Road Trip

It was a special week for Jethro. He got to go on a road trip with Michelle the Puppy Raising Program Manager for Guide Dogs of Texas, basically my boss. Michelle's been know to grab a dog from anybody handy when she needs to do a presentation or event, so it wasn't a surprise when she said she was taking him. So off to the Wisconsin he went! Here is Michelle's Entry for you!

He thought looking backward would help get him there faster, maybe he just wanted to see what he missed being in the back seat. but we were sure to give him a traveling companion. That's Dug from the movie UP, if you haven't seen it GO see it!
From south Texas to northern Wisconsin is a bit of a haul, we went through Kansas, Iowa, Missouri, and Oklahoma. We had some weather to deal with so we didn't get all the state signs but we got a few :) Jethro was a rock star with the crazy traffic noise while he stood on the side of the road for pictures, they will go in his album of the road trip!

We spent A LOT of time in the car, 2900 miles to be exact, and he was good as gold, most of the time. After all he is a 5 month old puppy. He decided to shred the box that holds all the travel poo bags! not much i could do while driving, except clean up the mess at the next gas fill up.

he slept and slept and slept in the car which was GREAT, but by the time we were done driving for the night all he wanted to do was play!! UGGG!! Feeling bad for him being cooped up all day (but so was I)

I made sure he got a nice walk around our hotel, all the new smells and sounds and moths and this weird stuff called rain, tired him out (finally) and we got to bed, but up early the next morning to start over again!

We fianlly made it to beutiful Merrill Wisconsin, the weather was a very balmy 86 degrees, but after how many days of 100+ it felt blissful! it rained and thundered and was COLD the first night we were there. Jethro got to play with all his cousin dogs.

We were on 85 acres of freedom to him so off leash he went.

We did lots of whistle recall and he was FANTASTIC! this is the exact reason we work so hard on recall, so that he can go out and be a dog and come back when needed!

Just blow the whistle and he comes running from waaaaaay far away, sits like a champ and waits for his reward for being such a good boy!

After hours and hours of running and chasing and playing with all the other dogs, exploring the weird lizards that popped up, a random frog and countless flying things he was completly exhausted!

When the boy is tired, he is never far from someones feet. He curled his 55 pounds into a tiny ball and slept slept slept!
After all was said and done we still had another 2 days in the car to get home. All the playing from the last day really tired him out and it was a peaceful ride the first day.

The second day however, he was done with the whole idea of the road trip. he kept pestering the driver to hurry up, no matter now many times we told him his help was unnecesary an he was too young to drive he still tried to worm his way up front to drive.

We stopped for a break and let him burn off some energy and play in all the corn we'd seen for a million miles.

Then like the good boy he is, he crashed for the remainder of the trip home!

Now Jethro is home safe and sound and was happy to reunite with his puppy roomates. He wasnt tired for long and was raring to go. He is getting ready for an even bigger adventure this week...

the nueter!