Camping is for the dogs

Marshall and his foster family just got back from camping. What another camper called "city camping", in a cabin with A/C and TV! The campground is designed for people to camp with their dogs, so Marshall had some work to do on his social skills. But I wouldn't risk taking him to the dog park unless we were the only ones there. He still has some growing up to do.

We walked about a million miles around the roads and through the woods, worked our skills in the Rally-O (a type of obedience) yard, ran in the agility playground (Marshall didn't have a clue what all those obstacles were). One day Marshall watched his retriever "brother" catching sticks in the pond. Marshall likes to retrieve so the pull of wanting the stick got him in the water...but only just a little bit, I think he thought the ground went out from under him. He lifted his legs high, trying to "walk on water." I would have worked with him more, but some other campers came, and I didn't want to test Marshall's "social" skills with strange dogs, so we packed up and left. And, it was difficult to stop laughing!

When it was his time to be left alone in the cabin (crated) he didn't carry on nearly as poorly as his "brother." And I didn't hear either one of them howl when I stepped up to the karaoke mic!

While we pretty much stuck to our daily schedule time-wise, it was a nice break to test Marshall in a new environment, and wear his little heart out! And, although I wish he would have been the perfect angel and not have been so verbal with passersby with their dogs (we had to work really hard on his attention skills-he sat still for this picture!), he wasn't offended by the golf-carts driving past him, and he was quiet at night and in the morning.

Even if he wasn't the star of the campground as I wanted him to be--I think he earned a camping badge!