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The Bunch Enjoy The Nice Weather And Go Camping

 

The park was mostly empty, but even if it wasn't the sites are huge and it still would have been enjoyable.

What a difference a week makes! As quickly as the crazy cold, rainy weather came in, it left again, leaving behind beautiful, temperate, sunny days. We took the opportunity of a few nice days and the fact D FINALLY had a no training weekend and set out to do some camping. This was actually a "working" trip for all of us. The main point of this trip was not for us to enjoy hiking and relaxing, but so we could introduce Axl to the camper and camping way of life. We fully expected a melt down and for us to get no sleep. I even packed ALL of his anxiety meds. We have been practicing with both dogs riding next to each other on their pads in the back of the suv for awhile now. We only were going about 2 hours away so we knew that the car ride would be fine. The big question mark was Axl's behavior while camping. He loathes going to the bathroom on a leash so I definitely expected pushback on that and we expected him to hate the small cramped space. The first thing he did once we got there and put him in the camper was run out the front door. He is now just over 100 lbs and freaking huge. He has mastered the art of using size to his advantage. He basically just pushed his way out when I was exiting. Luckily, I didn't fall down and was able to grab his tail to keep from running off. It appeared our trip was doomed from the start, which we kind of expected. Our only goal was to introduce him to the camper and NOT leave him alone in it yet. Do you have any idea what a 100+ lbs crazy large dog can do when they have an anxiety attack? We do and I don't want that to happen to my camper! After the tail catching episode, Axl settled in and did GREAT! I mean better than great. Words cannot describe how well this went. In fact, I never even considered giving him medicine. He easily went potty on the leash,even if it was dark. He slept without panting and pacing. It was fantastic. I think he actually preferred the small space at night. I think he felt he could keep an eye on us easier. We walked him about 4-5 miles a day, splitting up the walks in the morning and evening. The rest of the time we hung out at the campsite, both inside and outside the camper. We got some of our best sleep in a long time there.  Maisy, of course, is way too old to walk that far, but she did really good too. We walked her about a mile at a time twice a day and she, for the most part, could keep up. She normally can only do 1/3-1/2 a mile daily so that was super far for her. Maisy really liked the company while camping.  She normally seems kind of depressed when we travel, but she was a lot more interactive since Axl was there. Axl took over the bottom bunk as his "room",which worked well since it kept him out of the way. Next camping trip we are working on leaving him alone in the camper. We'll start with a few minutes and work our way up to a few hours. This is all in preparation for our travels later this summer and fall. 

Maisy can't quite keep Axl's pace, but she enjoyed her walks too.

The playground hits differently when your older.

Things aren't EXACTLY like you remember them.

But your still a kid and you find other ways to have fun and play.

He literally asked if he could play for a bit and had a blast.

He played for about 20 minutes before he was ready to walk back to the camper.

He would have played longer, but SOMEONE kept asking if he was done yet. It's a grown up's version of "are we there yet".

His walks wore him out!

While we were gone, poor A was home without wifi. We had a technician come out when we came home and learned something very interesting. Our outside wires on the roof had failed and had apparently been failing for some time. The satellite isn't suppose to stop working when it rains! It had been going on so long we thought that was just how it worked. It was a country quirk, but nope probably since year one the wires had been failing and after 9 years had completely failed. I am so glad the house didn't burn down! He ran new wires. It hasn't rained yet since he installed them so we'll see if he's right next time it rains. I am not sure believe him because its always gone out.

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