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Monday, December 14, 2015

Winter's Beauty

Since we returned from the desert, Shyla and I have been enjoying our snowbike rides immensely! We are usually out at sunrise, dodging moose and trying to get to a good point for photos. I think that my favorite part of winter here is the sunrises.

As the sun just barely touches us, its color is deep red, which is reflected in Shyla's fur.

Then, as the sun gets a tiny bit higher over the horizon, its brightness grows exponentially.

Because the sun rays are almost horizontal, the shadows are amazing. Here are me and my girl.

And here's Shyla sprinting in front of a golden boulder.

I mentioned my new approach to teaching Shyla to recall away from dead animals. We've been training next to whole elk carcasses and elk limbs recently (these are pieces of mountain lion meals that were left behind). On Day 1, I tried to stash an elk leg in a tree to make it accessible to me to pull down for daily training. Shyla leaped vertically and pulled it out of the tree. Her mouth is on the hoof in the photo. That shows you how determined she was to get to parts of dead animals.

In contrast, after a week of playing super fun games of fetch and doing lots of high reward recalls next to these dead animal parts, Shyla now sometimes refuses to leave me to go "check it out" (that's my cue that it's okay for her to go to the yucky thing). She thinks I'm more fun - and that is exactly my goal!!!!!!!! Her recall success rate off of the yucky things is very high now. I am extremely hopeful that this new approach will help us to navigate the forest without Shyla becoming obsessed with her latest dead find.

I'm going to end there. This is a late post because I've had a migraine all day. I've managed to greatly reduce my migraine frequency by making sure that I get a full 8 hours of sleep each night. But then I had a few very busy days, and I woke up with one this morning. Oh well.

Shyla expressed how I felt all today perfectly.
Tomorrow will be a new day.

22 comments:

  1. Shyla looks more and more confident :-)

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  2. Wow, The leap Shyla took to reach the elk hoof is
    pretty high. Hoping you find some relief migraines
    make us want to cover our eyes too.
    XO Cinnamon

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  3. Sorry about the migraine. I get those too. The pits. Catching up on some of your pics from past posts. So beautiful! We were also in red rock country last week (Sedona though) but we missed out on the snow. So bummed to miss it since Rita's never seen snow. (I saw online they got snow there today, so we just missed it!)

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  4. When we saw you title, we just knew that Winter's Beauty had to be Shyla!!!

    Yes, tomorrow is another day and we hope it will be a very good one for you.

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  5. Oh so sorry about the migraines. And so pleased that Shyla is turning away from the dead meat. And delighted to see your photographs in the morning sun.

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  6. The photos with the shadows are great. And you are doing a fantastic job with the training.

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  7. Wonderful that the training is going well - hope the migraine is going away
    We are getting hammered with snow - at least 10 inches since last night and it is still snowing!
    hugs
    Mr Bailey, Hazel & Mabel

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  8. We absolutely adore the shadows on the rock♥ We hope today is a better day for you, KB!

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  9. I hope you feel better soon and the migraine-devil disappears.... hugs to you... I love the shadow-photos, I wish I had such wonderful ideas and I could take such great photos once :o)

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  10. Wow, that Shyla really REALLY wanted the elk leg, didn't she? It's brilliant that your new training effort has already had sch stunning results! Recalls are unreliable with Piper, and I should try to apply a similar method. Trouble is, I am just not that much fun and Piper knows it. Pretty much everything in the woods is more fun than me. I need to work on that!

    I hope getting back on track with sleep will relieve your migraines, KB.

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  11. Look at her jump. ANd great job with the training. I hope your head is better.

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  12. Good job Shyla! You got some air going after that bone. What a cool picture of you and mom. It must be in the air, moms migraine just won't give!
    Lily & Edward

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  13. Shyla wanted that elk!! Awesome picture. I hope you migraine is gone soon.

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  14. That's one giant leap for Canine Kind!!!

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  15. Love the photo with the boulder and shadow. We sure hope those migraines go away (forever would be good)! Shyla is a tree climber!

    Your Pals,

    Murphy & Stanley

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  16. Glad Shyla took to this yucky thing training! I see how determined she was previously. Yucky things often cause more yucky things to happen indoors - at night. Feel better soon. It's snowing here.

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  17. Shyla is such a strong jumper! Just look at her! You have made so much progress with her! So much!
    We love the shadow photos!!
    And yes,, you should be more fun!
    love
    tweedles

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  18. I can never get over just how red Shyla's fur looks with the sun reflecting off of it, so very beautiful!!
    Smileys!
    Dory, Jakey, Arty & Bilbo

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  19. What wonderful shots you've been sharing, and particularly on this day! I'm sorry the migraines have been pulling you down again, but you certainly haven't stopped capturing the magic of each moment and each storm!

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  20. How dedicated you are, stashing parts of dead animals for future training use! Haha! Amazed at how well it is going!

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