Pictures!! Yay!! Pictures!!

Here are just a few to catch up for now. The first one he definitely cut in on his little friend Zoey, a golden retriever/lab mix - my brother's pup. He's such a goof! The swimming pictures were from today, it was definitely a hot one. He's sleeping of the exhaustion at my feet as we speak. I even got some videos of him today running the water. I got his great water entry too! He's progressing very nicely. He had the choke collar on Sunday for the first real time to actually train with it and he did awesome. We only use it for a little while and he gets focused and will actually walk at heel. I can't believe how trainable he is. And he's all focus when it's time to retrieve. His recall is amazing for his age. Even if he's scented something or is trying to chew something, whatever, he will come to me. I've discovered today his one weakness on the recall...the ducks! He decided he wanted to play with them again today (they are out in the creek) and almost got the big one that can't really fly. While I love his enthusiasm I had to teach him to listen and to excercise some amount of control lol. He got introduced to gunshot again last week. I shot my Marlin 17HMR and while he acted surprised at the pops he was looking about to find them and not trying to run away. He would wag his tail when I got his attention after I shot too. We went out to the range. I can't wait to give him a flyer.

He's self steady on water marks too. He waits for the splash and will now even wait until I release him on his name. He goes sooner on land marks but I let him. Not that I would really damper his drive as it's so high already but better safe than sorry. He takes good lines in the water too. I throw a couple down the bank and he has only cheated and come out on the bank early once. He brings the bumper right back to me too. The one entry point we have he has to go up a little bank to get to me, there's not too much flat surface next to the shore, and he holds it all the way up until he gets to me and I take it. Sometimes he drops it when he gets out at first if he swallowed water or wants to shake but always picks it up and brings it to me. Gotta love routines!!

His OB is great. Sit requires a little more focus than the rest of them so I've been treating a lot more lately because I didn't treat a lot when I taught him. I already touched on his recall. I taught him using "come" but am starting to use "here" as well, so far so good. He knows down now, not as reliable but he just learned it. And sitting heel is going great too. We use a lot of treats with it to get him into the right spot. I try to work him when he's got some of his energy out because otherwise he's jumping for the treat and sits out away from me.

He got to play with the dead pigeon yesterday. He loved it of course. It was a bit more frozen than I would have liked but made it easy to throw at least. He only got to do a couple before we had to go to the fire department meeting/training. He tried to eat my zucchini when I picked them out of the garden too!! Crazy pup!