It's a Labrador thing.

The “wannabee” chocolate hound spent the day with us today. I’m not sure who enjoyed it more .... Sam ..... my hound ..... or the lemmings!

My hound didn’t have a ramble yesterday as I had a market. It was the early morning Parnell Market so I had to be there by 7.30 to set up. The bonus is that the market finishes at midday. I really like the Parnell market as it runs alongside the Farmers Market. I get to have a delicious breakfast as well as coffee on tap .... isn’t it funny how my tummy dictates how enjoyable a market is! The Parnell Market has a lovely vibe though and I generally do pretty well there.

Today Gav and I did our usual long Sunday morning ramble .... in the rain .... stopping off for coffee and pastries at the top of Waimarie Street. The hounds know the drill now .... walk along our road, across St. Heliers Bay Road to Sylvia Road, up Sylvia Road to Maskell Street and then along Maskell to the shops at the top of Waimarie Street. They like stopping for coffee there because they know they’ll get a tit-bit before we hit the road again to Glover Park. 

Glover Park is fun, fun, fun cause it’s all water-logged and muddy! They each have a rugby ball .....  my hound always pinches Sam’s Chiefs rugby ball but Sam doesn’t mind, he quite likes my hound’s beaten-up and battered ball. Mud sprays up EVERYWHERE as they both race down the hill to catch the balls.

My hound always finds the puddles when we’re at Glover Park .... the BIG puddles! There’s one specific puddle that she just HAS to drop the ball in as we exit the park. Today she showed Sam what she does there. He’s a quick learner and obviously understood exactly why she does it .... it’s a Labrador thing.

The waves are calling though and the hound’s impatient ... my hound that is .... she’s tugging on the lead and urging us on and out of Glover Park. We still have to walk to the view site and down Cliff Road before we hit the beach. She just wants to race through the waves and roll in the sand and the longer we take on the ramble, the less time she’ll have to do that. I never thought that dogs had an understanding of time but she definitely does.

Our long ramble and wallow in the waves must have tired Sam out as I’ve just had a call from Carol to say he’s exhausted .... splayed out fast asleep on the floor. I can understand why. Not only did he have an extra-long ramble but he got to play with the lemmings ....and that’s GREAT fun. There aren’t any lemmings living at his own house any more and we had an extra TWO here today as Cayl’s and Dave were visiting.

Lemmings are great playmates .... they get down and dirty and play tug-of-war and chase!

I didn’t recognise Carol when her and Pete arrived to fetch Sam. I thought they were “wannabe” chocolate hounds in training .... they were SO muddy .... even more muddy than what Sam’s ever got!! 

They participated in the Xterra Off-road trail run at Whitford today and, when the weather’s been challenging like it has these past few weeks, Whitford is renowned for being the most difficult of the races in this series. They’ve both come back covered in mud, exhausted and Pete’s injured his shoulder ....... and they say they do it for FUN!! Hmmmmmmmm?