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Neither Tango nor I are slaves to fashion.

As the picture above proves.

That's us, the two blondes rockin' the hunter orange. You probably didn't even notice the black Lab in the picture. That's Lily. She's not wearing any orange. You see, it would clash with her silky black coat. (Actually, her hunter orange vest didn't fit.)

Because it's hunting season, we're decked out in our orange. Hunting is illegal on Sunday, which is when we were out, but we figured it was better to be safe than shot. I think we look pretty darn good, Tango and I.

We found a pond. You put Tango anywhere near water and he's going in. Water is a magnet to him. I felt the water – it was cold! Probably in the 40's. Thank goodness the Labs have the double coat – I don't think Tango's skin was ever touched by the water. Note that Tango's still on leash, even though he's retrieving. There was no reason for him to be off leash. First, it's illegal. Second, it's dangerous. (Those are leaves on the surface of the pond, not algae.)

The water's good, but chasing a stick into the water is even better. I found a good sized stick and Tango retrieved to his heart's content. I was tired of throwing the stick long before he was tired of retrieving it. That's a Labrador for you.

We were out for about two hours. We saw one deer and lots of hawks and squirrels. Unfortunately, we were the hosts to lots of ticks. Little tiny ticks. I found four on Tango, one on me, and one on my husband. 

Take some time this weekend to get out and enjoy the woods with your dogs. Just wait until Sunday, wear lots of orange and check for ticks when you're done!

This is what it looks like when four large dogs are playing in one small room. It's chaos. Controlled chaos, but chaos nonetheless. 

Lily rarely partakes in playtime. It's one of those once-in-a-blue-moon deals. It's so rare that I yanked the video camera out when they started this crazy play session. 

A couple things to notice: Nemo loves to play with Lily. They are play-buddies outside, but not usually inside. So when he saw her playing inside, he was ready to go! Knowing Nemo would interrupt her play with Talos, and knowing that this kind of play so rarely happens, I asked Nemo to restrain himself (which he did pretty nicely, I thought). 

Also, watch toward the end when Lily shakes off. That's a dog communication signal that often means "I'm done." Notice that even though Talos tries to re-engage her, she's pretty much done. 

There's lots of noise: growling, barking, yips. These are all normal play sounds from my group of dogs. Just like mothers can interpret their baby's different cries, I can tell immediately if a dog is no longer enjoying the play, just from the sound of the mayhem. These guys (and girl) are having nothing but fun. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dZ-TVVBEpEA