Thistle goes to school!

Goofy Thistle

Thistle and I had our first group obedience class last night and we both had a really good time. The rest of the dogs were also having a blast and from the looks of it, so were most of the owners.  Of course, Thistle was pretty out of control as soon as she saw everyone but she impressed me in her ability to calm down and focus.  There’s only three people that she still has real trouble controlling herself around and two of them were at the class last night!  It’s not that she can’t control herself, it’s just that when she absolutely adores someone, she just has to express it by launching all 60 something pounds of herself at them full force! That’s the biggest reason we are attending these classes, you see. 

When we arrived, I was tickled to see that we were not the only Goldens, as a matter of fact, there were three of us! The other two are siblings, belonging to separate owners and there was much joyous reunion greetings between the two. They are both just six months old, three months younger than Thistle.  After they got their greetings out of the way, they also enjoyed playing like crazy with my puppy until the rest of the group arrived. Thistle was then rewarded with the ecstasy of my friends, Bobbie and Meleah coming in the gate with two of her favorite walking buddies, Ruby and Agnes!

After all the greetings, we were finally able to get down to business and learn some basic manners.  Thistle had learned all of these things when we left her with Barb, the trainer, back in April,  but we don’t get a lot of practice with the jumping thing at home.  It was so hilarious, as we were all taking turns approaching other dogs to try the new skills we'd learned to stop the jumping behavior, no one particularly wanted to approach Thistle because of her enormous comparative size to the other dogs! But, she fooled them, only really wanting to jump on Barb and Bobbie very rowdily. We had a wonderful training session and all left with great homework to do until we meet again next week.  Today, Thistle and I are going to head out (me, armed with a pocketful of treats) and see if we can put into practice some of what we learned last night.  Unfortunately, I don’t get enough visitors to the house to do it here much, so we’re going to have to go out into town to try out her new skills.

When I got home last night, I had the last of the watermelon for my dinner that we brought back from our southern trip.  Gosh, it was good and I savored every last bite!  Rob is still trying to figure out how to get more of it out here to Wyoming, the goof. It tasted better than anything we ever get around here, that’s for sure. I wish our growing season was longer so we could grow our own here! Maybe I’ll finally be able to convince Rob to build me a cold case or greenhouse out in the garden so I can make it happen! I think I told you that we've only had one year where we actually were able to grow watermelons, so we gave up many years ago.

Today is going to be a nice, easy day…all I’ve really got planned is stuff pertaining to Peg’s benefit and running out to Sherry’s.  I can’t wait to see Sherry’s flower gardens again.  That girl has such a green thumb and her flowers are always so beautiful!  She’s the one who got Rob and I hooked on growing dinner plate dahlias.  She lives outside town and the winds and weather can be brutal out there but she manages to keep everything looking so great and despite the hail and wind out there, she just keeps plucking along with all her beautiful things. It’s amazing to me how different the climate is just a few miles from town. She has a wonderful dog I can’t wait to see, too. Kola is a great chocolate lab, full of energy, just the sweetest dog you ever want to meet! So far this morning, it looks like the wind is pretty calm, so we should have a nice afternoon out there.  She has the most beautiful views from her property, you can see the whole plains from the front of her house and the mountains from the back. You’d never know you were just a few miles outside town, it’s almost like being transferred back in time to the early 1900’s, back when nothing was around. I always feel so at peace when I’m out at her house.

I hope you find some peace for yourself as well, today. Don’t take yourself too seriously, life is going to happen to us whether we like it or not, our job is to pick the flowers out of the dung and realize the sweetness, right? If we didn’t have trials and tribulations, we wouldn’t know to appreciate the good things.  Every time I get a little down, I have to step back and realize just how wonderful it is just to be here on this earth and have the opportunity to savor the little things that make life so wonderful….a warm hug from a friend, the look of love from my dog, the birds singing, the smell of wet grass…..Have a beautiful day, my friends!