Coyote Land

(San Clemente, CA) Up early again as we had quite the drive to Boogie’s little rally class. I wanted to enter him in a class for a couple reasons. I thought it would be a good opportunity for us to practice on actual courses – and it is. The main benefit I thought would be that he can learn to work with the distraction of other dogs and people around. As it turns out, he pays absolutely no attention to the dogs or people. Now the gophers that pop up right in front of the signs are a whole other story! He pays attention to those big time! I can not get his nose off the ground at all unless I have a treat in my hand. Problem is, treats aren’t allowed in competition so I’m trying to practice without treats. We’ve got big trouble!

As soon as class was over we had to rush right back to the RV as we had to get out of the campground by check-out time. What an interesting campground this has been. Great trails to walk the dogs…but we’re just not used to camping with people that live out of their cars or live in tents. I swear that each one of them had more stuff than we carry in our RV. I can’t imagine where they put it all when they have to move. We learned that most of the people live there for 21 days (the limit every 28 days) then go live on the streets for 7 days until they are allowed to come back. Nice people most of them…but what a tough lifestyle.

When we checked into our new campground, San Mateo State Park, they warned us that there were a lot of coyotes around and that they had been spotted in daylight hours roaming the campground. We’re always on guard but here we’ll have to take extra precautions.

This is much more like most parks we stay in – larger, newer model RV’s – no vans or tents. There is a really nice little grassy area behind the RV where we could set up a few little pieces of agility equipment. But I kept Boogie on a long line as I didn’t want to take any chances of him running off after one of the many bunnies or squirrels only to then get eaten by a coyote. I was still a little worried so I waited for Mike to come home so that he could stand guard while we practiced.

Boogie doesn’t know all that much agility yet but he sure likes running around barking just like Sparkie so I’m hoping I have a little star here in the making.

Debbie
2/11/08