The dogs visited the beauty salon last week. Mr. Riley got a cut more in keeping with the rising temperatures in Dallas. He's much better in 10 degree weather than 90 degree, so we have to make sure he stays as cool as possible in the Texas heat.
Yesterday, we took Riley and Token to a dog park we had not visited before. We thought it would be better because the ground was dirt and grass, rather than the sod they have at the normal dog park we've been visiting. The theory goes that they'll be cleaner after the visit.
This new park has a watering area that is just a mud pit. That means that Riley has to trot through it like he's the most awesome dog that has ever lived. He did his Westminster high step right through the mud... many times.
The new park is right next to White Rock Lake, and so they have a fenced off portion that has access to the lake and you can take your dog in there and he can jump in the lake and all that. Quite a few dogs were chasing down tennis balls in the lake, and figuring that Riley was already a mess, we took him over there to see what he would do. He's never been in water before.
He wanted to go in.. kept chasing after dogs right up until they jumped in and he chickened out. This was a good way to get him used to idea though. We didn't push him or encourage him or anything.. just watched, so he doesn't get a complex or fear about water. Eventually, he'll probably go in, and if not, that's okay. Our next house will likely have a pool and we'll get him used to water that way.
Riley is not the bravest dog in the world, but he's still the coolest. Honest go Gorak, he turns heads at the dog park and we are asked many many times what breed he his while we're there. I don't think we've ever seen another Wheaten at a dog park before.
Oh.. and by the way.. if you're a young person considering a profession and college isn't for you.. it costs $65 to get Riley groomed. That's 4 times what I pay to get a hair cut. If you did one dog an hour, that would be $520 a day, or about $130,000 a year.
There's over-head expenses, and the groomer employs somebody to wash and prepare the dogs for the cut.. plus you might not always have a full house of dog's to cut, but still... that's really good money for being a doggy hair dresser.
We thought about buying the equipment to do it ourselves, and there are videos and such on youtube showing how to cut a Wheaten.. but we've found that it's often better to stick with what we're good at and pay other people to do what they're good at. The sink cabinets in our master bath are still not painted. I've made a pass at one of them, but I screwed it up and I'm in the process of sanding and re-painting them. We should have paid the original contractor that did the rest of the work in the bathroom instead of thinking we could do it.
We've also thought about letting the black hair in Riley's beard grow out.. kind of ZZ Top-ish.
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