June 29, 2015 Today we got up at 6 AM because at 78 degrees that’s the coolest it was going to be. (It hit 110 yesterday.) In spite of the fact that he hasn't exactly been behaving well lately, we took A.J. to a park that was (fortunately) deserted. This turned out to be what …
Author: ajthespringer
A.J. is my dog. One of the things I did while on an extended break from my career as a technical writer and editor was adopt this totally crazy and adorable dog. He's provided me with an incredible amount of frustration and entertainment. And as you can see, he's also provided me with a large amount of writing material. I'm back at work now, but plan to keep the stories coming - maybe just not as often.
A.J. Ignores Me
June 26, 2015 We had another bad deer encounter last night. We were walking through the neighborhood. We were out late because it was a very hot day, so it was almost dark outside. Suddenly a deer went running across the street about 30 yards ahead of us. A.J. threw a fit again. I gave …
A.J. Gets His Own Pool
June 26, 2015 It gets very hot here during the summer, days often over 100 degrees. The temperature reaches its hottest late in the afternoon, which means we have to get A.J. out early in the morning and he often doesn't get an evening walk. So this year I decided to get him a little …
A.J. Heels – Sort Of
A.J. was very excited for his walk today. He was out in front of me, and Greg was to my right. I told A.J. to heel, which means come around and stand beside me on my left. Instead when I said "Heel," A.J. started to sit, sort of danced around in place while he tried …
A.J. Relapses
June 23, 2015 A.J. had a major relapse on our walk today. The whole incident was pretty ugly, but not entirely because of A.J. We were walking down the path when deer jumped over the fence on one side and started heading toward the fence on the other side. We stopped to watch, and I …
A.J. Meets a Gopher
June 14, 2015 About a week ago we were walking through the park. A.J. is always interested in the ground holes made by moles or gophers or whatever is crawling around under there. He sometimes smells a fresh one, and if there’s no one around and the hole is a little off the path I’ll …
Recall Refresher
April 5, 2015 I’ve started recall training with A.J. again. The best place we know of to let him run free is at the school across the street. There are no signs banning dogs (like at the Junior High next door), and there are usually plenty of birds for A.J. to chase. Unfortunately, for the …
A.J. Gets Tangled Up
March 22, 2015 I got the flu that was going around this month and was pretty sick, so Greg had over a week where he did all of the dog walking. One day he was walking along the trail right next to some construction. There was an orange construction fence separating the trail from the …
A.J. Greets Greg
February 19, 2015 I’ve always believed that one of the main reasons to have a dog is so that there’s always someone there to greet you at the door and be happy to see you when you get home. When I leave the house by myself A.J. always greets me when I come home. When …
A.J. Goes Out for Coffee
January 30, 2015 We went for a long walk this morning. We first walked to the park where we met up with our friend Denise. A.J. was very happy to see her – he jumped up on her. After that he went back to being on a mission and we walked along the river to …
AJ the Springer 