt and uncle's dog. He loved her, but she was scared of Meitou (he was running around like a loon and trying to keep his nose permanently attached to her privates). He got a lot of "be calm" practice.
We found a ball.
We visited part of the Boise Greenbelt trail. Most of it wasn't very shady and it was HOT. Not as pretty as I thought it should be. Right along the river had some good bits.
We found this epic water feature in an apartment complex when I took Meitou to Petco during the heat. My picture doesn't show the water, but it was definitely a fountain.
Ad some pictures from the hotel room (I stayed in a hotel so that Meitou could have a cool place to go. He wasn't allowed in the house).
"Why you read? Why no play?"
"Fine. Talk to the back."
If you watch this video carefully you can tell where he's shedding from the most.
There is no video or any pictures of the epic horseback ride I took during a thunderstorm. (Okay, it passed over pretty quick near the beginning). Meitou was safely with family exploring the ranch that hosted the ride.
From there we headed up to West Yellowstone.
NEVERMORE.
Why, yes, I did quote a goodly portion of Edgar Allan Poe's "The Raven" to actual ravens in a tiny town park.
While walking around West Yellowstone the first night I met a Japanese couple that asked if Meitou was an Akita. Apparently they had seven Akita at home. Meitou was polite and let the woman pet him.
He was not a fan of the fireworks at night (not the 4th), but he did alright. The next day we went to Yellowstone! Meitou could only stick to the roads, but he seemed not to care too much. But he did not want all those people touching him. He was fine walking in huge crowds of people, but if people tried to pet him he was not happy.
There were monks there?
Meitou couldn't go near hot water since it isn't safe.
Is this not an awesome car sticker?
Not far from where the next shot was taken we passed a Japanese family with a teenage daughter and boy a little younger than her. My father talked with the kids a bit since they were talking to each other about how Meitou looked like a Shiba Inu and he let them know Meitou was a Hokkaido. Apparently the daughter got excited and seemed at least passingly familiar with the Hokkaido. The boy wondered if a Hokkaido was a real dog, lol.
From West Yellowstone we headed out to Jackson Hole, WY. The day of the 4th we hiked up Snowking (hot, horseflies, and a ton of off leash dogs). The first off leash dog was the worst one. I moved Meitou off to the side to try and keep him distracted with our training, but the other owners didn't call their dog or keep it close, so it approached anyway and it ended up in a fight. The other owners were all offended and called Meitou an a**hole dog. Le sigh. All the other owners with off leash dogs either kindly leashed up their dogs or held their dogs off to the side to let us pass. Anyway, Meitou liked the hike outside of all the off leash dogs, though he kind of ignored the others.
Yes, I did like taking pictures with the Tetons in them.
For the big fireworks display at night, Meitou handled it like a champ. And was outside for it. He got a lot of treats and after being a little hesitant at the start he ended up okay.
The next day we went out to visit some abandoned farms and see the red hills and the Gros Ventre landslide site.
We thought this was just a cute sign... (blatant foreshadowing)
We got surrounded by these ground squirrels a couple times. Meitou wanted to chase them so badly.
He could smell them...
The sign did not lie.
There were a lot of people on this gravel road the old farm houses are on. The buffalo kept charging people and we were all scattering like ninnies. Smart ninnies. Turns out his herd was further down the road on the other side and he was just trying to find a way to get to them. He made children cry, though.
There is a ground squirrel hiding on the fence in this shot. You might have to make it bigger to see it.
You can hear the ground squirrels. This is what Meitou did when ground squirrels were near.
Oh wow. I am in awe! Looks like you guys had an amazing vacation. Next time you go, if you want some company, I am totally in! :-P (I assume there is good mountain biking out that way?!)
@sunyata It was pretty awesome, though Meitou and I were wilting in the heat a few times. I packed around A LOT of water, lol. I'd be game for the tag team vacation. I saw several mountain bikers on Snowking and I wouldn't be surprised if there were other places good for that. I didn't get to go to all the hiking places I wanted. Too hot.
Forgot to mention, Meitou also got to see Old Faithful go off. He thought it was pretty "meh" (the humans liked it). What he wanted? To roll in buffalo chips.
Random fact of the day: Meitou's name was almost Yukar. Second random face of the day: If Meitou could speak, I think this is what he would say about me taking pictures of him- "Posing is for Border Collies." I imagine that in a mildly disgusted voice.
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I finally got bored of holding his leash and just let him go on ahead of me.
This next picture isn't actually good by any stretch of the imagination. But it looks like he is flying up out of the picture.
Sit-stays at a short distance.
Recall. He has started to make sure I'm not faking him out when I call him back. As in, he has to see that I am not still coming before he actually comes. But if I turn around he comes charging back. But sometimes he comes without waiting to see what I'm doing.
There was some bird chirp that really got his attention.
I brought along a second leash, which turned out to be a good thing because the first one got super dirty.
I tried to get him to climb like Matsu, but it didn't really work. @WrylyBrindle
I elected to turn back earlier than I expected due to a few reasons, but I do want to go back and explore even more.
This....doesn't really seem all that safe.
I thought this was awesome.
(and more still coming)
I thought the initials above his head were kind of ironic.
This garbage can is, apparently, very evil. We passed this at the beginning of the hike right after Meitou had pooped. I personally felt it was a good spot to through the poop away, but when I went to approach it Meitou started alert barking. I spent a good five minutes looking around for people or animals that might be a threat. I couldn't see anything and started to worry there might be a really dangerous animal around. I tried a couple times to throw the poop away but Meitou kept running away and I almost fell over so I gave up and found a different garbage can and Meitou was normal again. Later when he passed this again I realized....I think he was barking at the garbage can.
I wanted to give Meitou a chance to play in the water again before heading back to the car. Unfortunately, Meitou decided to pick his own path to the river. Bad idea. He ended up on a small rock ledge and decided he couldn't get back up on his own.
And then he fell in. So I had to climb down and haul him out of the river. And he fell in two more times. Each time I had to haul him out and try to get him back up the rocks. Afterward he had some zoomies; stress relief I guess. I got some video of it I will add in a bit.
Hopefully you can hear the bird that Meitou thought was interesting.
And what Meitou is like after falling in the river (oh yeah, he also snuggled a bit with me right after I pulled him out, but no evidence of that this time).
P.S. The part he fell into was not super deep. Or fast.
But it was still a fun day.
First place---
They had some replica canoes and I made Meitou pose in them. Not Meitou's favorite moment, but he did it.
There was a fishing party going on near the parking area.
Have I mentioned Meitou loves tall grass? Cuz he does.
Second place----
Yes. There are a lot of bridge pictures. It's important. You'll see.
*insert frantic horror music here*
Meitou took a few steps onto the bridge....and decided the the Powers of Hell Itself must reside within that bridge. He did not want to walk across it. So I carried him over it both times we had to cross. He was okay with that. I got some video of it, but he is a bit more calm that the first time I tried to take video (and realized after that I hadn't actually taken video). This is the only time he was even vaguely willing to explore the bridge. Before and after he was adamant about not stepping foot on it.
You can see here that we reached the flooded part of the trail. For some reason the trail/bridges here were fine, but the wooden bridge was not (and he has crossed many other wooden bridges with no problem).
Just prior to reaching the flooded area Meitou decided to hop over the side of the bridge. The area was wet and marshy and had signs about not disturbing the habitat. And I had just told Meitou not to go off the trail and boing he hops over. And he discovered it was a bunch of water and not just soggy ground. It was only a foot or so of water where he happened to jump in (later we measured with a blade of super long grass and found places that were over two or three feet deep). So lucky for him he found a shallow patch.
Anyway, he got wet. And he ate grass.
"Oh, hi. Let's not ever go over the bridge again, kthanksbye."
No bridge
No bridge?
Dang it.
Yeah. I had to carry him over again (this would be the second time) even though he was sopping wet. I'm sensing a trend with our "hikes" recently.
The end.
Edited to add: On the way back to the car from the second trail Meitou started nosing in some plants and I could hear something rustling around in there. I caught I glimpse of what Meitou had found, and it was a little snake. He tried to hunt it down. I'm not sure if it was barn hunt kicking in or if he just really was intent on finding the snake just because it was cool to him.
http://www.portlandhikersfieldguide.org/wiki/Columbia_River_Dike_Hike
There were quite a few dogs, so as long as that isn't an issue it's nice. At one point we went by the West Columbia Gorge Humane Society and they tend to walk their shelter dogs there at the dike.
The last few pictures are from where we went after that, the Washougal River Greenway Trail.
http://theintertwine.org/parks/washougal-river-greenway-trail
http://www.portlandhikersfieldguide.org/wiki/Washougal_River_Greenway_Loop_Hike
You've probably been, but have you taken Keanu to Round Lake/Lacamas Lake? If not, that's a fun place to go though pretty popular so there are a lot of people and dogs, and there's a good chance of running into off-leash dogs there. At least I always seem to run into the off-leash dogs.
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OK, so random Meitou story. Tonight I was doing a deep brushing of Amy because my grandmother wants dog hair put in nylons so she (my grandmother) can put dog hair out in her rose bushes to try and keep the deer from eating the roses. And Amy has tons of hair to give. Normally she doesn't care for Meitou in her space, but while I was brushing her Meitou came up next to her and started licking her back and nibbling her sides (and at one point was tugging on her fur and trying to eat it) and she was totally fine with it. Unfortunately for Meitou, it got him a little too excited and he kept trying to sneak in some humping....which she was not okay with. But as long as he didn't hump (or only faintly air humped next to her) then she was fine with him grooming her. He was so happy.
Anyway, the hike was fun. It started out seeming pretty empty. We only saw a few other hikers a several groups of mountain bikers. But the last part of the hike had several dog encounters, which I'll explain later (whether you like it or not
This is his "Why are you taking pictures of me peeing, Woman?!" face.
The Nemesis of Meitou: The Cow.
He thinks he's all tough guy far away, but when we got close and the little brown calf started walking and the black mama cow started 'talking' to us he kind of freaked out a little. And apparently I operate under the assumption that all cows want to gore me (which I did not know prior to this, lol) because when Meitou started dancing around acting like surely the cows were all well-trained assassins out to get him my first thought was "they are going to gore me because my dog is an idiot," but the cows just watched us....like we were idiots. Meitou probably was not giving a very good impression at that point, lol.
Lower falls. I climbed out onto a rock outcropping to get any decent pictures because according to the instructions I printed, to get a good view I'd have to brave a semi-steep bushwhacking experience and there is no way I was doing that with Meitou. Who gleefully tries to run down slopes.
Finally. A picture with a dog in it.
At this point we realized we missed the trail we meant to take, so we took a break.
Meitou got some water (well, he wasn't the only one) and he got a moment to lie down. Which he didn't really appreciate because, as I have learned, Meitou is ACTION MEITOU. He doesn't like waiting around doing nothing. He must be doing.
OMgosh so bored.
Down one side of the path
Up the other
Back onto the right trail
Meitou did not appreciate the other hikers on this narrow bit of trail. All trail are belong to Meitou?
At this point I just felt bad so I let him get off, lol.
After this is when all the dog sightings started happening. First, I took a picture of this because puppy.
Slightly less good of an encounter, but not the worst.... And then a little further down the trail a couple approached us with a cute black and tan Shiba. Moved Meitou off the trail and tried to distract him, and it didn't work so well this time. Three is not always the magic charm. He lunged around me and the Shiba, who already seemed on guard, snarked at him and so Meitou snarked back. Luckily no contact was made and once the Shiba was out of sight we continued. Meitou was worked up a bit after that so he was on "bad boy status," also known as, you have to walk by me instead of roaming ahead on the trail. This was useful because there were some steep stairs not long after that encounter. We didn't meet any other dogs for a while after that until we got back to the private property where me met a golden (happened to be carrying Meitou because I thought we were closer to a cattle guard), a pretty liver Doberman (which Meitou ignored with a little coaxing), and a mix of some kind that Meitou also ignored with some direction.
Anyway... the next pictures are along the trail after the Shiba. Actually, the first two were before the Shiba now that I think about it.
Water was dripping off the rock here right over the trail.
So, funny story. Apparently Meitou's weirdness about bridges is an actual thing and not just a fluke from the previous weekend. Not sure why as there are plenty of bridges he crosses with no problem, but all the bridges today were super scary. I was able to coax him over most, but one was practically just a fallen log and luckily for Meitou the creek it was over was very shallow, so I let him off leash for a moment to run across the creek while I went over the bridge.
Here is a video from one of the last bridges when I actually remembered to hit the record button on my camera (sigh).
And a video from on our way out, back past where the cows were. In the video you'll see one of the many cattle guards. On the way in I carried Meitou over most of them. One or two had a wood plank over for people to cross, and Meitou did not like that. I only noticed one that had a path around it on the way in, but noticed on the way back that all but one had a way for Meitou to get around them (even if I couldn't). Also, in this video Meitou is distracted by cows.
Maybe I need to stop posting so many pictures.
June 7th was the first day and the location was at Waterfront Park...right after the Grand Floral Parade had finished up. Traffic was special (shudder). But Meitou did really well on his first day. For some reason Meitou is always good when the trainer is around to watch so he's never seen Meitou being naughty, lol. By the end I think Meitou was starting to get a little overwhelmed by the hordes of people and traffic. Interestingly a fire truck driving right by us with its siren going didn't bother him, but the sound of one of the MAX trains weirded him out.
I took my camera in case I got a chance to takes pictures, but I never had the time. Too busy walking and training.
Edited to add: Also, his harness seemed to be rubbing at his fur a little. He's starting to get harness marks that don't quite go away....
Meitou can be pretty fun to train and he's very clever and can learn pretty quickly (he's so evil, lol). But he does have his tough moments. I think it's because he's so gosh darn persistent.
Oni is fast to learn commands and was fast to potty train but it's the way he reacts to other dogs it leash training that I find to be tuff. Does Meitou do pretty well on the leash?
Oh god, and the screaming! It kills me
@Losech Thankfully Meitou doesn't scream. He will growl and make weird grunting noises on occasion, but no screaming. Hopefully he doesn't try to prove me wrong. And luckily he hasn't chewed through any leashes.
@WrylyBrindle I will certainly keep everyone updated on how everything goes with the around town class.
The class for this upcoming Saturday should be interesting, as it will be taking place on a trail and as I've mentioned before Meitou doesn't take treats on trails so distracting him is difficult. However.....! Today I took him to a local walking trail with a sister and Meitou actually took treats willingly when dogs passed us by (one was a super cute, leggy Shiba)! Totally shocked me as he's refused so many things up until today. But apparently chicken is magical. He's refused other, smellier meats and a variety of other things I have tried. But for some reason chicken worked today. I'm hopeful that he will continue to take chicken, because that's super easy for me to prepare. I was pretty proud of him. I think I'm going to take him to this trail more often. I've been avoiding it since he's been difficult there and I spent more time working on streets downtown and in a ton of neighborhoods (where he usually does better, but sometimes things just don't quite right). But now that I seem a glimmer of hope for trails (and since our class is going to be at a trail anyway) I think I should really practice more.
The other interesting thing about the trail walk today.... @lindsayt @sandrat888 Meitou flushed a mouse from some grass and got all excited and chased it. I let him chase it some and get excited (without letting him catch and eat it because it was acting a little strange). He was trying to find mice for a long time after that.
Good luck with the training.
Back in June, after a long day of Barn Hunt and his Open Air class. Dainty Sleepy-paws.
Yeah, he really likes to sleep with his head and the track of the sliding door. I guess he gets a good breeze there?
On another day in June, just before it decided to rain....
Check out Action Cat in the background. I did not catch that on purpose. He looks Photoshopped in, but he isn't.
Hokkaido bokeh?
Here is a clip of Meitou trying to play with Amy (warning: Amy barks. A lot). At the point where Amy falls over, I almost fell over, too. Meitou collided with my shins.
Taking a break up on the deck.
Daintily tucking his paws in.
Yeah, these are a series of pictures of Meitou with a big glob of drool on his face like some slimy little goatee.
Sorry. That's my phone going off in the background. I decided to ignore it while I was videoing Meitou to see if he would pay any attention to the noise. He doesn't really care about it.
Random cat again. Still looks so fake, but it is so real.
More coming!
Our first stop was visiting family near Boise.
"Please let me in your house."
He totally ignored these handcarts my Aunt and Uncle randomly had in their yard.
Taking a break during a walk around town. These took place near where Meitou got a painful burr thing in his paw the next day. It looked like a little grey sea urchin. Luckily we managed to get it out. He didn't want me touching it after I started pulling it out the first couple times I tried to get rid of it, so I carried him to some soft grass and he licked it out pretty quickly.
The next day I let Meitou meet my aunt and uncle's dog. He loved her, but she was scared of Meitou (he was running around like a loon and trying to keep his nose permanently attached to her privates). He got a lot of "be calm" practice.
We found a ball.
We visited part of the Boise Greenbelt trail. Most of it wasn't very shady and it was HOT. Not as pretty as I thought it should be. Right along the river had some good bits.
We found this epic water feature in an apartment complex when I took Meitou to Petco during the heat. My picture doesn't show the water, but it was definitely a fountain.
Ad some pictures from the hotel room (I stayed in a hotel so that Meitou could have a cool place to go. He wasn't allowed in the house).
"Why you read? Why no play?"
"Fine. Talk to the back."
If you watch this video carefully you can tell where he's shedding from the most.
A cat house
Yes. There is still more. Always.
From there we headed up to West Yellowstone.
NEVERMORE.
Why, yes, I did quote a goodly portion of Edgar Allan Poe's "The Raven" to actual ravens in a tiny town park.
While walking around West Yellowstone the first night I met a Japanese couple that asked if Meitou was an Akita. Apparently they had seven Akita at home. Meitou was polite and let the woman pet him.
He was not a fan of the fireworks at night (not the 4th), but he did alright.
The next day we went to Yellowstone! Meitou could only stick to the roads, but he seemed not to care too much. But he did not want all those people touching him. He was fine walking in huge crowds of people, but if people tried to pet him he was not happy.
There were monks there?
Meitou couldn't go near hot water since it isn't safe.
Is this not an awesome car sticker?
Not far from where the next shot was taken we passed a Japanese family with a teenage daughter and boy a little younger than her. My father talked with the kids a bit since they were talking to each other about how Meitou looked like a Shiba Inu and he let them know Meitou was a Hokkaido. Apparently the daughter got excited and seemed at least passingly familiar with the Hokkaido. The boy wondered if a Hokkaido was a real dog, lol.
Faint rainbow mist
And...more...
The day of the 4th we hiked up Snowking (hot, horseflies, and a ton of off leash dogs). The first off leash dog was the worst one. I moved Meitou off to the side to try and keep him distracted with our training, but the other owners didn't call their dog or keep it close, so it approached anyway and it ended up in a fight. The other owners were all offended and called Meitou an a**hole dog. Le sigh. All the other owners with off leash dogs either kindly leashed up their dogs or held their dogs off to the side to let us pass. Anyway, Meitou liked the hike outside of all the off leash dogs, though he kind of ignored the others.
Yes, I did like taking pictures with the Tetons in them.
For the big fireworks display at night, Meitou handled it like a champ. And was outside for it. He got a lot of treats and after being a little hesitant at the start he ended up okay.
We thought this was just a cute sign... (blatant foreshadowing)
We got surrounded by these ground squirrels a couple times. Meitou wanted to chase them so badly.
He could smell them...
The sign did not lie.
There were a lot of people on this gravel road the old farm houses are on. The buffalo kept charging people and we were all scattering like ninnies. Smart ninnies. Turns out his herd was further down the road on the other side and he was just trying to find a way to get to them. He made children cry, though.
There is a ground squirrel hiding on the fence in this shot. You might have to make it bigger to see it.
You can hear the ground squirrels. This is what Meitou did when ground squirrels were near.
This is what our hotel in Jackson looked like every night.
The end.
Forgot to mention, Meitou also got to see Old Faithful go off. He thought it was pretty "meh" (the humans liked it). What he wanted? To roll in buffalo chips.
Random fact of the day: Meitou's name was almost Yukar.
Second random face of the day: If Meitou could speak, I think this is what he would say about me taking pictures of him- "Posing is for Border Collies." I imagine that in a mildly disgusted voice.