Odin's First Vacation

The first time you go on vacation can be a memorable experience, if you're old enough to remember it. But what if you're a dog like our eight month old puppy, Odin? What will he remember? Here are some of the highlights so when he's older he'll know what happened:

Last Wednesday we woke him up around 4 am., and no doubt he had no clue what was going on.  We got him in the car before 5  am., and the first thing he said was, "are we there yet?" He had been in Doggie Daycare the day before and he is usually exhausted the next day.  He slept about 80% of the trip to New Jersey to visit my sister and her family.  It was the longest car ride he's been on and when he was awake he was looking out the window(see picture below) and saying, "I can't believe I'm missing all those smells."

The next day we drove up to Pennsylvania where my son and his future bride have two dogs.  I've been told you're not SUPPOSED to use real names in blogs, but I don't know if it applies to dogs too.  I have made up two nicknames for the dogs.  "Lazy Larry" is pictured below in his favorite spot, sleeping on someone or the couch.  He's usually exhausted from "playing" with his brother, "Rugged", who is the 85 pound puppy is in the picture next to him.  "Rugged" is very gentle with smaller dogs and you can see he is really a puppy when you look into his eyes. Odin, all 18 pounds, is pictured all stretched out on his back in the next photo. He played for several days, mostly with "Rugged." With teeth showing, the two dogs wrestled around until they wound up exhausted next to each other like in the fourth picture. Fortunately, no blood was drawn all weekend, but many adults got licked, goosed, and bumped by the 85 pound puppy and you can't ask for much more fun than that..

Odin had never jumped off the couch, but it was on this trip my son encouraged him and he did it many times with us cheering him on.  Each time he would pace back and forth, scratch, procrastinate, and get up the courage to do it, before he actually jumped.  We'll have to see if he  remembers how it's done in Myrtle Beach.

The final day of our trip, Odin slept most of the day, but he was productive when he was awake.  The morning we left, Odin managed to slip out of my wife's fingers and end up at the front door.  I could not grab him fast enough and he ran down a bunch of stairs for the first time and made a mad dash up the street.  I was right behind him and getting closer, but how was I going to scoop him up on the run? We got lucky and a neighbor was right there and started petting him. I grabbed him and the two of us went back to the house and both of us were panting.(him more)

Odin was not done though.  At a rest stop, he found a girlfriend.  The cockapoo pictured below (a few months younger), was sniffing the area too and they played and kissed for about ten minutes.  She lives about two hours north and it's possible they may see each other again. They knew immediately they were the same breed and here are the best two pictures of their first date.

We arrived home about twelve hours after we left.  Odin and I really bonded on this trip, although he ignored me when his dog cousins were around.  Odin jumped out of the car and ran into the backyard and I thought I heard him say, "Dad, do you want to have a catch?" (Maybe it was all a dream?)