Up North With Uli

At the end of May, we took Uli on his first trip to Wisconsin to visit family. He has experienced backyard time without a leash and a leash-free dog park, but never before had he experienced acres of land to explore.

We haven't trained him on any hunting skills, but pointing comes naturally to a Pointer.

We took multiple walks around the woods, letting him explore and training him to stay within sight of us. This involves a lot of calling him back, praising him, giving him a treat and then letting him take off again. He did really well! Recall is SO SO SO important, so we were really encouraged by how great he did.

The ferns were unfurling and the lady slipper orchids were blooming.

Uli ran...

 and ran...

 and ran...

until he couldn't run any more!

Puppy life is grand.

On this trip, we visited my dad's house and my Grandma/Aunt's house. They all have chickens and one house had ducks.

Uli's interpretation:
a few day old chicks = super scary and intimidating
a flock with a rooster = SO INTERESTING! MUST INVESTIGATE!
ducks = tasty poop

My Grandma and Aunt live on a lake. This was Uli's first time at a lake. He nearly ran off the dock before his brain computed that water is not the same as ground.

He explored a little, but didn't go in.

By all accounts, he got passing marks on this visit and is welcomed back!

Oh! And! I don't have a picture, but I have to share this anecdote from the trip. We usually stop at the Burnett Dairy Cooperative on the drive up for a snack and a bathroom break. They have a new dog exercise area there, so right after we parked, we headed straight to it with Uli. His bladder must have been really full, which will be important in a minute. As soon as he got to the grass, another dog came charging over to him. As he usually does, he went down to the ground and flipped over on his back to show submission to the dog that was charging him. Well. Remember that full bladder? It must have been too much to hold in because he let a nice, strong stream of urine out and it happened to be perfectly aimed at the other dog's face. Ah! We got him standing up as quickly as we could but visions of that scene kept popping into our minds and giving us a good laugh for the rest of the drive.