Yesterday was the Labor Day holiday. We really had no plans, just expected to stay at home and have a quiet time. Jim gets a phone call from his friend Roy. Would we like to come over for a picnic, possibly play some cards? After negotiations on who would bring what items of food we all proceeded to get ready. Jim was in a hurry to get started and ran all over the house pushing everyone to get a move on. The dogs, Kai and Trinity started going off the deep end because they could sense that some thing was up and they both began to jog through the house getting in every ones path as often as they could . Part of their excitement is feeding off the general chaos in the household, the other part is desperation that they may get left behind. So running through the house is an attempt to keep everyone is sight at once so that there is no possibility that anyone can leave without them. Even with all the confusion and chaos we managed to get everything ready in about an hour, packed all in the car and we were off! With all the gear that Jim and Randy felt was necessary to take with us, anyone would of thought the picnic was in Outer Mongolia and not just a few city blocks away.
Jim, the organizer of everything and anything!
Jim's brother Randy drove, I rode shotgun and Jim got the honor of sitting in the back seat with the dogs. As we made a quick stop at a convenience store for last minute oops items. You know those things that after you have been on the road for five seconds to five minutes pop into you head and you say "Oops I forgot .......". We soon arrived at Roy's house. Then there was the major job of unpacking the car and carrying everything to Roy's yard. I left that to the boys and just took care of myself. My philosophy is if men come along on any trip their main purpose is to carry everything so the women don't have to.
Jim's brother Randy. 
Among the Oops items on my list was Kai's training collar. The entire purpose of training a dog is so that eventually they will not need a training collar but Kai has definitely not reached that point yet. Since Roy's yard is not totally fenced in he set up a tie out so that I would not have to
sit and hold Kai's leash the entire time. Randy's dog Trinity is older and past the training stage of needing to be leashed during an outing. She never wanders farther than about fifty feet from Randy. I don't know if that is just her temperament or if Randy did one heck of a job of training but it is really makes life easier.
Randy's dog -- Trinity.
Kai knew that his training collar was not on after about three seconds of being on leash so he decided that all bets were off and he could behave as he wished! I have never been so embarrassed by his behavior. He kept jumping around, running up to people and annoying them, begging for food (a definate cardinal no no in my house) and other obnoxious behavior he must have just thought up that day. Any commands given were ignored or just given fleeting attention. I do not think that this dog wanted to live to see his second birthday or even the next day! Finally as the day progressed sheer exhaustion set in and he finally settled down and fell asleep.
Kai power napping!
We had an awesome picnic dinner despite all the distractions. The food was great and the company was greater. We played texas hold 'em and just about every other version of poker known to mankind. We were not playing for money, just chips and I had some good hands and some bad ones but mostly it seems towards the end that I could not get a break and my chip pile dwindled into nothing. One of the many reasons I have never had the urge to gamble for money is my inability to win consistently at a game where there are no stakes. I can just imagine what would happen the first time I put any money on the line. I would be broke so fast it would be a worlds record I am sure. When they handed out lucky genes I must of skipped that line.
Kai's power nap revved him up for the trip home. He got excited by all the fun of packing everything in the car at the end of the evening and on the way home all you heard in the car was Jim arguing with him over the seat space in the back. I have learned that until a great deal more training, all bets are off with Kai unless his training collar is on. Some lessons are just more embarrassing to learn than others.
