Soooo.... after breakfast time we met for an hour or so, discussed a few things, meeting the dogs, etc. then broke up for short handle walks. Mine was last in the group, and lasted maybe five minutes, just a quick refresher.
The dogs were scheduled to come over at ten. Well ten came and went, and so did eleven. Apparantly the dogs were taking longer to dry after the baths than what was expected. The trainers made the decision to give out dogs after lunch, so off we all went to the dining room. A few old friends from July were there, so I was pretty pleased. After all was said and done, I think we got the dogs around 1.
Traveller:
All I can say is: wow! Now, when the dogs first come in to meet us, they are usually pretty wound up. Not so with this one. I called him, and he walked on in, as though it were an everyday thing. I couldn't belive how calm he was! I mentioned this to Doug, and he said, "well that's what you were hoping for, right?" Yes it sure was!
He did a little whining when he heard Doug in the hall, and a little drooling too (does he want to eat his trainer??) but aside from that he was pretty laid back, let me pet him and all that. It was a nice first moment. :)
Our first walk was down to the basement grooming room, which involved a quick reteaching of how to do steps with a dog. I was the first one down there, so I had him find a seat, got him to lay down under it, and waited for the rest of the group to arrive.
Once we were all down there, the dogs got pretty silly, of course! Whining, moaning, trying to play, and all staring at Doug with love and adoration. Too funny! Out of our group I have the least amount of experience with working dogs, but it reminded me that it's always shaky at first. We took it all in stride of course!
After a little obedience work, we headed back upstairs, where Doug told me I could let Traveller off tie down for awhile (shh! don't tell :). I did, and he was so good about it, he followed me around a bit, layed down, and stayed calm. At one point I sat on the floor calmly just to see what he would do. After a moment, he came and laid beside me, first on his side. As I pet him, he rolled onto his back, front legs way up in the air, and stayed that way as i pet him. As he became more relaxed, he leaned on my leg a bit, but still just layed there until I had him get up.
He is beautiful! He is very stocky, like some of the labs, but he has this subtle fuzziness all over his body from the golden half. Now that I am seeing more of the crosses, they are getting easier to tell apart from full breed labs. His fur is shiny and wavy. I just love him so far!
We took them to dinner, which was pretty quiet, suprisingly. Dinner was delicious. Beef Stroganoff with carrots and peas, and coffee ice cream!
We did leash guiding this evening, which wasn't perfect of course, but it won't be at this stage. We do our first harness walk tomorrow. I can't wait; it will be nice to get out and work him on a real route to get a feel for him. But so far things are good and I think this is the one!
Pictures to come tomorrow, havent gotten a chance yet.
Good night!
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