Finley, Riley and Prince

We watched my friend Jen Hagel's two dogs and horse for a week from April 22 to April 29, 2023 while they enjoyed a vacation in Arizona.  Jen's two dogs were Finley who is a large 7 year old mix of Boxer, Golden and another breed and Riley who is a Golden Retriever and just coming out of puppy stage at 2 years old.  She also has Prince, who is an older horse that is no longer ridden but well cared for.

Finley is 7 years old

Riley just turned 2 years old when we were there

Prince awaiting his breakfast!

We have stayed with Jen before so the dogs knew us well but this was the first time we watched them.  We had our routine.  Twice a day we would go out and feed Prince, which involved mixing his grains for the next feed and cleaning out the prior days.  Prince is shy and rarely comes up for anything.  We both did win him over a bit and was able to feed him his treats by hand, which is rare.

Jeanne earns Prince's trust and takes his treat from her

Life on the property consists of feeding Prince twice a day.  He ate a combination of grains that we pre-mixed and then let soak for the next feeding.  That meant that we had to take the soaked one to where he feeds, clean out the old one, take that back and make another mixture for the next time.  Finally, we had to make sure his water bucket was full.

Jeanne mixing the grains for Prince's next feeding

The mixture is heavy so Jen has this hauling cart

We replace the old bucket with the fresh one then clean out the older one and start the mixing process all over again

During the times to feed Prince, the pups know that is also a time for them to come out to the outer pasture and play.  Finley is a bit old now to do any ball fetching but Riley, being just a puppy, absolutely loved to fetch the chuckit.

It's playtime in the pasture!

Finley did like to wrestle with a stick from time to time

We had a little bit of warmer weather later in the week and were able to go out on the deck with them.  Riley also was an excellent frisbee catcher.  Finley was the property watch dog.  He liked to keep an eye on everything around and check things out or just enjoy the sun on the deck.

Both of them licked their snuggle time inside too.

They were such good doggies.  They play well together and that made it easy for us to enjoy them for the week we were there.

We miss them but know that we will be watching them for Jen and Joe in the future too.  This wasn't a Trustedhousesitter sit but you can find a review from Jen in the review section that is linked at the top of the blog.