Homework Time

This weekend, the puppies had homework to do. They learned "this way" in class on Thursday, and we were supposed to practice it with distractions. Specifically, we were supposed to go to the beach and practice since there are plenty of distracting things on the beach- like birds and dead fish, not to mention the seaweed and seashells. The puppies didn't realize we were going to do anything other than just play in the yard today, and were not very motivated to do homework.

Miss S: "I don't know what homework is, but I think I am allergic to it."

Mr. C: "I'm too tired to do homework."

We were all a little tired in the first part of the day, so it was naps all around, but in the afternoon, the weather was just too nice to stay home. So off we went to work on their homework. The puppies surprise us sometimes with how observant they are, and today Mr. M surprised us. We don't usually wear our normal shoes in the house. We wear our house shoes, or the shoes that we use to take them outside. I put on some normal shoes to get the car ready to go, and Mr. M noticed them as soon as I walked out of the bedroom. He looked at my shoes, smelled them and started wagging his tail frantically. He knew right then that we were going somewhere. Once the harness bag came out, they all got excited.
When they realized that we were headed for the beach, they got super happy. Miss M started whining a little in the back once she saw the water at the seawall- she loves the beach and couldn't wait to get there.

Miss M and Miss S picked up where they left off the last time.

There were plenty of distractions to practice their homework. Mr. M found a dead fish and immediately picked it up. He was so proud of his treasure, and so disappointed when we made him drop it and move on. There were plenty of distracting people that we had to walk past, and even a dog that was off-leash and decided to come running up to our puppies. That dog's people were not too far away and had to come over to us to get the dog to leave our puppies alone. Dad fussed at them and told them that their dog was supposed to be on a leash.

Mom with all five of the puppies. Notice the tandem leashes for the big puppies. So much easier than holding on to 5 leashes.

Mom walking all of them. They are getting good at walking in a line.

Dad walking all five of the puppies- again in a line

Miss M checking in with Dad after getting redirected with a "This way." She loves picking up stuff on the beach.

Miss B and Mr. C walking together on the tandem leash.

Pelicans flying over the water

It was a very good day at the beach. The puppies had a great walk. There were plenty of distractions, but there were plenty of fun things to smell and see that were okay to smell and see. 
As an aside, before I had dogs, I used to hate it when I would go somewhere like the beach and then almost step in dog poop that someone had left behind. Now that I have dogs, I hate that even more. Seriously. You may like your dog and have to deal with its poop, but nobody else wants to deal with your dog poop. Whenever we go out, we keep waste bags handy so that we can pick up after them. It takes a little bit of effort, but it's not that difficult. You just pick up the poop with a bag and throw it away. How hard is that? We passed quite a few little poop piles on the beach today. I suspect that they were from dogs belonging to tourists or inconsiderate people from the city who think that nature is one big puppy toilet. I think that we should be taught more about respecting nature in school.