Tennessee Valley

Trailhead to Oakwood Valley



Boon with his stick or log?


Remo with his stick


It's an amazing area where we live. We have so many options of trails to hike right out our back door. A 10 minute leash walk to the trails and the dogs are free to romp. The nice thing about Tennessee Valley it's always cooler outside with the fog hovering on the coast...perfect conditions for a dog.

Our friend Boon came over to join us on our hike. Boon the BIG dog loves to be the leader of the pack. Turbie and Remo love him and always give him lotsa licks and kisses when they see him.

Rattlesnake Aversion Training

Turbie checking out the baby snake

The trainer trying to get Remo to notice the snake

Snake handler

This is something I've been wanting to do, ever since we had a run in with a rattlesnake a couple years ago on a backpacking trip. We were unprepared and although we got the dogs away from the snake safely, it became a big concern on the rest of our trip.

We drove up to Dunnigan to a hunting reserve for the training. It was very interesting and the training only took about 10 minutes for each dog. They are trained with sight, sound, and smell. First they put an electronic correction collar on the dog and they used a 15 ft leash. The first test is the baby rattlesnake. As the dog sees the snake and starts to sniff it, they give the dog a shock with the correction collar. The collar is set for low intensity and the trainer will change the volume, based on your dogs response/awareness. After this process, they bring the dog back to the baby snake and the dog does not want to go near it. That's the response they want to see. The next part is bringing the dog over to a dead snake skin...same response the dog does not want to go near it. The last test is with the adult snake (they can hear the rattler). The trainer tries to coax the dog toward the snake to check it out, but the dog doesn't want anything to do with it...again this is the correct response. Lastly, they asked me to call the dog while the snake is about 10 ft in front of me. The dog will come to me, but only as they go about 20 ft around the snake.

Remo went first and he had a pathetic look while the trainer was working with him. He was practically standing on the baby snake, because he just stood there and looked at me (help). As the trainer finally got him to acknowledge the snake, he went up to sniff it, the snake was ready to strike...perfect timing, because the trainer gave Remo a shock and he jumped back 5 ft. There was no way the trainer could get Remo to go up to the snake again. Job well done! The training went really well for both dogs.

I highly recommend this training if you live or travel in areas with rattlesnakes.

For more information go to: www.socalrattlesnakeavoidancetraining.com

4th of July in Telluride

Parade in Telluride

View from our campsite

Trail from our campsite

Turbie cuddling up with Summer


We loaded up the rv and dogs, and we headed to Telluride for a couple weeks. It's such a beautiful place, with great trails for mountain biking or hiking. On 4th of July they have a big parade that goes down the main street. The red waggers were invited to walk in the parade with the Burmese mountain dogs and their friends. Fantastic trip!

Lillybell - by Stuart Patton

A friend of mine wrote a wonderful children's book about a dog called Lillybell. If you have children and love dogs, this is a MUST READ. Your children will love this book. You can purchase a copy on amazon. com

Go to http://www.amazon.com/Lillybell-Stuart-Patton/dp/0972709223/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1308800628&sr=1-1

Remo and the Great Dane

Remo found a new friend that was probably twice his size. I noticed how Remo tried to puff himself up, as they were checking each other out.

Tour of California - Solvang

Chris Horner leading the tour


Brian and I riding down Old Stage road


Turbie catching balls in the water


Remo taking in some sunshine


View from our campsite

We loaded up the dogs and headed to Solvang to watch the TT stage of the Tour of California. Cute town and perfect weather for a bike race. We parked the rv about 2 blocks from downtown and meandered around with the dogs, watching the bike race. The dogs got as much attention as the bike racers. We ran into a friend from Mill Valley and he gave us a good tip on a campground. We went to Paradise road (about 10 miles from Solvang) and we had our choice of 3 campgrounds in the Santa Ynez mountains. It was a great tip. We had a great view of the mountains and a hiking trial that took us right to the river bed. The dogs were in heaven playing in the water.

We also did some fun road rides from our campground. One ride took us to Old Stage road and eventually brought us to Cold Springs Tavern. This place seemed to be popular with the locals...music, beer, and food.

There's definitely more to explore in this area, but we'll have to save that for another trip.

Coloma

Turbie & Remo chased a squirrel up the tree



I found out about the Coloma RV resort through another Vizsla blogger. Last weekend, we decided to go there for a few days. We had a great time, our site was right on the American River and you could watch the rafters go by. The campground was a little relaxed with their dog leash policy. We found a couple places on the premise to let them run around and play ball. We also found a couple swim holes with gentle water for them to cool down. We took a couple walks to the historic part of town and there were wide open fields for the dogs to run. Also, a nice park close by.

In the afternoon Brian and I did a couple bike rides and the road riding was awesome.

We were warned by a couple people about rattle snakes...luckily we didn't see any!