Cave in Special Snow

Last night Tatonka and I got to play in the only piles of snow in town. I met up with some fellow dog trainers to receive instructions on first steps for training Tatonka for avalanche work. While they worked their dogs for a half hour each, I commenced to using their grain shovels for digging a snow cave. For those of you who have never done this, let me explain that it is not as easy as it sounds. Note I said piles of snow, as in berms formed from plows. As in not easy digging.

First, some details: there hasn't been much snow here lately so it was hard to find any to train in, we got permission to work in this snow from a local airstrip that is being stockpiled for a festival next month for snow carving (I work with a guy who has placed very highly for several years) which meant we had some special restrictions, like picking up our dog's poop (duh) and pee. Lucky for me Tatonka peed in a place I didn't have to pick up, cause that's just weird. Also, the dogs had to be wearing their vests, which I have not yet been issued because we are technically not yet a training team. Because this is a dog search group and this is just how things go no matter where you are. We have not yet been with the group long enough to apply for training status. Yeah, I know, don't even get me started. So, I had to hear again about how huge my dog is and they weren't sure if their vest would fit him. I used this opportunity to reiterate that his bigness is really a lot of leg. The borrowed vest fit fine. They also lamented on how huge of a cave I would have to dig since it had to be big enough for both Tatonka and I.

Too bad they don't know me well enough to know they are just fueling the fire, not squelching it. I took to this challenge well and dug us a giant cave we fit in just fine. He could even turn around in there with me in it. I will admit that wagging was bad. We both had fun and I'm hopeful of his prospects. He was very excited to be out playing a game again despite having been for a run at the dog park just previous to the training. He didn't even bat an eye at wearing a vest, being left with strangers, running to me instead of from me, and diving through blocks of snow into a cave to get his toy. I love my dog.