Spotty who?

Happy Derby Day!!

Today is Derby's first birthday! Ahhh, how is it possible my little spotted monster is a year old?

We had a really great day - obedience class this morning followed by swimming and playing with our best Golden friends. We then headed to our favorite holistic pet store where Derby got to see more friends and give out lots of hugs and kisses. This afternoon he got a "special birthday bath" (how's that for a positive spin) and then we had a little party with the "grandparents" complete with puppy ice cream and new toys. Whew! I'm sure he could keep going (and going and going), but *I'm* exhausted.

Without getting all mushy, all I can say is that I just love this spotty boy. :) Even though he sometimes makes me want to pull my hair out, he makes me smile and laugh out loud every single day. I'm looking forward to many fun adventures together!

Speaking of, we've got a month or so break from our weekend dock diving adventures, but I though I'd share video from our last dock diving practice. He's really getting some air! Whodathunk I'd have myself a little diving spotty?



Happy Birthday, Derby pup! Here's to many, many more!

Return to Sender

Sometimes captions aren't needed...

I'm certain that he loves the little monster pup (really), but I'm also certain that Peyton would also be perfectly happy as an only spotty. I'm constantly amazed at how tolerant he is, although he definitely makes his opinion known, complete with heavy sighs and an array of pouty faces. If only he could roll his eyes..

I've seen some big changes in Peyton over the past few months. I can't really put my finger on exactly what it is, but he's been more relaxed in general and extra affectionate, even with people that he really doesn't know all that well. Who knows, maybe at age 5, he's finally figured out how to be (relatively) comfortable in his own skin. I don't dare use the word "mature" though. :)

I think he's had a good summer, even though we haven't done a whole lot - that's what breaks are for, I suppose. He's really enjoyed running around the field while I set up for my classes twice a week and occasionally, we've run a sequence or two (he's my guinea pig for a lot of the courses I set up), but other than that, not much in the way of training. Which is fine until it recently occurred to me that our first trial of the season is next weekend. Oops. I'm guessing that we'll be a tad (or perhaps a lot) bit rusty, but it sure will be fun to get back in the ring.

On an unrelated note, apparently the spotty boys have recently decided that they are master hunters. It all started a few weeks ago when I had Derby out just a little before midnight and he caught a frog (or toad?) and proceeded to run laps around the backyard with it hanging out of his mouth (while I'm shrieking dropitdropitdropitdropitnow). It was dark, but I *think* he finally did drop it considering I didn't see any evidence of frog parts afterwards. My apologies to any neighbors I woke up that night.

Not to be outdone by the little brat, Peyton caught a mouse last week. I didn't see it happen, but heard squeaking sounds and once I realized there wasn't a toy in his mouth, I asked him to drop it (which he did immediately - good boy!) and there was a poor little mouse. Unfortunately the mouse did not survive. Don't tell Peyton, but I'm not convinced that the mouse wasn't a little mentally or physically ill. Really, I don't think he's a natural hunter. :)

This new obsession with catching critters has continued and for some reason my backyard has turned into a frog farm this year. They are everywhere. Derby is thrilled. Me, not so much. I'm pretty sure that they are of the harmless variety, but 1.) I like frogs and really don't want to see them eaten, 2.) frog herding is not how I prefer to spend my evenings and 3.) while practical, all this "leave-it" frog training really isn't much fun. Stupid, suicidal frogs.

Splash Dogs!

So the other night I decided to finally put together a big 'ol long post about the joys (read: frustrations) of adolescent spotty boy dogs and after re-reading it, I wasn't sure that all my random thoughts put together really made a whole lot of sense. That's what I get for attempting to catch up on blogging when I should be catching up on sleep. ;)

Long rambling story short: rather than fighting my (at the time) 9 month old puppy when his brain suddenly decided to move south (and I'm not referring to geography), I opted for a little attitude adjustment on my part and a new training plan that focused on fun with minimal frustrations.

Basically, when the going gets tough, the tough go dock diving. :)

Exhibit A: Fun! No stress! Stays! Happy spotty pup! Happy Kim!

I know I say this waaaay to much, but...isn't he adorable!? :)

Now this isn't to say that I've completely abandoned any other training; I'm just trying to train a little bit smarter not push for more than Derby is mentally able to give me in any given situation. He *is* a good puppy (I can say that now that we're mostly past the I-must-pee-on-everything stage) and I'm really happy with how he's progressing.

Before I start rambling again, we have some fun news - Derby competed in his first "Splash Dogs" event this past weekend! I use the term "competed" lightly because we really just entered to have a chance to play at a new location. I was confident that he would be fine with the environment (dogs, people, etc.) and was pretty sure he would jump, even if it took me going in first. ;)

He did fabulous! In our first "splash" (two jumps), his best jump was over 9 feet and in the finals (2 jumps), his best was 10'6". He originally placed 7th overall in the Junior finals (which I was thrilled with), but we found out the next day that they didn't have him in the correct division so he actually finished 1st in his splash and 1st in the Splash finals! Needless to say, he totally exceeded my expectations.

I definitely had my hands full with all of the new smells and distractions, but once he got up on the dock, his focus was great...and he held his stay! So proud of my little spotty boy. :)

Here's a little video - I didn't get all the jumps, but the second one is his jump in the finals.

I almost forgot - the cute little Dal girl he was flirting with at the end of the video is Emma. It was such a nice surprise to see her and her mom Amy at the event! They live on the East coast and this was their first dock diving competition too (they did great!). Hopefully we'll be seeing them a lot more in the future!

Jumping Spotty!

Oh my poor neglected little spotty blog...one of these days I'll get back to regular updates. Hopefully. :) I'm sure y'all are getting real tired of swimming videos, but considering it is very HOT down here, and we haven't been doing a whole lot of training in general, that's about all I've got for the time being.

I'm a few weeks behind, but I thought I'd share Derby's first time diving off the "big kid" dock. At first, he really wasn't sure what he was supposed to do (and boy was he MAD), but after I jumped in, the lightbulb came on. I felt a little ridiculous, but hey - it worked. :)

Last week he didn't think twice about jumping right in - he did great! At this point, he's pretty much jumping from a standstill, but he seems to be getting the hang of it so I'm guessing we'll start adding a little bit of distance in soon. At the very end we introduced the "speed retrieve", which admittedly wasn't super speedy but considering he's not exactly a "water dog", I think he did pretty darn good. And oh my gosh, is he not ADORABLE!?

These videos make me smile. :) So much fun! I do have some other random training thoughts and updates to share, but they will have to wait until my brain is fully functional. In addition to having a crazy busy schedule lately, I've been really sick this past week and am just now starting to feel slightly human again. Soon!

Future Dock Diver?

Derby was introduced to the "real" dock diving pool last weekend! He did great!

We took a little intro class where he learned to jump off the ramp for a toy. Actually "learned" is a stretch since he pretty much dragged me up the stairs and right into the water! This spotty boy most definitely does not lack confidence. :)

Nothing overly exciting at this point, but I thought I'd share a little video:

He really had a such a fun time and it was a little challenging to get him *out* of the pool. In the first clip you can hear me calling him and he was all LALALALALALA I can't heeeeeeaaaaaaar you. I'm sure he just had water in his ears. :) Naughty spotty.

Next time we'll try him off the actual dock. I'm excited! Now I just need to work on getting rid of my horrendous farmer's tan. And to think I live in Florida. :)

On a different note, GOOD LUCK to all of my friends competing in DACOF this weekend! I'm extremely bummed that we won't be there, but it just wasn't in the cards for this year. Happy fast, FUN, clean runs to you all!

Beach Spotty

I think it's safe to say that Derby is *officially* a swimmin' spotty. A few weekends ago (yes, I'm a bad blogger) I took him to a little dog beach on the bay and he had a grand time!

While I can't say juggling a spotty, a toy and my iphone *in* the water was the smartest thing I've ever done, these events have to be documented, right?

Please forgive the mediocre, unedited iphone pictures. :)

No More Thinking!

Not too much exciting to report around here! Peyton has been in an especially good mood lately. We haven't been doing a ton of training, but he has been working so nice and happy. I was just thinking this week about how happy he's been and the fact that we haven't had any odd issues and sure enough that same evening, goofy Peyton returned. During class, Peyton decided to run his a-frame and when I stopped to fuss at him, I must have leaned down while he jumped up and I accidently (barely) poked him near his eye. Of course he screamed and proceed to trot around with his tail between his legs acting like he had been beaten. He recovered enough to have some decent runs, but he was definitely suspicious. See, that's what I get for thinking! Poor Peyton. We have a local trial tomorrow and Monday so we'll see if he remembers. If he remembers anything, hopefully it is to stop on his contacts. ;)

As for Derby, he seems to be 100% so we've pretty much resumed normal activity. Hopefully he stays sound...I don't think *I* can take any more extended crate rest! After such a long break, we're trying to get back in the swing of training and of course, during the break his hormones decided to kick into gear. Sooo...return of the brainless puppy. Fabulous. :)

On a good note, he loves his weekly swimming sessions at the Golden pool! While he probably won't make any canine Olympic swimming team, he is doing really good. I've included some recent video - it's probably not very exciting to anyone but me, but having a dog that enjoys playing in a pool is still a novelty to me. And of course, he is soooo stinkin' cute!

Peyton joined us during a night swimming party and while he had a grand time running around the pool, I would be very surprised if he ever decided to get in. Derby figured out pretty quickly that if he kept his toys in the water, they were safe. :)

Since I'm playing catch up, here are a few pictures from last week. I had to test my lights and the spotties are always good subjects.

Peyton is *the* biggest camera hog! He is always happy to play model and was not very happy that Derby was in *his* picture...

And just for fun... :)

Hope everyone is having a great Memorial Day weekend!

Swimmin' Spotty!

Derby pup is learning how to swim! I've been itching to get him in the water for months, but up until a few weeks ago, it's been just a little too chilly. I can't say much good about having an injured spotty pup, but it did get me motivated to get him swimming!

He's not exactly a natural, but has made quite a bit of progress! Here's a little video of his third swim lesson.

Gah, isn't he cute!? He's definitely figuring out how to use his legs and is doing a much better job of moving forward and not just splashing in place. :) He seems to really enjoy it...a few times he jumped in on his own and he loves just standing on the steps and splashing in the water. SO CUTE.

I hope to get him over to the "golden pool" at least once or twice a week. I think it will be great conditioning for him and who knows, maybe it will help with his (lack of) coordination. :)

Breaks, Birthdays and Bubblewrap

Breaks. I don't think I'm doing very well with the whole "break" concept. Is there a support group for agility trial addicts? I ended up entering a local trial last weekend and then entered another one at the end of the month. I just can't help it...it's too tempting when we have trials so close to home! After that we're done for the summer. Maybe.

We had a *really* good day on Saturday...just one bar from a QQ. Peyton was running so well and was probably the most relaxed (for Peyton) he's been in a while. We qualified in JWW (!) and despite one ugly tunnel call-off (bad handler!), he still took 3rd in the class. Good spotty!

Sunday was a different story; our standard run was all over the place and JWW was just messy. I think I had 5 front crosses planned in the first 10 obstacles and each one I got just a little further behind and the last one I was so behind I sent him off course. Poor Peyton; I think he might have been a little mad at his handler after that run. :)

Overall, it was a fun weekend. Still looking for that magic recipe for keeping Peyton relaxed and happy, but even a bad (using that term loosely) day at an agility trial is better than most other good days. Love my wild, moody, complicated spotty boy!

Birthdays. Indy turned 7 last Sunday! She might not get a whole lot of blog time, but she *is* the only spotty who gets to go to Dairy Queen on her birthday. She thought that was pretty awesome. It's hard to believe she's 7...I swear she never changes. A (very amused) couple sitting next to us at DQ asked if it was her 1st birthday. :)

Bubblewrap. Apparently one should not joke about wrapping a puppy in bubblewrap unless they are 100% serious. Poor Derby. We're about to start week 4 of "taking it easy" after he (most likely) pulled a ligament in his left hind knee. Exactly *how* he did it is a mystery; he just started holding his leg up one evening.

Sigh. There is nothing fun about trying to keep a 7 1/2 month old Dalmatian puppy down. He was really good the first week, but since then he has made it perfectly CLEAR that he's over this "take it easy" nonsense.

On a positive note, he has been looking really good and I've not seen any obvious signs of limping since a few days after we saw the vet. Hopefully he's on the mend. I am, of course, a little nervous about his recovery. Did I mention he's not exactly graceful?

At least we got to take home pretty pictures. :)

Training Pupdate

**Warning** - Long random, rambling post about puppy training so (hopefully) I can remember what we were doing at 7 months. :)

Borrowed from a facebook update a few weeks ago....

LOST: 6 month old spotty puppy brain. Male. Has been spotted on occasion, but disappears before it can be captured. Was in very good condition, Will likely require time and an abundance of patience to locate. REWARD. :)

I was kidding (mostly), but lately Derby's motto does seem to be "brain today, gone tomorrow". A simple behavior request is often met with a blank stare (cue silence & birds chirping in the background). Patience, patience, patience, Kim.

To be fair, there have been lots of brilliant moments mixed in with the brainless ones. He really *is* a good puppy...I just think he's at that age where an extra dose (or three) of patience is required on my part. :)

I'm really pretty happy about where we are training-wise. I've been taking it slow with lots of foundation work, but I'm starting to get a little more structured with my goals and plans, as opposed to working on whatever I feel like working on at any given moment. I think that taking classes helps in that department a lot since I usually come away with good feedback and new ideas/things to work on. He finished his basic obedience class in February and received his S.T.A.R. puppy designation (as if I needed to donate another $10 to AKC). Then we took a performance puppy class taught by a friend (all foundation stuff), and we just started a new beginner/foundation agility class last weekend.

We've also dropped into a few intermediate obedience classes where he totally exceeded my expectations (thank you for showing up, puppy brain!). His heeling is coming along nicely and his stays and recalls were brilliant. Near the end of the last class, we worked a figure 8 pattern and I don't think his eyes left mine...we received several nice complements on that. Good spotty pup! I had forgotten how much I enjoy training obedience type work.

He really is a fun (and so far, relatively easy) dog to train. He's both food and toy motivated, which is great, and at this point I'm just trying to find a nice balance between the two. For the most part, I use food when I want him to think and tugging when I want enthusiasm. Because he tends to be a little too thoughtful and polite (IMO) at times, I'm using toys a little more than food at the moment. Thankfully he's got a pretty good on switch/off switch.

It's funny, but one of the bigger challenges we're having at the moment is his little awkward puppy body. He has *no* idea where his legs are and how they work at speed. I can't tell you how many times he's accidently run into me...during recalls at our agility class last weekend our instructor said he looked like Bambi on ice. :) I know it's temporary (at least I hope it is!), but I'm thinking about getting knee pads until he finds his brakes.

As much as I enjoy working with him, I have to say that I love his temperament more than anything. He's just so darn easy to have around! At the last agility trial I had him out around the rings quite a bit and despite everything that was going on around him, he was happy to plop down and stretch out in the dirt and watch. As much as I love Peyton, it's such a nice change to not have to micromanage all the time.

In other puppy news, at 7 months (and a few days), Derby is about the same height as Indy (20"-21"ish) and was around 50# when I last weighed him (a week or so ago, I think?). I don't really think he's going to get much taller, but we'll see. Everyone seems to think he looks big in pictures, but he's still a shrimp standing next to Peyton. :)

I have some pictures and video to share if I can ever manage to find a few more hours in the day. In the meantime, here's one of him looking very grownup-ish.

Yay Indy!

We had our club agility trial last weekend (I'm just a tad bit behind) and Indy saved our NQ weekend with a lovely jumpers run. She was moving pretty good too...I think I did 5 front crosses (on a novice course!), which is probably a record for me. Not bad for my little girlie who trials 3 times a year!

As for Peyton...some good, some bad, but overall pretty inconsistent. We actually did much better on the jumpers courses, which is unusual. He just missed qualifying on Saturday by one stinkin' bar. One bar! My fault, of course.

I'm thinking that we might not be trialing again until the fall, which is kind of a bummer. I still feel like in order to really make progress we need to trial more frequently, but it just gets so expensive...and time consuming. So maybe a long break is in order. I feel like this season we've just not found a rhythm with training/trialing...so definitely something to work on.

The AKC Agility Nationals are this weekend in Virginia. I have several friends competing this year and I really wish I could be there! Not necessary to compete (although that would be nice *one* of these days)...I just enjoy watching really good agility (and rooting for friends, of course!). I'm settling for facebook updates and so far they've been pretty good. :)

DCA Nationals are at the end of the month and I was really hoping to make it this year, but unfortunately that's not going to happen either. I am looking forward to updates from all my friends though (hint, hint!). We *will* make it sometime in the next few years, providing it's not too far away.

Derby pup is doing great - next post will be a training update. In the meantime, here are a few (old) pictures.

Nope, he doesn't have attitude. Not at all. :)





Happy weekend!

Always Something

After several weeks of bizarre Peyton behavior, it appears that I have my happy spotty dog back. More about that in a few, but first I thought I'd share some video from this past weekend's trial.

It's really too bad we can't edit runs in real time, instead of waiting for video! Overall we had some nice runs, but the theme this weekend (for me) was poor use of motion. When I needed to *move*, I was being a weenie and when I needed to be *patient*, I was moving. Poor Peyton; he really does a good job putting up with me.

The good news is that he was happy...which brings me back to his bizarre behavior. Over the past several weeks, we've been dealing with the following:

Frantic grass eating

Increased anxiety/nervousness

Depressed behavior

Random shaking for no apparent reason

Increased reactivity

OCD type behavior, including air biting

It was very, very odd and very random. One minute he'd be anxious and the next he would act depressed. My vet checked him out and couldn't find anything obvious, and his blood work came back good so there really wasn't anything to explain why my spotty dog had suddenly lost his mind. Until...I remembered that he had a rabies vaccine a few days before all this started. Ugh. Because I do very little vaccinating, I didn't even think about it. The only reason why I had the rabies done is because a) it's required by law and b) because we do a fair amount of traveling.

A friend of mine agreed that a "mental" reaction was very possible and suggested that I give him the homeopathic remedy Lyssin ASAP. I gave him a dose late one night and the next morning was the first in weeks where Peyton didn't wake me up pacing. And he's been back to pretty much his usual level of craziness ever since.

While I can't say 100% that his behavior was due to a vaccine reaction, it seems the most likely culprit. Soooo, my PSA of the day is that if your dog seems to jump on the crazy train after a rabies vaccine, please consider the possibility of a reaction. It was certainly a very unnerving couple of weeks for me, but (fingers crossed) hopefully he's recovered now.

It's always something. :)

Happy 1/2 Birthday Derby!

Derby is 6 months old today! Can you believe I brought this little monster home 4 months ago? :)

Since I really don't have the energy for a full pupdate, I'm hoping a cute video will suffice. This is Derby with his best Golden bud, Finn. I didn't manage to really capture it on video, but he *loves* sticking his entire head in Finn's mouth. Silly pup. I don't know what he's going to do when his head no longer fits. :)

Happy 1/2 Derby Day!

More Derby Adventures

It's hard to believe, but Derby pup will be 6 months old next week. Again, what happened to my "puppy"...he's looking so grown up these days!

We've had a busy, busy week. Last Saturday he joined me at the Celebration of Pets in Sarasota - it was a huge event and he met hundreds of new friends. It was also a very long day (10+ hours) and he was *such* a good puppy. Here's a picture of him manning my booth.

He has since demanded a big raise and a new title (Public Relations Manager, of course). :)

Yesterday we made a 3 hour trip north for a Dalmatian "fun day" and Derby got to give coaching a try. So fun! He took to it right away...very cool to see that instinct kick in.

And here's a little video...

Good boy Derb! As much as I love agility training, and training in general, nothing beats seeing a Dal doing what they were bred to do. I'd love to start some road trial training with him once he grows up and matures a bit. Of course, I'd also love to have a horse again. Derby too...he especially enjoyed their "cookies". :)

Paaaarrrrty!

The spotty boys and I headed over to Vero Beach this past weekend for a three day trial. This was their first time staying in a hotel together, and it turned out to be rather...entertaining.

I don't know if I've mentioned it much here, but Derby is a very busy pup. *Very* busy. He is pretty much the spotty equivalent of the energizer bunny. He just keeps going and going and going! At home I manage it with lots of crate breaks, but I didn't think the other guests would really appreciate me attempting to train a quiet crate behavior at the hotel (he is very good at home).

Derby learned during his first trip that hotels are fun. He learned on this trip that hotel stays with Peyton are double the fun! Peyton was a very good puppysitter and did his best to try and keep Derby entertained, but even after 3+ hours of playing (and walks) every night, he *still* wanted to keep going, and I pretty much had to hold him until he would finally fall asleep. On a good note, once he's out, he's out for the night.

Night one: hotels are fun!

OMD. Does he *ever* give up?

Night two: Maybe he won't notice I'm here...

Night three: *Finally!*

On the trial front, it was another big fat NQ weekend for us, but we did have some nice runs. There was only one jumpers run that was a bit of a train wreck; the others we just missed qualifying by one or two little things. With the exception of one very naughty running dogwalk, contacts were pretty good. Peyton was happy. I was happy. Derby was happy. Happy is good. :)

Just Because

...he's so stinkin' cute. :)

Growing Up Spotty

Derby pup is 20 weeks today! He's definitely looking less like a puppy and more like a little spotty dog. I think the realization that he *is* going to grow up is finally starting to sink in. Darn!

With this realization in mind, I'm finding myself in the "what should I be doing with you" stage. Not that we've been sitting around doing nothing (although some days that sure would be nice!) - I'm just starting to think more about foundation type work that is appropriate for his age. It's so easy to forget that he really doesn't know all that much. I think Peyton must have learned everything while he was sleeping because I sure don't remember much of our puppy training. :)

One thing I know we need to really start working on is better puppy manners when greeting people. He thinks everyone wants a Derby puppy in their lap (complete with kisses), and now that he's getting bigger, that's not always the case. Now, I do know that if I was a really good puppy trainer, I would have trained a polite greeting from the very start, but since the idea of having a puppy that *really* loved people was pretty novel to me, I decided that I was going to enjoy his enthusiastic greetings while he was small and just deal with having to train a different behavior later on. Like now. :) Hopefully it won't be too difficult and in fairness, he does have a very gentle way of crawling up your leg.

Here's a little video of us playing around on the agility field last weekend. Such great attention even with all of the noise from what must have been target practicing nearby. Good spotty pup!

Pupdates!

Long before our Derby pup came along, I had all of these great thoughts about how well I was going to document my next puppy's puppyhood. In addition to starting a new puppy blog, I even planned on trying to take a picture every single day for the first year. Clearly, I didn't plan on getting a pup smack dab in the middle of my busy season. But hey, it's all good...even though Derby's arrival wasn't exactly "planned", I wouldn't change a thing.

Derby pup is 19 weeks old today and is living up to his nickname, "rottenlittlespottedpuppymonster". Well, except for the little part...he's almost as big as Indy now. In all fairness, he really is pretty darn good as far as puppies go - BUT - he's also at that stage where games like "catch me if you can" become really, really fun. Ah, memories. Let's just say after a lot of hunting, I've found my long line. :)

Rottenness aside, he's been *such* a positive addition to our little spotty home. I still find myself in awe when I watch them all together. Especially Indy. I don't she has played this much...ever! She just adores him and seems to be very happy to finely have a spotty that appreciates (and loves!) her rough play style. And Peyton...while he doesn't have a future in the WWF, he seems to enjoy the little monster most of the time. They are both extremely tolerant of his antics...so much so that I'm starting to wonder when Derby's puppy license is going to expire.

In other news, we've got lots of fun stuff coming up! Peyton and I are headed to a trial tomorrow up in Tampa. Next week Derby and I are going to a puppy seminar with Silvia Trkman, which I'm really looking forward to - she seems like a lot of fun! And then the following week Peyton and I are attending a three day handling camp, which should be equally fun (and exhausting, I'm sure!). Right now I've only got a few trials planned in February and March, but if I feel like we're making some progress, we might add a few more. I've been trying to do a little better in the training front - not necessarily training harder, but (hopefully) smarter. If anything, Peyton seems to be running with even more speed and enthusiasm than ever - which is definitely *fun*, but could make trailing even more interesting. We'll see. :)

That's it for our overdue pupdate! I'll leave you with a fun picture from last week...my three stooges; always entertaining.

Derby - 4 Months!

Derby is 4 months old tomorrow! He's getting big and is really starting to fill out...I think it's so unfair that puppies grow up so quickly! While it's exciting to think about doing "big dog" things, I really wish this stage of puppyhood would last a little longer.

Poor Derby is unhappy with me at the moment for subjecting him to a day of crate rest. This morning he ran into the corner of the couch (of all things?) and came up screaming with one front leg up in the air. It was so dramatic that I thought for sure he had broken something, but after he calmed down I checked him over and couldn't find anything obvious. He's favoring his right front a little though so I'm trying to keep him quiet and if he still looks off tomorrow I'll have my vet come over and take a look. Gah; I swear this puppy is going to give me a full head of grey hair. It seems like he is always running into something! Earlier this week I let him play around on the agility field with the Goldens and he ran full speed into the side of one of them (who was standing still) and landed with a big grunt. Seriously Derby; you don't just bounce off a 80+ dog that is all muscle. Silly puppy.

Other than thinking he is super puppy with wings, he continues to be just a really awesome pup. I had him out quite a bit at the last trial and nothing really seems to phase him; he was just happy to hang out and take everything in...so confident and easy going. He met lots of new dogs including several cute little border collie girls. :)

Even though he's met hundreds of new people so far, I still can't get over how much he loves them all. If we pass someone who doesn't acknowledge him, he acts genuinely disappointed...he thinks everyone should be his best friend! And while he will show interest in other dogs, he will usually bypass them to try and meet their owner. Such a happy pup.

We started a basic obedience class last week (mainly to get him working in a more distracting environment) and he was a brilliant puppy. We were sitting next to two large, very unruly dogs and he was able to focus on me for the entire class. A lot to ask for a puppy his age, but he was awesome. He even pulled out some end-of-leash stays that I didn't know we had. Good Derby pup!

I'm really not in any hurry to do a whole lot of formal training with him, but putting him in a class forces me to spend time working on the basics. Silly puppy trick are much more entertaining. :)

Here are a few pictures I took on the agility field last week...

Cookie, please?

Starting to loose his little smooshy puppy nose. :(

What are *you* looking at?

He was so funny...getting a picture of him moving is next to impossible because if he knows I have cookies, he's always right on top of me. Once he figured out that he wasn't getting anything, he started exploring a bit, but I would call him when he got too far away. He would come flying back (good boy!) to a big reward. He then figured out that the key to getting cookies was to run away and pretty soon he would run away while looking over his shoulder as if to say "look at me, I'm running away" and when I ignored him he would get mad and come flying back on his own (again, to a big reward).

Clever puppy.