Other times, he will sit with his trusty tennis ball and stare at you — intently — until you throw it.  If you wait too long, he’ll bark and snap his teeth to get your attention (not good for the ol’ doggy dentist bill down the road for sure).

The Staredown

Check out the look on his face – it says it all. Although he is a little too close to the iPad..no?

And then is has to be “his” ball. Seriously, there could be a thousand balls in the yard, but he has to have his ball – the ball with his most recent slobber on it, and no other one will do. Makes the dog park tricky sometimes.

Then it’s his disdain of flowers:

It’s not all flowers – just the Dusty Miller varietal. Not sure why those particular flowers piss him off so much, but they do.  I have looked into growing some – just for the fun of watching him attack an entire field.

There’s also the upside down thing. He loves to lay on his back, all fours in the air, watch the world go by and wag his tail.

Upside down view

Indoors/ outdoors – who cares? And don’t get me started on the chipmunk obsession…. we’ve only touched the surface on that.

Chipmunk hunting

Hope he didn’t get his neurotic ways from my side of the family. That’s all I’m saying about that.

It starts in the morning….. when he reluctantly gets out of bed.

Waking up

Then we commute to work with Mom….

Commuting to work

Then we hang at work with the cool people there – who love him and play many games of fetch.

Office Fetch in progress

Then possibly a nap is in order…. it’s a long day in the office. Not on the dog bed, mind you – but on the sofa. Where’s the person who should be feeding him bacon strips and fanning him about now?

Napping in the office

Awake after a nice nap. Time to hang out in someone’s office, shred a paper plate (new little trick the office manager taught him), wait for any unsuspecting visitors to sniff – like the Fedex person or the fun DHL guy who’s afraid of him (yes, actually afraid).

Hanging out

By that time, the day is done and we migrate our way back to our temporary city home – where we get to play fetch for a while….

Yet more fetch

Or meet new friends (he’s not so interested in the friends though – just the tennis ball. Twelve step program required.

Kooper and new friend Jade

After the day’s adventure, he’s back at the townhouse – ready to sack out… and call it a day.

Passed out after a long day

Add in a couple of food sessions, walk sessions, squirrel stalking and potty breaks and you’ve got yourself a full, productive day in the life. Then we get up and do it again….amen.

It’s tough being my dog.

While I know Koop** is fine with his Uncle Joe, I still miss him quite a bit, and the weekend hasn’t even started. Here I thought the dog was going to be the one with separation issues.

Kooper and his Uncle Joe

** Note to self to sanitize dog upon return.

Here’s how it goes. Your human (e.g. me) stands at the bottom of the stairs while the dog (Kooper) lays at the top of the stairs. The ball gets thrown from the bottom of the stairs, into his awaiting mouth at the top of the stairs.

He chews on it – slobbers it all up, wags his tail a bunch, then ‘throws’ the ball back down the stairs for me (the human) to chase, catch and throw back to him at the top of the stairs to start the entire process all over again. This, in his world, could go on for hours, by the way.

And who says dogs are dumb?

Here’s stair fetch in action, my friends……. the video is a bit dark (working on figuring out the camera editing software) – but you can still get the idea of what’s going on here.

Trail Sign

Today we had the day to ourselves – well, just me and the dog. This is a rarity, so not to dilly-dally the day away, we got up, got packing and headed out for a hike in Forest Park.

After stumbling upon a handy review of trails in the area from Portland Monthly Magazine, we decided to take a trek up Wildwood trail – just to try out something new, not to mention get out of the house on a perfect hiking type of morning.

Starting off from the Vietnam War Memorial, we set off on the trail that boasted a good 40 miles in length. We weren’t being overly ambitious on the 4o miles – I was thinking somewhere in the ballpark of five miles or so would do the trick.

Kooper Hiking in the Park

The trail hit other trails in the park and we ended up doing a ‘tree’ route — from Cherry trail, to Maple trail, to Walnut trail and back over to Wildwood trail – it offered a nice shady and hilly hike through the park.

Lots of dogs with their people were also meandering through the miles of trails, so we were right at home on a cloudy, cool morning – perfect for hiking, by the way.

After about an hour of constant trudging, Koop had about enough – as seen in his over-dramatic tongue-out-of-the-mouth picture to the right.

He can be quite a sissy sometimes, not sure where he got that from, by the way. Surely wasn’t from my side of the family.

Hiking Along the Wildwood Trail

What’s great is that there are so many more trails up there to explore – and so many more months of nice weather to accomplish it. Hiking is just such a great way to get outside and clear the head a bit. So get out there. You’ll thank yourself mid-week as you’re sitting in your office, staring out the window, and wishing you were hiking instead. And your dog will thank you too.

So today when I was cruising around the Old Mill District in Bend, I stumbled upon “Yappy Hour” at Allyson’s Kitchen….. the lure of wine and dog treats was enticing enough to make us stop in our tracks.

Yappy Hour Goodies

With treats for human and canine alike, it was a nice break in the day. Who can resist the temptation of “yappy hour?” They offered white, rose and red wine for the humans, and a choice of cheese or peanut butter dog treats, compliments of Maggie’s Dog Munchies, for the furry companions.

What a deal.

Kooper enjoying Yappy Hour

I settled on a glass of rose – given that it was a bit warm out there and Kooper settled on a nice peanut butter treat. Being one of the pickiest dogs on the plant, he snubbed the cheese treat at first. If that were a french fry or something equally as bad for his health, he’d be all over it. This is not unlike some people I know, mind you.

Reluctantly, he took the peanut butter treat, only because another rather non-picky lab mix was about to gobble it if he didn’t. No disrespect to Maggie; Kooper is just fussy when it comes to food. Normally Labradors will hoover-up anything and everything that has the misfortune to cross into their orbit. Other dogs were practically doing backflips to get a treat. Not Kooper. I once made him homemade dog treats and even got cookie cutters in the shape of a Labrador and a moose – he wouldn’t touch them.  I thought it was the fact that one shape was of his own kind, but the moose? Come on.

Wine & Dog Treats - Yum

We’ll most definitely be back for more Yappy Hours and doggie socialization at Allyson’s. The addition of wine for the humans makes it much more appealing than time at the dog park. From what we were told – every Wednesday from 4:30 – 6:30 and 12 – 3 on Sunday afternoons were the time slots for this fun, canine-friendly event.

If there are two things that always pair well together — it’s wine & dogs. Plus, shopping after a couple of cocktails is always more fun. REI is right across the street – bonus.

I figured wrong.

Vendors at Summerfest

About 20 minutes into meandering through the street vendors, we were told by a not-so friendly officer that we (well, Koop) was not welcome (and uh, we must not have seen the posted signs). Well, there were quite a few people who also didn’t see the posted signs – as we saw a few more furry friends that would surely get the boot if they ran into Officer Happy Pants.

With temperatures reaching close to 90 degrees, and the dog at a steady pant that sounded more like a freight train than a Chocolate Lab, it didn’t quite bother me so much that we were asked to vamoose, although my dog was much more well behaved than some people’s children out there. Just sayin’. I was just bummed that we hadn’t made our migration to the beer tent before we got sidetracked.

Enjoying the Shade

To ensure he didn’t get his puppy feelings hurt, he did receive a couple of french fries while lounging in the well needed shade of the umbrellas while a friend and I enjoyed a late lunch at the Village Grille in Sunriver. No sulking going on there.

Better planning on my part is required for future endeavors, but not to fear. Next week we’ll be attending another festival where, for sure, the dog will be welcomed with open paws. Hooray for the dog-friendly beer fests!  Bend Summerfest could get a tip or two on sharing the dog love.

So on one of the first sunny days of the year here in the Pacific Northwest, we decided to take a hike up in Tryon State Natural Area. Not a far drive from downtown Portland, I would have though this park would have been uber-crowded on the first day filled with sunshine, but we were pleasantly surprised to find it not too packed. Everybody must have been at the Rose Festival – an event we were trying to avoid that day.

Trail sign

Setting off from the parking area and armed with a map (we had heard it was easy to get lost in the park), a couple of cameras and our sunglasses to combat the glaring sunshine we heard was coming our direction – off we went.

What a great day to explore this new area. As you can see – many different trail options to choose from. We decided on the Old Main trail and took that to connect to different trails in the park.

Bridge over not-so troubled water

We meandered around for a good couple of hours, broke a good sweat, passed a handful of hikers with their trusty hiking companions (dogs), crossed over numerous bridges (one a suspension bridge that the dog was none too happy about), and were completely wiped out by mid-morning – but it was quite a nice park to walk about and take in the fresh air — and sunshine.

Amazing to think that we were still so close to all the happenings in Lake Oswego (or Lake O as the locals call it), only a stone’s throw away.

Happy Hikers

This is a ‘must-do’ hiking park if you’re in the Portland area & need a little outdoor recreation. It was like being in another world — a nice, forest country world at that. Dogs are more than welcome, they just need to be leashed. Koop had a great hike as did his people. We look happy, he’s still checking out other dogs cruising the park. Try not to get blinded by the whites of my leg’s.

When you’re finished with your hike in the woods,  you can hit the city again. There’s a lot to get into here.