Zora and I have been working on the August 31 days of Geocaching Challenge. We’ve missed a lot of days, but we’ve found some really neat caches in new places. Yesterday we went to an old cemetery in Stonington to find a cache called “Dead Men Tell No Tales”.

We looked all along a stone wall for the cache, when I slipped on a loose rock and fell. I knew instantly that I had sprained my ankle again. Zora ran over and gave me kisses to make it all better.

We rallied and found the cache! We are a great team. This is Zora with the geocache.

Today I stayed home to rest and ice my injured ankle. Nurse Zora helped me immobilize my leg by sleeping on it.

We tried Search and Rescue Agility for the first time this year. This is agility on the type of structures the dog might have to negotiate if you were searching a collapsed building. She had to walk on boards and pipes, climb ladders and crawl through tunnels. We only worked on the low level obstacles. Zora really enjoyed these classes. I think she liked climbing the ladders the best.

It was so hot and humid during the week that Zora did agility at super slow turtle speed. She’s never been fast, but she’s never been this slow before either. She is such a ham and loves the camera, I got some great pictures of her up on the A-frame.




We really liked playing agility games and its hard to make mistakes at super turtle speed!

Unfortunately, Zora is scared of the teeter again. Early in the week, she stepped backwards while the teeter was going down and it popped back up on her. Now she’s really scared of it, so we’ll have to work on that.

Zora earned her Overnight Camping badge. We carried our packs 1/4 mile out to the campsite. Zora carried her own snack and blanket, in addition to her regular gear. TEN people went on the overnight camping trip! This was the biggest group ever, according to the camp director. Once at the campsite, we pitched our tents and collected firewood. Zora liked the tent and enjoyed hanging out in the tent with her buddy Dyno.

We made a small fire using the tinder bundles that we had made at camp. We also used the dryer lint fire-starters that I had made at home. Everyone had a campfire-cone cooked over the fire.

After we put out the fire, we went to bed. This is where I realized that I forgot the most important item for sleeping in a tent with Zora, the thundershirt. Everything started out ok, then Dyno, who had found himself a nice comfortable spot by our heads, farted. Liz relocated him to our feet. We settled down and tried to get comfortable. Even though it was hot and stuffy and really uncomfortable, we tried to get some sleep.

Then “WHO WHO”, we heard an owl.

Zora: gonnadiegonnadiegonnadie!

Zora freaked out, convinced that the owl that I’m sure was probably a mile away was coming to kill us all. She attacked the door to the tent and tried to escape, ran in circles round the inside of the tent, climbing all over Liz and I. Liz and I tried to calm her down, but poor little Zora was convinced that the owl was coming to kill us. She eventually just fell over, as if to say, I give up, let it come kill me.

Then “WHO WHO”, we heard an owl again.

Zora: gonnadiegonnadiegonnadie!

This repeated several times during the night. Zora alternated between sleeping on me and then on Liz. Poor Liz, bless her heart for putting up with us.


Everyone was so happy when the sun came up and we could pack up, make our token breakfast and go back to camp.

Zora and I spent last week at Dog Scout Camp in Saint Helen Michigan leaning new things and hanging out with our friends. We got to try lots of fun things that we would never got to try anywhere else. Like herding ducks!

Ducks According to Zora: “These ducks are really loud, let’s go do something else.”

I was really surprised that Zora had no interest in the ducks at Dog Scout Camp. She liked chasing the chickens. I think it was because the ducks were much louder than the chickens. At least we got to try. And I’m glad she didn’t roll in the duck poop!

I’m teaching Zora to cover her face with her paws. I started by putting a small piece of tape on her nose, then clicking when she rubbed it off. She quickly got the idea that rubbing her face got a click and a reward.

Now after only a couple of sessions she’s rubbing her face without the need for tape. And earning lots of rewards.

We do this with her sitting up on the recliner, so I can catch the movement I want without bending over so much. This is easier on my back. I tried to get a couple of photos today, they are a little blurry, but I think the basic idea comes across.

Zora is such a brilliant puggle! She’s acing the weaves with everything all straight now!

It was raining when we arrived at agility class on Monday this week. So Zora was already stressed out and unhappy, but she went in the crate in the barn and waited while we set up the course. We had to bring everything inside from the outside arena, so we only brought in the straight, connected weaves, not the 2×2’s. Zora and I hadn’t worked weave poles like that before, so I decided that we would just wing it and see what happens.

Well, she did them! The first run she did 6 poles before popping out. But the second run she did 10 out of the 12 poles correctly! She is so brilliant. We have continued to train at home.

Tonight, I connected our 2×2’s and she did all 6 weaves like the brilliant puggle that she is!

Its been a while since I’ve posted a puggle update. Zora has completed her Geocaching 1 & 2 badges. We planted 2 geocaches at Dog Scout Camp while we were attending the DSA Leadership Retreat. We had a lot of fun watching people try to find our caches.

Now that the weather is warm, I’ve been bringing her 2×2 weave poles outside to practice with. She’s getting really good at this and is making very few mistakes. She can do all 6 poles now and they are almost straight. She did all 6 at agility class last night!

Zora and I are raising money for Dog Scouts of America. This is our third year participating in the hike-a-thon. We have already hiked over 5 miles.
Please consider supporting us and this wonderful organization.
http://www.firstgiving.com/fundraiser/ZoraDSA/hike-a-thon-2013

Yesterday we drove all over Mystic looking for Geocaches and Letterboxes. We found 4 geocaches and 3 letterboxes. We went hiking at the Peace Sanctuary before we headed home for dinner.

Today we went to Mass to hike with some wonderful friends at Swift River. We did 3.3 miles! Zora had a wonderful time running off-leash with her friends. She got to play in the water and we all had lunch by the river. We went out for ice cream after our hike, where Zora got to play on the slide.