A Photo A Day For Life: Day 301 - 400
This gallery covers the fifth 100 days of the A Photo A Day For Life series of our dog Nico. Nico spent lots of time at our family camp, became more comfortable swimming, went campiing, and helped supervise the initial stages of constructing a shed.
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Day 401: We’ve been dealing with some poop/dietary issues with Nico over the past few months, including coprophagia. Tonight I decided to try my hand at cooking for him. He looks concerned in the photo but I think that is from wondering if what is about to happen is real. As soon as he saw food come out of the pot on the stove and into HIS bowl his eyes just about bugged out of his head.
Day 402: Nico enjoyed running laps around our yard this evening. He'll keep going around and around if you take a step towards him each time he passes. It's a great way to quickly burn a bit of energy out of him.
Day 403: Nico had a lot to say about this evenings boat ride. He also swam for the first time all on his own today during our lunch break walk at Paul Smith's College. I don’t think he’ll make it on the swim team anytime soon but I give him a lot of credit for pushing out of his comfort zone.
Day 404: We’ve started letting Nico have free reign of the house at night. Since he’s been a puppy he has slept in his crate, which he goes into all on his own after being let out before bed. Now he often sleeps on the couch but we have to cut him off from playing Xbox all night long.
Day 405: One of my favorite things about Nico is that he loves to snuggle. He may look cramped here but this is exactly where he wants to be. It’s also nice that he curls up so small because it’s really easy to share the couch with him.
Day 406: I paddled out to this sandbar on Lake Champlain with Nico. He didn’t want to step off the paddle board into the shallow water. After a few minutes of whining I instituted some tough love and pulled him off the board. He proceeded to run like a maniac through the shallow water. After a few minutes I waded out to deeper water and for the first time Nico swam all on his own. He did a great job swimming around me as I waded through the water. Eventually he saw Shelly at our camp in the distance and swam about 200 yards all on his own to get to her. I followed behind him on the board in case he got scared. He was completely unphased and jumped back on the board with me to continue our paddle.
Day 407: In between massive thunderstorms Shelly and Nico went out fishing. One possible downside of Nico becoming more comfortable swimming is that he is now showing an interest in swimming/wading after Shelly's lure.
Day 408: Just a dog enjoying a sunset over Lake Champlain.
Day 409: Sunset paddle board trips with the little dude are a great way to end the day.
Day 410: Nico enjoys evening boat rides on Lake Champlain. Although I think he enjoys them more from our boat on Lower Saranac where he can properly lounge in the bow.
Day 411: When the campfire smoke blows in your face sometimes you just need to sit facing the bushes. 🤣 I give Nico credit for being smart enough to figure out how to avoid the smoke though.
Day 412: Couch snuggles with grandma.
Day 413: A proud puppy with a new toy courtesy of Grandma. I suppose this is to be expected when he sleeps with his head on her lap every evening and cuddles all night.
Day 414: It's an ice cube eating kind of day with this heat.
Day 415: Guilty look after being yelled at by Dad for barking like a maniac at a dog walking by.
Day 416: The “it’s way past my dinner time” stare. Nico has no sympathy for my desire to sit down for a minute after coming home from work and doing 2.5 hours of yard work.
Day 417: When you're a dog with your name on an office door at Paul Smith's College Adirondack Watershed Institute there is a bit of an expectation that you know how to swim. Days at the office include swim lessons for Nico. He's slowly learning how the whole swimming thing works. We still need to work on the grace and confidence but we're getting there. And by the way, look at that tail!
Day 418: It's been raining all day and Nico hasn't had a lot of activity. Shelly and I have been pulling out all the toys in an effort to burn off some energy.
Day 419: A little tug of war as a break from building a shed. Nico hung out with me in the yard most of the day. We wanted him to get as much energy out as possible after being inside all day yesterday.
Day 420: Nico hasn't had a playdate with other dogs in a number of weeks. He was bursting with excitement when we went to visit Kismet, Chester, and Maple today. Despite all the excitement I actually got him to sit before going into their yard. We're working hard on getting him to be calm when he sees other dogs.
Day 421: It was a good day for a boat day.
Day 422: The little side-eye look I get when I asked him what he’s got in his mouth. The answer: a feather from a down pillow.
Day 423: The white haw peaking through.
Day 424: It's a one backward ear sort of day.
Day 425: Nico suffering through some office boredom this afternoon. He loves going to work so much. It takes a lot of self control and coaching/reminding for him not to bolt out my office door every time he hears someone.
Day 426: Nico takes boating safety seriously.
Day 427: A running dog is a happy dog. It's such a pleasure going for walks with Nico in the woods behind our house and watching the pure joy of him zooming around. He's gotten really good at his recall which helps with the running toward the camera action shots.
Day 428: Enjoying the afternoon sun.
Day 429: Passed out after zooming around the yard.
Day 430: Bored and wanting to play.
Day 431: Nico isn't a big fan of the lawnmower, which is a good thing because he stays a good distance away when I'm mowing. I believe this is the look of "why are you pushing that loud smelly machine around and not playing with me?"
Day 432: We may have to name this “Nico’s Rock.” He loves standing and laying on it.
Day 433: Dogs in our household learn to deal with all kinds of goofy stuff. This may seem like harassment to some, but it’s actually a great way of teaching a dog to be comfortable in strange situations. A few years back my cousins dressed up Khyber, including painting his toe nails and putting a sleeping mask on him while he was snoozing. He took no issue with it and we’re working with Nico on being equally tolerant of such strange occurrences.
DAY 434: Nico spent the morning entertaining himself while it was pouring rain outside.
Day 435: Just a dog laying in the grass.
Day 436: End of the day couch snuggles with the little dude. He is really great at slipping into whatever space is available on the couch.
Day 437: Nico doing a running pick-up of his deflated ball. Sometimes his head can't keep up with his body and he trips over himself. The concept of slowing down hasn't set in with him yet.
Day 438: Nico has has the “run directly at the camera” trick down quite well. I suppose that shouldn’t be surprising after 438 days of having your photo taken.
Day 439: All the shades of brown, black, and white. I can't even express how much I love Nico's beautiful little face.
Day 440: A tired pup. Nico swam multiple times today, all on his own, although with a bit of encouragement and reward of pita chips we happened to have on the boat with us. At one point he was swimming circles around me, getting bits of pita chips on every pass. I still have hope that he will eventually be a water dog.
Day 441: Nico has taken up the role of figurehead of our boat.
Day 442: I had to leave home for a few days for work. This is what Nico thinks of me leaving.
Day 443: “Rain rain, go away. I have balls to chase and games to play!” Photo & post by Shelly
Day 444: Just like a loaded spring about to release its potential energy. Nico quickly figured out I had seen his Aunt Luna and Uncle Dickens while I was away. I got the full sniff inspection.
Day 445: Sometimes my job is to be a body pillow for Nico. It’s a job I take great pride and joy in.
Day 446: Nico is running into the weekend.
Day 447: Just a man and his dog ❤️ Post & photo by Shelly
Day 448: Enjoying island time before all the rain.
Day 449: Nico decided to relax on a chair next to me this afternoon. Lucky for him he can curl up small enough to fit on a chair.
Day 450: Chester is seeking a reprieve from Nico’s enthusiasm by staying in the water, Nico is doing everything possible to get as close to Chester as possible without being in the water.
Day 451: Chester fetches the stick from the water and then Nico steals it from him when he gets back to shore. Rude.
Day 452: Nico has been loving all the dog friend time he has had over the past couple days. He’s finally starting to show signs of getting over the excitement of having another dog around, although I’m fairly certain he still frequently annoys Chester with his constant desire to play. Thankfully Chester is very tolerant and mostly enjoys all of the dog play time.
Day 453: Nico may not like to swim, but let the record show that Nico can swim, and quite well at that. Nico is much less risk adverse and trusting than Khyber was. As a result, something seemingly unnatural like swimming is going to take him much longer to be comfortable with. Nevertheless, here he is swimming about 100 yards from a sandbar back to our family camp. I’m still confident he will eventually swim regularly, for now, it’s mostly a matter of getting going and then beelining it back to one of his other persons. But a few days ago he swam loops around me in the same location, baby steps but we are getting there.
Day 454: Nico is exhausted from vacation time.
Day 455: Another lazy day for Nico. He spent a few hours in the boat this afternoon and suffered through nail clipping/filing this evening. It’s a rough life for a spoiled dog.
Day 456: Such a sweet little face.
Day 457: Lazy bone chewing.
Day 458: A wonderful life.
Day 459: Holding on tight to that bone. A few moments earlier he had his toes griped around it.
Day 460: Our household greeter. He's cute but often rude. Nico's enthusiasm often results in manners being thrown out the window. We're getting there though.
Day 461: I spent the entire day working on building a shed. Nico hung out in the yard a good portion of the day but wanted to be inside. All the noise from power saws, air compressors, nail guns, and hammers made him nervous. If I encouraged him he would come say hi, but preferred to be inside away from all the action.
Day 462: Shelly left Nico with me this afternoon as I was working on the shed construction. Without her in the house to seek assurance from, he, somewhat ironically, stuck right by my side as I operated power tools. He clearly wasn't pleased with the situation. My philosophy isn't to console a dog when they are nervous or scared of something, but instead continue as if nothing is out of the ordinary. Eventually he just hung out near all the action. He still isn't entirely comfortable with all the noise but he's getting there.
Day 463: It's rare that I'm the one home and Nico is waiting for Shelly to return. Everytime a vehicle drove by the house he was at the door looking to see if it was her.
Day 464: Whenever we dress Nico up for a walk he stands at the edge of his electronic fence waiting to be leashed up. In fact, he and I go for a walk as soon as we wake up every morning, and as soon as he is done with his morning business he runs over to this spot waiting for me.
Day 465: His face.
Day 466: A rainy day = a wet dog.
Day 467: Nico has proven his atheltic skills today. First he jumped from shore up into the bow of our boat, which is about four and a half feet off the ground with a railing several inches higher. Later in the day he lept up onto this rock. We're camping this weekend and he's proven himself being off leash despite many distractions from nearby sites. A minority of people love to throw shade at us for the e-collar but it allows Nico a lot of freedom and keeps him safely within the bounds of our campsite. A couple vibrations and he quickly learns the bounds of where he can wander.
Day 468:
Day 469: Nico sat like this for 30 minutes watching a motor boat pulling a tuber and three jetskis acting like a bunch of yahoos in the middle of the lake. We're all for fun on the water but even Nico knows it's neither legal or safe to have jet skis jumping the wake of a boat pulling someone or cutting in front of said boat.
Day 470: When we took Nico camping for the first time last year it was a major accomplishment just to get him to lay down at the site. This year he has learned its ok to snooze on the ground and everything doesn’t need his constant attention. After dinner he often stands next to the tent asking to go to bed. We’ll let him in and he’ll sleep in there for an hour or so before we join him. We joke that Nico is looking forward to the end of vacation so he can take a rest and go back to napping on the couch.
Day 471: We’ve reached the end of our camping trip. Nico got really good at snoozing at camp. He is totally whooped from all the activity. He even fell asleep with his head on the side of the boat on the ride home.
Day 472: Shelly messing with Nico. Nico demonstrating his tolerance for being messed with.
Day 473:
Day 474: Coming in hot. Nico enjoyed a good zooming session around the yard this evening. He likes running close around obstacles.
Day 475: I’ve been slowly building a shed in our side yard. Nico is conflicted by the whole thing. One the one hand he likes being outside all day, on the other he isn’t a fan of the saws and hammering. Once it all quiets down he likes to come check on the progress. Occasionally he growls and barks at me, enticing me to go play with him.
Day 476: Nico hanging out in the "shed," watching over the neighborhood. He likes to stand on the shed platform when I'm not working on it. In another couple of days, he'll probably be upset that his viewing platform is obscured by board and batten walls.
Day 477: Typical supervisor, just sitting around snoozing on the job.
Day 478: Nico enjoyed watching Shelly, our friend Bobby, and I waterski this evening. He had a lot to say about it, making all kinds of noises as each of us skied behind the boat. Here he is keeping an eye on Shelly.
Day 479: Sleepy cuddle pup.
Day 480: The look of trouble. This is Nico trying to get me to chase him around the yard.
Day 481: Nico has taken a more active roll in the shed construction. We’ve learned that drills, hammers, and saws are tolerable which means it’s likely the pneumatic framing nail gun that he doesn’t like. He really likes to sit in this spot and look out over the yard. The shed is mostly intended to be a motorcycle garage more than anything else but I’m thinking we might need to start considering dog amenities as well.
Day 482: Licking his lips in anticipation of a treat. I’ve been keeping one pocket of my tool belt full of dog treats in an attempt to recondition Nico to being comfortable around loud construction noise. It’s slowly working.
Day 483: Nico & I made a wager. 1,000 shares on this post and I’ll build him a window and viewing platform in this corner of the shed. 😂 It’s a win-win situation. Facebook would be a happier place with Nico in more people’s newsfeeds and he would get another place to watch over the neighborhood.
Day 484: Late run for the last Donnelly's Ice Cream cone of the year. Nico sat quietly in the car while we waited in line. At the beginning of the summer one of us would have to sit with him otherwise he would bark and howl the entire time.
Day 485: Nico learning olfactory fish identification.
Day 486: Nico hasn’t come to work with me at the Adirondack Watershed Institute in over a month. I forgot how nice it is to have his sweet little face hanging out at my feet. He also passed his first “staying alone in the office” test. He hung out by himself for over an hour while I was down the hall in a meeting. No barking and nothing destroyed. Unfortunately it’s been pouring rain most of the day so he didn’t get to run any of the trails on the Paul Smith's College campus.
Day 487: I wish Facebook would allow you to see all of the detail captured in these 61 megapixels of Nico's cute little face. A little less than a year ago I moved from Nikon to Sony for my main camera and haven't regretted the decision for a second.
Day 488: I'm not sure what is going on here. An attempt at relaxing in the yard? A request for a belly rub?
Day 489: Shelly and I burned Nico out today, not by doing anything exciting but by being outside working on our shed project the entire day. By the evening the poor dude was standing at the door of the house waiting to go inside while we were still working. Normally Nico wants as much outside time as possible but after 10 hours all he wanted was the couch. I can’t blame him.
Day 490: Sleeping in the yard.
Day 491: I guess we need to get Nico a chair so he can relax by the fire with us.
Day 492: Nico being a little creeper from behind some wildflowers. Or… maybe I’m the creeper with a telephoto lens and have just been caught. It’s all a matter of perspective.
Day 493: Well, Nico didn’t get 1,000 shares but we’re assessing the feasibility of installing a viewing platform. I’m not sure he was thrilled about sitting on a piece of plywood supported by sawhorses but he seemed to like the view.
Day 494: Nico did wonderfully this afternoon when John Gray Writer came to visit. He pulled out all the stops for the camera, going through all of his tricks, multiple retrievals of his frisbee to get just the right take, full-on zooming around the yard, climbing up rocks, and of course, getting lots of treats. And, he only left one dirt paw print on John's nice clean shirt. 🙂
Day 495: Politely begging for dinner.
Day 496: Licking his chops.
Day 497: Close encounters of the Nico kind.
Day 498: Nico closely inspecting his tennis ball. He uses his paws as if they were hands. He’s a smart little bugger and I think he sees us manipulating thing with our “paws” and wants to do the same with his. Similarly, he can be quite the talker and at times its possible to carry on a conversation back and forth with him. I’m not sure either of us know what is being said in these instances, I certainly don’t.
Day 499: It's hard to believe that tomorrow will be 500 days with this crazy little guy. It's also hard to believe that I've been able to maintain the even crazier idea of photographing a dog every day for his entire life. Assuming Nico lives for 10 years we're just 14% of the way through this journey. We hope he makes it much longer than that though.
Day 500: Nico supervising construction work. He is definitely interested in the shed and likes to come check out what is going on in it. He has also gotten more comfortable around the power tools. I now need to keep an eye on him to make sure he is at a safe distance when running a saw.