Lyle Sundog Gordon the Border Collie (age 4 years)

Lyle Sundog Gordon

the Tri-color Border Collie

Age 4 - 4 1/2 years old

Click on each thumbnail to see the larger picture. Photos are arranged in reverse chronological order.

June 13, 2020

Waterloo State Park, Eddy Discovery Center.

Here is Lyle watching for cars before crossing the road, enjoying the Spring Pond Trail and rolling in the dirt by the 1776 Beech Tree.

At his modeling spot and on the way to the bog.

At the bog and resting in the grass.

Rolling in the dirt at the Big Tree Scene.

Watching for cars while crossing the road again.

At the natural bench. He still won't sit on the bench for me, but at least he stayed still for some photos once he finished scratching up the leaves.

At the photo spot on the Oakwoods Trail. Lyle was mostly focused on digging.

Having some additional time left, we went around the Oakwoods Trail a second time. I took some more photos in the same location as above.

For the three photos below, I was talking to Lyle about some confusing things to get some funny looks.

June 3, 2020

It has been a while since I've taken any indoor close-ups, so here are quite a few. Of course, he was looking at spikeball in my hand to make faces like these.

I let him take a break to play some real spikeball. This is the part of the game where he tries to wrap the rubber ball around spikeball.

The first photo in the row below is a pretty funny face. He's only showing his bottom teeth.

June 1, 2020

Waterloo State Park, Eddy Discovery Center. Lyle had a great evening on his favorite trails.

May 25, 2020

Sleeping with Spikeball.

May 4, 2020

Lyle put the blanket over his head!

March 27, 2020

Waterloo State Park, Eddy Discovery Center.

At the 1776 Beech Tree.

I decided to start telling Lyle he is my model and to go down the runway. He really seems to be picking up on what I want him to do in this location, now that we've done it several times. It's still very difficult to get the action shot I'm trying for because he is so fast on his return.

On the way to the bog.

Lyle is signaling that he wants water.

Spring Pond Trail. Lyle enjoyed the leaves at end of the pond. Wood frogs were cackling with a few chorus frogs and peepers mixed in. The sound of the wood frogs seemed to relax Lyle, similar to the effect of music.

On the Oakwoods Trail near the lake. Again, Lyle seems to understand this is the spot for photos. He even sat still for quite a few today and had a very relaxed appearance which is especially apparent in the way the corners of his lips are hanging.

By the bench at the Oakwoods Trail head.

On the observation deck.

March 15, 2020

Waterloo State Park, Eddy Discovery Center. There was no snow, so Lyle dug and rolled in the dirt instead.

At the 1776 Beech Tree.

Lyle at the "Big Tree Scene."

Checking for cars before crossing the park road.

March 7, 2020

Waterloo State Park, Eddy Discovery Center. There was actually still a little snow by the Discovery Center for Lyle to enjoy. He met a new dog there too.

Checking out the 1776 Beech and the boardwalk nearby.

At my favorite photography spot.

On the bridge and by the small pond on the Bog Trail.

This time, we did a small part of the Lakeview Trail instead of Oakwoods. Lyle found an area of leaves by the wooden bench to roll in and kick up.

The most exciting part of Lyle's day was finding a huge patch of unmelted snow at the head of the Lakeview Trail.

February 23, 2020

Waterloo State Park, Eddy Discovery Center.

There hasn't been snow in Lyle's yard for almost 2 weeks. He was glad to see it hadn't all melted here yet, and of course, dove in the moment he got out of the car. The first thing he did was sniff out the exact spot where he laid down last weekend (first photo).

I always ask him to check out the 1776 Beech tree hole, and he does, but today, he finally paused just long enough to get a few good photos of him.

One of my new favorite photo spots just past the boardwalk by the Beech.

Here he is waiting for a group of people to approach.

On the way to the bog.

Rolling around in the snow on the boardwalk at the bog.

The bridge over the marsh.

On the Spring Pond Trail, which had a lot of snow.

The Oakwoods Trail.

At the bench overlooking the lake and standing by the big tree to the right of the first scene below.

Just like last week, he plopped down in the snow by the car and rested a bit. I asked him a lot of questions to obtain some interesting expressions.

February 16, 2020

Waterloo State Park, Eddy Discovery Center.

There was no snow in Lyle's yard, so he sure was excited to get out of the car and find lots of snow here. Of course, he dove right in.

He also did a lot of laying down in the snow. Here he is, patiently waiting for me to photograph the 1776 Beech tree, which he inspected afterwards, as usual.

This was the scene just past the boardwalk near the 1776 tree. The lighting was great and I really wanted to get a nice shot of Lyle coming around the corner, but he was too fast. At one point, a woman was coming down the trail and Lyle stood up on his hind legs to see her better.

The bridge on the way to the bog.

At the bog.

On the Oakwoods trail in the usual photography spot. He laid down right when we got there, then rolled around and sniffed the surroundings.

Someone made a tiny snowman. I tried to keep Lyle from getting too close, but he was too curious. He barely touched it with his nose and it fell over.

Rolling around on the Observation Deck.

When we were almost to the car, Lyle laid down in the undisturbed snow for a while.

February 2, 2020

Maybury State Park.

All the snow in Lyle's yard has been melted for days, but many parts of Maybury were still full of snow on this 50-degree day! Lyle couldn't wait to dive in.

The next two rows show him salivating excessively after having found a good scent.

January 21, 2020

Here are some photos of Lyle early in the morning on January 21, 2020 resting in two places in which I've never photographed him---upstairs in the den in his favorite chair and fluffy bed.

Here he is downstairs on the evening of January 21, 2020. He often drags out his blankets from his downstairs bed areas and lays them out in the family room to rest on, like he has done here.