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It's barely 3 PM here and they're already firing off fireworks.

Riley is mostly deaf, so he is fine, but poor River is an anxious mess.

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This is a really shitty video, but I'm going to post it anyway to emphasize the importance of teaching high prey drive dogs a "leave it" command. I was riding on the fourwheeler with my niece, exercising River, when a porcupine ran across the trail. I didn't record much at the time as my focus was on River. I did have to firmly correct him a few times but thankfully he was too tired to try and gave it up (we were intentionally trying to tire him out and this occurred on his second lap of the property).

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River ran almost 2 miles through the woods with the fourwheeler today (we did a lot of bushwhacking through brush and pine tickets). At one point we lost him because he stopped to soak in a muddy pool of water to cool off, but we stopped and I only had to call for him twice and he came running through the woods. He's such a good boy.

I hosed him down when we got back and now he's ready to take a long nap.

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Nephew ran over a squirrel with his four wheeler. Unfortunately it did not die, and we did not have access to his father's guns to put it down, so River was called in to dispatch it. He was very happy to help.

I think I am going to try squirrel hunting with him this fall.

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The closest thing to a sheep he'll ever herd. Lol.

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Camping with a geriatric, deaf dog who is also in cognitive decline is not fun. For dog or human.

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We just got back to my sister's house and Riley immediately jumped in the dog bed and started playing with the other dogs' toys. He's a house dog through and through.

He's much happier now that he's out of the camper.

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Camping with a geriatric, deaf dog who is also in cognitive decline is not fun. For dog or human.

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Camping in VT. Then spending time at my sister's place the rest of the week.

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1.5 years vs 6.5 years.

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Going on vacation in a few days and both dogs are groomed and ready to go (Riley was done last weekend).

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I just wanted to do a sanitary clip and clean up his feathering, but this idiot thought it would be a good idea to back into the clippers and take a huge chunk of fur off his thighs. So I ended up just taking all his feathering off completely. It mats incredibly easy now that he is older so I guess it'll save me some brushing for a little while.

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I celebrated my 38th birthday today by replacing the front brakes and rotors on my car by myself (with a little help from my neighbor, since I don't have many tools). But now I'm broke-broke until next week.

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Today I discovered that River is allergic to fern spores.

Most of the places we've hiked in the past have had little to no ferns near or on the trail, but the state forest I've been scouting for hunting is covered in them.

The first two weekend hikes the ferns were just coming up, so there were no issues, then I had to skip a weekend (I got shingles, yay), and by the time we went back out the ferns were about waist height in most places.

River was coughing occasionally (a dry, hacking cough, like he's trying to clear his throat), but I just dismissed it as him having eaten some grass or something. It cleared up as soon as we left the woods.

Then we went back today and again he started coughing as soon as we hit the ferns. He was also wiping his eyes and breathing a little heavy. We didn't stay long, as I just needed to record the amount of time it took for me to get from my car to a specific location. On our way out, we climbed to a higher elevation, without ferns, rested a bit, and then exited downhill through pine and laural thickets (very little ferns, if any). The coughing became less frequent and by the time we were at the car it had stopped altogether.

I know it's not exercise related as he plays with his flirt pole until exhausted and never has any coughing fits. I'm still going to let his vet know, but I guess he can't come with me to this location anymore.

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Look what I found! Collie lamp!

I'm going to alter the face a bit to make the muzzle more accurate (it's too short and boxy, it needs a proper collie snoot) and fix the undershot lower jaw, and then repaint it to look like River.

When that will be though, I don't know. Lol.

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Almost forgot.