No Painting for Me

The thought of going to school to paint today did cross my mind. It was a fleeting thought as the muscles in my shoulders and my arms were begging me to take a day off. So, I opted not to go to school and instead took Bandit to the dog park. My boyfriend went with me, which I was really happy about. Bandit did really well and seemed to like it a lot. It's an off-leash dog park which I was a little worried about, but he was great. When we first got there, we were met by two dogs off-leash (we were still on the leash). The first one was a big Akiak looking dog and the other one was a Papillon. The Akiak was the first one to come up to us and Bandit did really well. I think once the Papillon came up he was a little overwhelmed and freaked out a bit. He growled and did a snap (at no one in particular). I pulled him away and everyone was fine.

This dog park has a big open area to run around with your dogs in. It has water for the dogs and bags to pick up their... you know. Then there are also trails all around to walk through. We played in the open area and tried to get Bandit to chase some tennis balls we brought, but he had nothing to do with them. This first picture shows Bandit running free without his leash. He was loving being able to run around without being tethered to one of us. It took him a little while to get used to the fact that he could run around and not stick close by.

This second picture shows him and my boyfriend. I think my boyfriend had the tennis ball in his hand and was trying to get Bandit to play with him, but Bandit wasn't very interested in it. There was one point when a man came back from his walk with a huge Airedale. Now this was one dog that could eat my dog in one bite. Bandit paid attention as they walked to their car, but didn't make any move to attack the dog or run after him. I was really nervous and wanted to put him back on his leash, but my boyfriend convinced me to just let him go and that if he ran after the Airedale, the Airedale could easily protect himself and didn't need us to have him on a leash. I was so proud that Bandit didn't do anything.

This next picture shows me running with Bandit. Sometimes it takes someone starting to run to get Bandit running. He isn't a dog that just runs on a whim. To get him to really run around, I would start running and tell him to come here and he would start running. He is super fast and it was hard for me to keep up.

This picture is of me trying to run and get Bandit to follow me. I started running and yelling at him to follow, but he just stood there and stared at me. My boyfriend thought it was funny and decided to take a picture. I guess it's a good thing there wasn't a tree or anything in the way because I would have plowed into it.

After running around the open area for a while, we decided to pick a path and see where it lead us. Bandit chose this path and we decided to take it. He would stop about every 5 steps to smell and pee. He did really well about keeping pretty close to us. He would get a few steps ahead or a few steps behind, but no running off like a wild-man or anything like that.

I just loved this picture. We were behind him and I just thought his little puppy butt was so cute walking down the path, so I had to snap a picture :)

My boyfriend and Bandit got a little further ahead of me and I loved the way they looked walking together. I went to snap this picture and Bandit stopped to look back, as if to say "Catch up, mommy."

If anyone has met my dog, they know that he is prissy. He hates walking through tall grass and especially hates wet grass. He was high stepping for quite a while at the beginning and I was pretty surprised when he veered off our path into some super high grass off to the side. I was going to get a picture of him in the grass, but he had been in there too long and needed to get out as soon as possible, so I got him in a mid-leap.

The little guy was getting tired by this point (notice the long pink tongue) and had fallen behind a little bit. This is actually a picture of me turned around and him running to catch up with us. He had nothing to worry about... I wouldn't leave him. :)

And now, for my favorite pictures! We found this field with huge round haybails and for whatever reason I said I would like a picture of us on top of them. I was getting ready to climb up and before my foot got started climbing, my boyfriend told me to watch out for hay snakes. I froze immediately and said "Really? There are hay snakes around here?" He burst out laughing and informed me that he had made it up on the spot... So, I am a little gullible. Anyways, I got to the top and my boyfriend lifted Bandit up and all Bandit was interested in was rolling in the hay. I finally got him to sit still enough for two pictures. Then he jumped down on his own with no help... I on the other hand needed my boyfriend to help and when he came over, I started to fall and wrapped myself around his head. He had to pry me off his head and help me down like a normal person. Anyways.... he are the pictures. Enjoy!

Overall, the day was much better spent at the dog park then getting high off the fumes of paint in my classroom. I hope to get some things done soon enough and have my painting done for good eventually. :)