Mary Beth attended a camp about butterflies! She had a great time! On one day, they went out to the beach to fly homemade kites, and the reporters from the local paper showed up. Mary Beth was on the front page of the newspaper!
While Mary Beth went to camp, I took the dog to the beach and let her run off the leash while there were few people to disturb. There's no doubt that she's part Labrador retriever. She absolutely loves the water! However, she absolutely does not love being left alone, and since we didn't want the condo to end up with damaged door frames or window blinds, we had to take her everywhere we went. This meant no trips to restaurants. So, we enjoyed lots of picnics on the beach and at the park. It was fun to be outside so much! We did manage to spend a little time at the condo pool with the aid of doggy valium and Bella's crate. Even with the valium, I had to keep popping inside to reassure her. We did manage to spend as much as an hour and a half at the pool this way before she'd begin non-stop barking. We hope that these problems will sort themselves out as we continue gradual crate/separation conditioning and as she matures. Otherwise, she's such a great dog! So, I've resigned myself to making this the "summer of the dog" as we work on these issues.
