Levi's First Camping Trip

This weekend I took Levi on his first camping trip up to Truckee, Ca near North Lake Tahoe.  We started off with a hike up Castle's Peak on Saturday.  It was about 6 miles round trip with about 2,000 feet elevation gain.   It was a perfect day for hiking; sunny, clear skies, mid-70's with a breeze.  The beginning of the hike wasn't too strenuous but the last mile up the peak was a good climb and we had to stop for plenty of rest/water breaks.  It was pretty rocky so I'm definitely glad that I made Levi wear booties.  I got him the same type of booties he had before (ruff wear grip trex) but I got him a smaller size for his back feet and I bought him the ruff wear liners (socks) for the front booties which were supposed to help with dogs with dew claws.  They worked perfectly and we didn't have any dew claw issues or rotating booties like the last time!  We'll definitely be using them again for future hikes.

Our destination!

Levi was kind of a dirty boy on this trip and decided to take a little mud bath.

That was followed very shortly by a roll in the dirt.

My cute, dirty boy

At the top of the peak! Just over 9,000ft high.

After the hike we drove to our campsite nearby where we met up with the rest of our group.  Our campsite was right up against a river so Levi got to play in the water and go swimming on Sunday and Monday.  I don't know how he had the energy for it after our hike but as soon as he saw the water it was like he was refreshed.

Our campsite

He was an excellent camping buddy and I hope we can go on another trip soon.  Next up he'll be back at my parents' house for 5 weeks while I'm gone for my last set of externships. 

Happenings Lately

A few weeks ago Levi and I went for a walk along the Putah Creek trail in Davis with ChaCha and Alicia.  It was a nice day so Levi got to go for a little dip in the creek as well.  It was fun to get off of our usual walking paths and onto something more trail-like.  I love living in Davis but sometimes I miss the hills and hiking I had back home. 

Posing by the blackberry plants

Taking a rest break in the shade

Poor Levi had sore paws that evening, which were even more painful the next morning.  I got him a prescription of pain meds and iced and bandaged up his little feet which made him a lot more comfortable.
 

Levi icing his sore pads

I've realized that when he swims and then goes hiking right afterwards is when his paws seem to become raw and sore.  He's such a delicate little flower.  From now on he'll have to wear booties when we go hiking because I hate seeing him limp around the house :-(.

Now he's being babysat by my parents while I'm off on another externship at an equine clinic for a couple of weeks.  He loves visiting my parents house and getting to swim in the pool all the time.

His new favorite activity now that there's grass in the front yard is to swim and then take his toy onto the grass for a good roll. 

He makes me smile every day :-)

Levi's Weave Pole Progress

Levi and I have been training agility weave poles using Susan Garrett's 2x2 method and I'm super proud of how he's doing so far.  We're kind of slow to progress since I'm so busy and have been gone quite a bit, but even after 2 weeks off while I was out of town Levi still remembers what to do.  Below is a little video I took on my phone of our weave pole practice the day we got back to Davis.

He is up to weaving 6 poles but I started them slightly opened to make it easier since we hadn't practiced in 2 weeks.  He did awesome so I closed them to 6-straight in a line and he only had a couple mistakes.  Yay Levi!

Levi's Colorado Souvenir

Levi spent the last 2 weeks at his grandparent's house getting spoiled with love and toys while I was in Colorado visiting an equine veterinary hospital.  I was so busy during my time at the clinic that I didn't have time to venture out to find him a souvenir, but lucky for me there was a pet store in the Denver airport!

I bought him a ball/rope toy and some frosted treats (his favorite!).

He somehow managed to pull the rope off the ball in about 10 minutes but I think he loves it even more now.