MACINTOSH MONTHLY

Well Mr Macintosh certainly had a great Christmas. He had lots of walks (some even off lead I might add), lots of food, tons of snow, toys galore, friends to play with and people to pet him. He even had a cosy cabin to snuggle up in. He was certainly spoilt. 

Here's a photo round up of some of his Christmas events...

We went to visit a ghost town, from the old gold mining days. Whilst there we got to have a little ride on a mini train. Macintosh came with us, which he was equally excited and scared about. His ears were flicking around constantly with every clunk of the rails and his nose was going crazy trying to capture every smell around him.

As you can see there were more than a few naps! He loved staying in the cabin in Lake Tahoe because after playing in the snow he could just come inside to the warmth and chill out. So there we go, Macintosh's Christmas in a nutshell. 
H

(You'll see more of Lake Tahoe and what Macintosh (and us) did there later in the week as the posts get written!)

MACINTOSH MONTHLY

So this is the first Macintosh Monthly post! Hooray! October was a bit of a blur if I'm honest. We spent the first half of the month separated from Mac because we were in England and then the second half of the month was all a but topsy turvy as Andrew had to go back to England again. Poor old Mac didn't know what was going on with all the suitcases being packed and unpacked all the time. 

Still we survived October and more importantly we survived those crazy flash floods that happened. For those of you who weren't aware our area had a crazy amount of rain in the middle of October, all on one night which caused some crazy flash flooding. There's an article on the BBC about it here which just shows you a little bit of the aftermath and a youtube video shows you what it looked like as it was happening. Thankfully where we were it wasn't that deep but there was mud flowing freely down the streets. 

The next day everything was brown and there were still huge mud flows and puddles everywhere. This was one of the streets right next to where we live. 

Obviously Macintosh thought this was brilliant and used it as an excuse to go wading through all the mud and puddles. 

As an owner, who would have to bath him when we got back, I decided he could only go so far so he ended up having these cute little bootie looking mud patches. He's hilarious. 

So that was our major excitement for the month of October. I have to say the mud lasted for ages and we had many muddy walks. Until eventually the Californian sun dried tall out and then it cracked into something strangely beautiful. 

Let's see how November treats Mr Macintosh!

H

MACINTOSH MONDAY

Yesterday we went for a walk along the Pacific Crest Trail. Its one of our usual spots and it was mildly cooler than our usual summer days so we figured it would be nice to go for a small hike. However about half way round Macintosh decided it really was too hot to continue walking so he decided to find shade. He found the nearest bush and stood in its shade. But apparently that wasn't enough.

So he began to dig! Apparently when you want to lie down and the sand underneath you is hot the only logical thing is to dig down to cool sand and then lie on it. Well he tried this several times, after we had moved him on from the first shady bush. He just kept digging and digging, every chance he got. 

On the way back I managed to snap a picture of a five second hole he dug! 

This digging meant that he needed a good clean when we got home, as his lovely white legs were no longer white! Beagles are pesky creatures! 
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MACINTOSH MONDAY

Macintosh has been having a wonderful Christmas so far. There's been lots of present for him to open, walks to go on, wrapping paper to shred, naps to be enjoyed and a few seasonal food tidbits have gone his way, including turkey and ham! Here's a few pictures of what he's been up to.

I've saved the best photo for last though...

He definitely tugs at your heart strings that one. Handsome boy!
H

MACINTOSH MONDAY

Whilst we were at Big Bear lake this past week Andrew remarked how all of our photos of Macintosh during hikes are of his bottom! We usually end up taking pictures of the trail ahead of us and as he's already there we simply get a view of his tail and bottom. Not the most attractive. So when we were on the Cougar Crest trail Andrew decided to walk backwards in front of Mac to see if he could get some good shots of him busy walking and enjoying the trail.

Now you need to remember that Andrew was walking backwards and that the camera was down at Mac's height so there isn't a lot of artistic ability in the following photos. Having said that they are hilarious. His mouth flaps about so much!

Oh Macintosh, how you make us laugh!
H

MACINTOSH MONDAY

Pet detective, psychologist, dog trainer, research analyst and behaviour expert. Those are just a few of the roles Andrew and I have been playing this week when it comes to Macintosh. You may have gathered from the blog that Macintosh is a very active dog (!!) and that he likes to be energetic and loves his walks. Well for the past week and a bit Mac has slowly been enjoying his walks less and less, even to the point of refusing to go on them. This has affected him so much that unfortunately this week Mac has been rather subdued at home and has done absolutely nothing of interest. Honestly he's been the most boring dog in the world!

At first with the walks it was simply him refusing to go very far, then his tail began to be lower and he looked less happy on the walk. It evolved into him beginning to sit down on a walk and be reluctant to move and eventually the last couple of days of last week he would just lay down and refuse to move. Which is great. It meant that I would be trying to move him or coax him along and he just would stubbornly stay laying down. At times I had to almost drag him along because I knew if he didn't get a walk he would be a nightmare at home and no amount of playing can replace his walks. I honestly must have looked like I was hurting him and it felt like that was the case but I knew how important it was to take him for a walk. We had to find a solution. 

So we began the flitting between the various roles. I would take Macintosh out for a walk but document every part of the walk from his reactions, to what I could see or hear, to how far we walked and even the heat and time of day. I would text Andrew all the information at mission control in Florida. Using his various forms of technology (iPhone, iPad and Macbook) he would then analyse the information and research the interesting parts. I would continue the walk, sending photos when possible to show the reactions of Macintosh. By the time we returned home Mac would be recovering from his ordeal on his bed as Andrew and I talked it through and read various articles. This happened EVERY time we went for a walk. That's twice a day every day. Ugh!

Anyway our dogged determination (excuse the pun) paid off as we have now officially discovered what the problem is. Drumroll please... Motorbikes. It's as simple as that. Poor old Macintosh is scared of motorbikes. And unfortunately there are a lot here due to the space and the open roads. we had unwittingly been walking him around as motorbikes had gone past and that deep throated rumble they make was scaring him. The final straw to confirm this was as we tried to go for a walk yesterday evening. I opened the front door as one went past the house and Macintosh literally leapt off the floor, ran into the house and hid under the dining table. He was quivering, licking his lips and looking generally petrified. 

Now the trick is to train him out of his fear. Research says exposing him to the sounds in a safe environment is the way to go. It will allow him to become used to the sounds without exposing him to the fear. We begin playing motorbike sounds at a barely audible level for a small period of time and observe his reactions. Once he is comfortable with that you begin the next day to turn it up slightly. Once he is comfortable with that level you turn it up further. Eventually you will find that he is able to act normally around a motorbike sound. Or at least that's the theory. 

So now we are beginning to implement this and we'll see what the results are. I never thought I'd say this though but I want his lively self back. I miss his mischievous side. For now though I'll leave you with a picture to remind you how cool he is. I love that dog!

H

MACINTOSH MONDAY

I clearly spoke too soon about Mr Macintosh. As of last week he has grown increasingly worse in terms of his naughtier behaviour. Its nowhere near as bad as it was when he was tiny but the fact he's started it up again was not very impressive. The highlight of his bad behaviour was yesterday which I would tell you all about but it involves weeing in the house - no less than 3 times! Yeah not a happy bunny. So instead I'll show you where we walk Macintosh. That's a much pleasanter subject and has better pictures! 

Once you have walked out of our little compound area you are on a small estate that is made up mostly of a skypark. For those of you as unfamiliar with what that is as I was, its basically a residential airstrip. There's a runway and people build houses on the edge of it with hangars for their planes in their backgardens. It's run and managed by the residents and you can pretty much take off there when you like. Living next to it is pretty impressive as it lends itself to interesting viewing as you wander around. 

Not sure if you can spot it but there's a yellow plane nestled in amongst the buildings. Its about to go onto the runway to take off. We were standing on the pavement (or sidewalk) watching it. Pretty neat. Here's Andrew demonstrating how close to the housing and skypark you get. The runway is behind the wall. 

So after you have wandered along parallel to the skypark you only have a few houses left to walk past before you get out into the wide open space, which here means desert.

The panoramic photo shows you literally all that we can walk around with Macintosh and it continues on off into the horizon. To him its basically a giant dusty playground which goes on for miles and miles with lots of hills and mini mountains to climb, rocks to play on and strange smells to sniff. Occasionally you do go down there to find someone somewhere is using the space as a shooting range. We tend not to go walking then, not because its unsafe as you can see for miles, but rather because Mac hates gunfire and tends to dig into the ground and refuse to move unless its going home! 

We love our walks out here. Its definitely different to what we have been used to but you can go for miles in the sunshine without bumping into too many people and its just bliss. We haven't seen any dangerous wildlife yet, only their tracks, so that's making it a much more pleasant walk too. But you do have to be on your guard just in case, although generally they are more scared of you than you are of them! 

As a last note I would encourage you to check back into the blog on Wednesday because they'll be a bonus post as a certain someone turns 2 on Wednesday and will be celebrating turning from a puppy into a fully fledged adult dog. Now if only his behaviour could match it...

Good job he looks cute, otherwise there would be issues! 

H

EVENING TIME IN SAN FRANCISCO

Here are a few more photographs of San Francisco as we walked all the way back to the apartment from the Financial District on one of the nights as the cable car was packed. As we wandered back the sun slowly set on us producing some beautiful scenes. The streets were mostly empty but in contrast the street corners became these bustling pockets of activity filled with colourful lights.  

A

VASQUEZ ROCKS

Last Saturday after the excitement of the cycling Andrew and I called in at a place called Vasquez Rocks. It was absolutely stunning as you can see. 

It is a Natural Area Park and has been used in a variety of films and TV shows due to its rather unusual look. For those of you familiar with 'The Big Bang Theory' it is used in the episode 'The Bakersfield Expedition' where they are dressed in Star Trek costumes and on a road trip to ComicCon. They stop to take photos as it looks remarkably like another planet only to have their car stolen, leaving them stranded. It was rather exciting wandering around thinking that the cast had been there once before!

We really enjoyed our brief time hiking there and its definitely somewhere we will take Mr Macintosh as he would love it. Due to the heat on the day we went we didn't fully explore but we did go out towards the boundary and ended up crossing over the Pacific Crest Trail. That is something we want to walk, or at least walk parts of, so it was exciting to see the first bit of it. 

I'll leave you with more breathtakingly beautiful photos as I've got some packing to do. We are off to San Francisco for the Memorial weekend. We'll check back in next week with some photos!

H