Surfs up

At rest

At play

Sunday afternoon romp

Family Portrait

Two new behaviours

Memphis has taken an interest in fetching frisbees. She usually does this when there are no other dogs around to distract her. She doesn't run long distances - she is after all a Newfoundland - but she chases down the frisbee, grabs it and brings it back.

She's also very recently taken to selecting objects in one part of the house and moving them to another. The other day she went up to the family room and grabbed the TV remote and brought it down to the dining room.

Friends

Lazy Sunday Morning

Homework

We had a session with our trainer tonight in the drizzle. We have a lot of homework to do in the next couple weeks. This includes lots of house-lining to keep Memphis' attention focused on us, and lots of practice with walking, sitting, down and wait. We're being trained as much as Memphis, as we learn to be consistent and to communicate effectively.

Who's chasing who?

Memphis' pal

Memphis has a pal, a poodle, who is part of the Dog Guides program. The people who look after him have been fostering pups as part of the program for quite some time now. They socialize the puppy and do some basic training. At about a year, the pup leaves the foster home and goes for training. If successful, the dog will be matched with a partner. If unsuccessful, it will be adopted out as a family pet.

The dogs are trained to meet one of three sets of needs, canine vision dog guides, special skills dogs for clients with a medical or physical disability, or hearing ear dogs.

Great program!

Memphis with Aunt Mary

Memphis visited Aunt Mary yesterday evening.

Today, after a good run with her pals and a walk to the lake (she walked in but didn't swim) Memphis went to the vet. She got her last shots and some flea treatment. Memphis has been scratching quite a bit. We don't know if it is fleas or allergies or what. The flea treatment will take fleas out of the picture. If she's still scratching, it's back to the drawing board.

Today, Memphis weighed in at 30.9 lbs.

Walking

Memphis still doesn't like leaving the house on a leash. We get various levels of resistance. Then, once we're away from the house, she walks fine. We're working on this.