The daydream has her in the backcountry, nose to the wind, quartering through the brush. The day’s work has her in the backyard, butt to the snow, holding through a sit stay. We’re laying a foundation and “making haste slowly”. I keep reminding myself of that as we build basic obedience inch-by-inch. The long days, Read More

Parents often tell me that having and raising kids really cemented their place in a community. They’d been disconnected from whole populations of neighbors, ignorant of critical institutions and uninvolved in many cultural rituals until the demands of parenthood thrust them into the fray. I think that might be overstating it a bit, and, Read More

Bucking in circles like a rodeo bull, her enthusiasm belied her age. I was scrambling around the cold garage looking for duck hunting gear that hasn’t been used much lately. The temps started to drop, from a high of 20 F, as soon as the sun dipped below the mountains. Waterfowl was our game, Read More

This summer our dogs have been neglected. It’s a crazy time for our family. My wife and I both travel a fair bit for work. Family comes to visit. We try to get into the mountains as much as possible. The dogs have been deprioritized. As pups, I would spend an hour a day all, Read More