First Trip To NY

Driving To NY

A few years ago we took a trip to up state NY in our little Toyota pick up truck.  The truck had a cap on the back, allowing us to pack plenty of our needed items, including Cooper's dog crate.  We hadn't really traveled with him yet, so we were all at the experimental stage.  We put his belongings along with ours in the back of the truck and we were off!

Our destination was way up in Niagara County.  It took us about 12 hours to get to there.  Our stops had to be a little longer for Cooper's sake so he could move around and visit a tree or two.  Frequently when we were at a rest stop Cooper got to meet another dog who was also 'visiting trees'.  They greeted each other but had no real time to play since we (the humans) were trying to stay on schedule.

Cooper traveled well, but with no where to really get comfortable, he was fairly fidgety at times.  I had been trying to get him to go into the bed of the truck to get more comfortable, but he was nervous back there.  The sound was probably different, and he didn't have Mommy and Daddy there to show him it was ok.  

Not too sure about going back there 

Finally at one point the boredom must have taken over.  I encouraged him to go in the back again as I had a few times before.  This time he went in.  He turned to look at me, and I said, "Go".  That is one of his words, meaning 'keep going, all's well'.  He went in and sniffed the bags, checked out his crate and smelled at the windows that were opened a crack to allow a little air flow in case he did go in there.  

He seemed ok, so I turned around and started talking to Jesse again.  We had been talking for a few minutes when Cooper started barking at something in the back.  I couldn't tell what he had, and I couldn't fit through the window to see.  I had to get him to show me.  He will bring things to you if you ask him to.  He also paws at things if he's not sure if he should pick it up.  This particular time, he had pawed at a mesh bag of whiffle balls I had brought for him.  Whiffle balls are favorites, especially if they come in a box.  He loves to tear the box open to get to the ball.  

So he pawed at the balls, and I got to see what he had found.  The look on his face was so child like.  He looked as if to say, 'Mama, look what I found!  Can I have one? Pleeeease!?'  I laughed and relayed Cooper's find to Jesse.  When I turned back to Cooper he was still looking with his excited questioning look.  I said, "Let me see."  meaning: 'bring it to me'.  He did without having to be asked a second time.  I opened the bag and gave him one.  He took it to the back and played with it for about 20 minutes.  He threw it, chased it, and chewed on it until he was content.  By the way, by the time Cooper was 'content', the ball was flat.  

When Cooper had had enough 'back of the truck' play time, he came back to front of the truck with us.  He has this look he gets on his face when he's happy.  You would swear he looks like he's smiling.  It's very easy to tell when he's a happy boy and when he's not.  He is a very open and easy to read dog.  That day, when he came to the front of the truck, he had a HUGE smile on his face and he looked like he was really proud of himself for finding my stash of whiffle balls.  If you don't believe a dog can smile... look at the picture posted below.

After he found the whiffle balls