The weekend has almost arrived…

We’ve been playing a lot of mind games lately…the good doggie training kind, not those that most people find annoying in relationships. Yesterday, hubbers put her in the down-stay with the leash twice (I think it’s game #4?). Once after he came home and we were just talking on the couch and watching a little TV, letting her food digest; and once after the evening walk before we started to get dinner ready. She put up quite a fight the first time and I think I may have had her leash a little too short…second time she passed out quickly which was likely a result of the nice long walk we took. She even laid there after we’d taken the leash off and started our dinner (which she thankfully still does not even think about begging for – wondering if she’s figured out how good human food can be since she’s never really had any except cheese and ice).

I also used the game again this morning after hubbers had gone to work and I was trying to get her to settle down after breakfast. She didn’t put up any fight at all, just laid down, chilled out and was a perfect little puppers. I can only hope that this is a sign of things to come…

She has been a bit more active than usual today…perhaps it was the two swims she took yesterday in the tiny pond in our yard…you know the pre-formed kind you would usually have goldfish in? She has discovered that the fencing we have leading to the other half of the yard is only attached on one side and she can pull the fencing down and have access to the rest fo the yard and the pond. So she showed up at the backdoor all of the sudden and was soaking wet. It’s really amazing how much water that fur can hold. Towels only get so much water off and it took about 2 hours for her to finish drying out. I’ve read online that you can actually use chamois like you use on a car for Newfs and it will save you washing half a dozen towels every time she goes swimming or gets a bath…something we will definitely be checking in to.

This weekend will be Ayla’s first camping experience and we’re looking forward to taking advantage of some of this nice weather. We’re just going to get in the Defender and start driving. Who knows where we’ll end up but that should be part of the fun. We have a database of all the campsites around so we’ll see how it goes. This will be her first interaction with the tent so hopefully she doesn’t do something crazy like try to eat it. And since the weather is pretty warm lately at least we’ll have a better indication of how she’s going to deal with the heat in Spain when we travel.

Tonight is the first game of the World Cup and the energy in Germany is just crazy. Hubber’s office is going to watch the game together and most of them are planning to leave work at 4pm since the game starts at 6 and they don’t want to miss anything and of course need to start drinking before the game begins…should be an interesting month in Germany to say the least. But somehow the excitement is finally becoming infectious despite us not being soccer fans at all…so we’ll see how Germany does and hopefully they won’t manage to eliminate themselves right from the get-go.