Leaving Michigan

The morning is cloudy with a mist of rain.  Not bad with what everyone on the east coast is experiencing with Hurricane Sandy.  We’ve been in northern Michigan for a little over 3 weeks and we are heading home, once again with all the bags on the roof of the car.

We were able to complete most of the projects we planned – new appliances for the kitchen, a new garage door, new kitchen counter and sink ordered to be installed when we are there after Christmas, and Alan installed a new range hood.  Alan also put up a mailbox with a snow guard.  In northern Michigan, most folks have a snow guard for their mailbox due to the amount of snow that gets thrown when streets are cleared.  The snow is heavy and will eventually knock over the mailbox unless it has some protection. 

Alan also built an agility teeter for Magnum.  The first facility Magnum and I visited for agility practice had a really old very heavy metal teeter.  All the dogs were afraid of it.  Magnum has never had teeter problems, but developed problems after going on that teeter.  After visiting the other agility facility, which had an okay teeter, he was still having problems, so Alan built one for us to practice on.  It is nicer than the teeter we have at home in Ohio.  It only took a day of practicing several different times for Magnum to be okay with the teeter again.  It was a joint project, I did the painting and we got it completed in 2 days. 

While in Michigan, the trees lost all their leaves.  Walking in the woods meant sometimes there was almost a foot of leaves to walk through.  The dogs loved the smell of the leaves.  We were cautioned that there had been a bear sighting in Michaywe.  I read in the newspaper that a bear had been hit and killed by a car.  We never saw a bear, but I thought they would probably stay away from good-sized dogs.  We also make quite a bit of noise in the woods, which would have alerted any bear to our presence.

Magnum had his first experience of tracking on concrete.  Concrete is probably the most difficult surface for a tracking dog because it doesn’t hold scent well.   I followed the advice of AKC Judge Steve Ripley and had Alan lay a 200-yard track along a curb (behind Lowes in Gaylord).  Curbs will hold a scent so it is stronger than scent on flat concrete. The idea is to convince the dog that a track can be on concrete, even if it is fainter than on grass.  It was fascinating to watch Magnum and it was just as Steve described in his book.  It took Magnum awhile to figure out that the track was on the concrete and not in the grass.  Magnum kept hopping up on the grass and looked all over for the track, then would return to the curb.  Over all, it was a good first attempt.