I am on a mission for a BARK FREE house. These girls are driving us up the wall. First step is to work on the training more consistently, obviously. Secondly, I have installed a semi-opaque window film on the bottom half of the main level patio doors (so they can’t see every Tom, Dick and Rover walk by.) Thirdly, Miss Ruby got a new bark collar. This one has 18 levels of self-adjustment. 

The first full day of bark-free has not been bad at all! The puppies have not been perfect, but they have been very good. Just a few barks, and then they correct themselves. 

Well done, puppies. Mummy doesn’t want to yell at you all summer. :)

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We had a couple of amazing adventures in Alaska. Specifically, our shore excursions in Ketchikan and Juneau.

Excursion #1: Alaskan Canopy Adventure – Zipline. 

In Ketchikan, we were truly adventurous. This excursion was my idea after I read the list of options. Mike was a little surprised in me, but I knew I could handle it. It was so much fun to fly through the air like that. PLUS, honestly, it’s helpful for us to choose excursions that are more strenuous and move quickly. For reasons that probably make sense to some. 

Anyway, There were 7 or 8 zips and three bridges to cross the forrest. It was incredibly (almost tediously ;)) safe, lots of hook-ups and harnesses, etc. 

My equipment is really cool looking, don’t you think? 

I wasn’t great at the zipline. I had to pull myself in manually three times because I didn’t quite get all the way to the end. (I wasn’t super aggressive pushing myself off the platform and ran out of momentum a couple of times.)

Anyway, the forest was great. If it were later in the year, during the salmon runs, there might have been bears below us catching fish! The weather was great in Ketchikan, too. Notice I’m only wearing a fleece. It was actually warm in sunny down in town. And clear enough to see all the mountains! 

Juneau: Musher’s camp

This excursion was a no-brainer. Before we even booked the cruise, I said, “so we’re definitely going to see the sled dog puppies, right?” I think I probably got the idea from Mark & Caitlin doing the same thing. (Thanks, guys.) So we booked the musher’s camp excursion, on which we rode a card pulled by a Iditarod-sized team of sled dogs (16). Then we learned about all the different factors in the Iditarod race, and then got to PLAY WITH PUPPIES. Oh my gosh. So so cute! These dogs are just amazing. This camp had over 200 dogs, and the mushers we met were real Iditarod racers. One was the grandson of the originator of the race, and another was one of the youngest people to race (I think the youngest to complete the race ever.) 

The mushers own some of the dogs, and they breed the dogs for speed, stamina, health, etc. The dogs are really just mutts — not the Alaskan Huskies you picture from the movies. Those dogs are really too heavy and slow, they explained, which is why they breed them this way. 

This excursion was better than I even expected. The mushers were just so interesting, and the dogs are amazing – not like any other dogs you’d meet.  In the photo, the puppy (Gouda) was yawning, and I was imitating her, of course. ;) The puppies are named in “themes.” This litter was cheese. How appropriate for me to meet puppies named for cheese.

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