What I have learned about Golden Retrievers

I grew up with German Shepherds (and still love the breed).  Moving to Seattle, we decided to get a golden.  Personality-wise, they are quite different.  We have learned some things as Binks has grown older. 
One:  They have huge tongues.

Somehow, that tongue never seems to fit in his mouth. 

Two: Learn to brace.

They will use you as cover when chasing each other.  Binks especially doesn’t quite get the concept of momentum yet and can’t turn quite as fast as his smaller friend.  So we keep our feet apart and knees bent, they might just come sliding into you.

Three: they love chasing balls or sticks or even better, each other.

Four: Goldens have a unique way of playing with other goldens, different to how they play with other breeds.

They will wrestle each other mercilessly.  They also like to tease, holding a ball or a stick just out of reach, taunting the other to get it.

Five:  They can entertain themselves really well.

They will hold a ball on a slope, let it go to roll down, then pounce.  They sometimes even throw it up in the air and try to catch it (that goes for sticks and even gloves too).

We are having great fun with our puppy.  Being able to socialise with other pups in the neighbourhood makes it even more special.

Megan and Co

This neighbourhood has lots of golden retrievers.  On walks, we regularly get to meet up with them.  Megan is a gorgeous girl 15 years old, still going for walks every day. 

She was sad for a while when her sister passed away, but is really cheerful since her ‘sister’ Bailey joined her.  Bailey has boundless energy (as in she doesn’t run, she bounds and bounces everywhere!).    She and Binks, our dog, would chase each other all day if they could.

During play, Binks will go check on Megan regularly.  She is really patient and sweet.  She will sit by you all day if you give her a scratch behind the ears!

Walking the dog in the cold

Every now and then everything goes white with frost.  Somehow the colder it gets, the more energy our puppy has!  Must be a Golden Retriever thing since Binks’ best friend, Bailey also gets friskier!

 

The sun is starting to come up before 8, creating beautiful morning light.  It is nice to not walk in the dark anymore!

 

 

 

Our First Snow

We opened the windows this morning to a garden covered in white!  It looked so wonderful, a real wonderland (can you tell we never had snow before?)

The kids had a ball playing outside.  Our neighbours are from Texas, so their kids also came out to play.  Binks, our puppy, loves the snow.  He chases the snowballs and cries by the door to go out again to play when we bring him inside.

 

We quickly popped over to the shops to get proper boots.  When we came back, one of our neighbours had dropped off a whole bag of gloves as well as a sled for the kids.  We are so blessed!

I am off to go play some more… SO much fun!

Silly Dog

Sometimes the kids walk with me when puppy goes for a walk.  He so loves the kids!  They have a ball playing together.

 

 

 

Company picnic

Amazon has a family day each year that we attended at Seattle’s football field recently.  The kids had an absolute blast!  The field is huge, with many levels.  We only discovered the top floor at the end.  Next year we will go there first!

The first activity the kids did, was decorating their own frisbees.  It was interesting experimenting with the effects of different colours.  There were lots of other activities too, like a science section, GoldieBlox, Lego, crafts and face painting.  (I waited too long to get in line for the henna tattoos.)

  

There were quite a few performers around too.  They were still grinning by the end of the day, which was very impressive!  All very friendly and happy to pose.

 

We had lunch in the stadium stands, watching all the events on the grass.  Learned a bit about broomball!   Sure was entertaining watching the three-legged race on the big screens!  The kids got a bit of exercise playing putt-putt, laser tag and going on carnival rides.  The boys’ favourite is always the climbing wall.  They flew up there. 

     

I didn’t get a chance to photograph the official mascot, but I got a shot of the cute box guy.  All the children there loved him!

Puppy Power

We made a deal with my husband, if we move to Seattle, we will be getting a puppy.  Because we have so many little children coming through the house, temperament was very important.  It was quite a hunt, but we found a gorgeous golden retriever puppy from a breeder in Quincy, on the other side of the mountains.

 

Naming him caused big arguments, until I suggested Jar Jar Binks (we were getting him on May the Fourth!). So meet Binks.  He has been such a joy, really helping the kids to settle in to life here. 

 

He is growing at a tremendous rate, dwarfing his playmates at puppy playgroup. 

  

He has earned the nickname “silly doggie” at home because of all his antics!