Saturday, October 29, 2011

New Brighton Park and the Fraser River

As our renovations continue in the basement we had to order the fixtures & fittings for the new laundry. We had managed to order and arrange delivery of 95% of the cabinets, cabinet doors, sink etc from a certain well known Swedish furniture outlet.  However, when ordering our cabinetry from our nearest store in Coquitlam a couple of items were out of stock.  After checking what we needed was available from the other store in the city located in Richmond I decided to head over there this week to ensure we had everything required for our contractors to install on Monday.

After setting out Mojo seemed a little restless in the car, perhaps because I hadn’t walked him before we left home.  So I pulled into a park en-route to let him stretch his legs and do his business.  This was a small city park I had never visited, located just West of the Second Narrows Bridge right on the shores of Burrard Inlet in East Vancouver, called New Brighton Park.  It turned out to be a really lovely little dog-friendly park in amongst the urban industrial neighbourhood.

Gorgeous fall colours of the maple trees in the park.

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New Brighton Parks history actually goes back further than the rest of the city, being the original location of Hastings Townsite, established in 1865 it housed the citys first post office, dock, stable, playing field, customs office and museum. 

The dock and sea oriented history of the city is still very visible from this location, being surrounded by water, a container ship terminal to our West and immediately to the East the Viterra terminal which exports by sea feed for cattle and poultry using grain grown in Saskatchewan and brought here by rail.

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We are close to the Second Narrows Bridge.

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Views from the waterfront park to the West down Burrard Inlet towards downtown and West Vancouver.

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Across to North Vancouver with The Lions on the left and the ‘bump’ of Mt Fromme on the right.  In the centre the dry ski-runs are visible although at the time of writing the local mountains have just had their first snow of the season so winter is definitely on it’s way !

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Zoomed in on Grouse Mountain and Mt Fromme.

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Panorama of the view from New Brighton Park.

After a good chase around after a stick and a couple of other dogs we head back towards the car, views here as we leave New Brighton Park.

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We continue the approximately 40-minute drive across town to Richmond, passing this colourful street scene on the way.

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We reach the Richmond branch of Ikea.  This particular store is almost directly under the flight path for Vancouver International Airport.  If you have ever approached YVR from the East you have most likely flown right over the top of them.

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After spending absolutely ages in Ikea sorting a few of their administerial errors we collect the missing items we required and then get back to the car and Mojo who is still waiting patiently in the back.  I had seen on the map that there were a couple of small riverfront parks near to us that we could stop in for another run around before returning home.

Views here across the North Arm of the Fraser River, looking at Vancouver from the Richmond side.

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Views West along the Fraser River.

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More views across the river.

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Finally a panorama from the riverfront park before heading home.

2 comments:

Louise Ducote said...

Mojo is such a good car dog! It's cool enough to leave mine in the car for a bit now, but I'm afraid they would chew the seatbelts into tiny little shreds and I would have to explain to a police officer that my Aussies run my life. . .Did you gradually train him to stay in the car or did it happen all at once?

David and Adrian said...

Hi Louise.

Thanks for your comment.

Mojo is actually an excellent car dog, unlike our previous Aussie Charlie who loved going out in the car, but if anyone tried to get out of the car once we were in it all hell would break out barking and scratching the windows. His herding instincts would cause the chaos and he would stop and calm down and sleep as soon as we were out of sight. It was particularly unpleasant at a gas station for example because you don't leave sight you stand right next to the car so the tirade of abuse from our Aussie in the car would continue all the while filling up, usually getting some very strange looks from other patrons of the gas station !

The act of leaving & arriving without being barked at was something we knew we needed to get right with Mojo so we worked on this straight away.
From his maybe 2nd or 3rd day with us we would leave him in the kitchen (the room we designated for him to stay in when we leave the house - it was least destructable !) for just a few seconds and then return and be quite nonchalant about the return, no big welcome or fuss simply walk back into the room. We did this many times over gradually extending the time we left him.

We took Mojo out with us on errands from probably the end of his first week with us. It was easier having both of us around to be honest because we would drive to the supemarket, David could run in and actually do the shopping while I sat with Mojo in the car and again started just leaving him for a minute or two then coming back and gradually increasing the time.

I would say that once you've got them happily left in any environment for 30 minutes you're probably OK for a couple of hours or maybe longer depending on your dog.
It was over 2.5 years ago now so I can't remember exactly but I would think that Mojo was completely fine being left for a little while, ie grocery shop visit etc within his first 3-4 weeks with us and then as he was able to extend his time between bathroom breaks so the time he could be left could be increased.

When we were ready to leave Mojo for slightly longer periods we would leave him one of his chew sticks, with a view to keeping him occupied in our absence. Mojo however seems to view this as a gift he must guard while we are out and he won't touch it at all until we return when he very specifically brings us the chew stick or bone or whatever we left him and shows it to us so we can see he saved it. He will then run to his corner on the living room rug and demolish it immediately ! Although it wasn't quite what we expected, the outcome of a happy dog while we're away and a kitchen in one piece when we return is the same so it's all good.

My understanding from the training books we've read is that the key is to get them comfortable with the fact that you will be coming back which is why you have to start with baby steps and work up to a longer time left.
If you think Revel or Ivy might chew something in the car when you leave them pehaps introduce a chew stick or something that you think they would find irrestible over fixtures of the car just while they get used to the fact that this could be an easy regular occurance that they don't need to be stressed or worried about (which is presumably why they would want to chew the seatbelt ?)

Anyway, hope some of that helps !

We love your blog by the way, we always look forward to the next post. Ivy seems to be so similar in character to Charlie, our first Aussie and Revel is definiately from the same mould as Mojo.....likes nothing better than a good snooze !

Cheers, Adrian.