Retrieve, Retrieve, and Retrieve Some More (lots of pictures)

Ebon always gets this expectant face when I have a ball in my hand. Here his eyes look downright yellow! The darkness you see in the water is most algae with just a touch of silt.

As I may or may not have mentioned before on this blog, my retriever retrieves all of the time. However, he hasn't actually been water retrieving since he was a puppy. Today, that changed! I took him back to the ditch and pond out by my campus and we had a little off leash fun. The best part: I brought a tennis ball, so we spent quite some time running up and down the ditch, with me throwing the ball and having Ebon bring it back. The way it would rebound of the sides of the ditch made it much more of a challenge. Then, we went down to the pond and I sent him out to go retrieve the ball from the water. I only took the first two pictures you'll see here, with the rest having been taken by my significant other, who stayed on the rim of the ditch while I ran around with the dog. I wanted to make sure I didn't ruin my camera from all of the drool and water!

More expectant face.

There it is!

See the ball? He actually walked right past it this time. It was one of the few times I found it first. I have my favorite leash slung over my shoulder here, which is where it stayed during most of the trip.

Bringing it back. I'm still amazed at how easily he climbs the banks.

Now, on to the pond! After the first thirty minutes or so we moved on to the pond, at which point I removed his vest so it wouldn't get soaked.

More expectant face. This was taken after he had already been in the water.

Even more expectant face. It's funny how a wet face makes him look younger.

Just a short distance to begin, close enough his feet still hit bottom.

Further out to make him really swim for it.

Happy dog, bringing back his tennis ball prize.

By the end, we were both completely soaked. It seemed Ebon deposited as much water on me as was on him after he shook off. One convenient command I taught him some time ago which came in handy here is actually "Shake Off." That's right, my dog dries himself on command.

The ball I used is actually one of the Kong Squeakair balls, which no longer squeaks. Those balls are Ebon's most favorite toy ever, combining his two loves: tennis balls and squeaky toys. Unfortunately, his teeth are so big that, with time, he eventually grabs it just right and one of his canines punches the squeaker in. After that, it only produces a feeble hisss...pop! sound when he bites at it and rattles if you shake it (thanks to the squeaker mechanism inside). At that point, I just treat the thing as a regular old tennis ball. One advantage, though: it's easier to get water out of it when it gets water logged.

Fun in the Sun

Who's a happy dog?

I took Ebon out to play this morning and I though I would do a sort of diary entry about it.

For those who haven't read the first post on this blog,  Ebon is a Labrador Retriever from field stock, also sometimes called an "American" lab (I don't like that terminology because dogs from America come in both the "English" show type and the "American" field type). He is nearly 27 inches at the withers and weighs about 85 pounds.

Ebon will do anything for a tennis ball. It's absolutely his favorite toy by far, and we have a ball chucker to help fling them further. He loves it, and if you have a dog that is a lover of tennis balls like Ebon, I highly recommend it. The special balls you can get for them are pretty nifty. Ebon seems to really like The Whistler, but a regular tennis ball does just fine.

We have a long expanse of yard next to the house, and that is the perfect place to play fetch with him. It's just long enough for me to miss the treeline with the chucker, and there's a handy shade tree that he can rest under. We used to have a kiddy pool for him, but it cracked over the winter and we haven't had a chance to replace it yet.

Throw it, throw it!

And he's off!

We don't have a fence, but Ebon's recall is great. The only times that he won't come when called are when he has to potty, to say hello if a person actually enters our yard, or he runs off to chase a small mammal (usually rabbits). He's never caught one, but it seems that he just can't stop himself. If someone walks or drives by, he doesn't really seem to care, especially if I have a ball in my hand!

Glug, glug, slurp, splash...

Unfortunately, it was exceptionally hot today, so we only played for about five or ten minutes before he was panting awfully hard and I took him inside to cool of. He went through his usual cooling down sequence: drink water, dribble it onto the floor, lay in own drool on cool tile floor, pant for a minute. Repeat until cool. I'll be taking him out again later when it's not so hot.

By the way, if you're curious, Ebon's collar is a nylon no-slip collar modeled after the martingale collars used on sighthounds.  It's, frankly, the best collar I've ever used on a dog and is necessary because he has a small head for a Labrador, a common sight in field lines. It is not a choker collar and in fact when fully closed has the recommended two-finger gap, but when loose it fits him more comfortably than any other collar I have tried on him (which were either too snug or would basically fall off him).