Almost There!!

Ruff will be 1 year old on Saturday!! I can't believe it went so fast.

In celebration of his birthday, Ruff saw fit to pass his AKC Canine Good Citizen test on the first try!

As always, his progress is beyond amazing, and hopefully our *next* Shepherd will be just as incredible... ;-)

September 12, 2011

10 1/2 months, around 72-73lbs. His birthday is fast approaching!

August 9, 2011

Ruff had a fantastic trip to Canada! He swam, he dove, he kayaked, he hiked, and he loved every minute of it. I think he's sad to be home!

July 9, 2011

8.5 months, roughly, and 66lbs.

20 days until we leave for our Canada adventure. Ruff will be the only one accompanying us this year. He's getting much better at swimming, but we're still bringing a life jacket for him. Still trying to figure out the food, it looks like we're going with dehydrated, but it's going to be expensive. May bring a few pounds of raw and organ to mix in with it, and of course we'll already have eggs and meat scraps as we cook.

Such a big boy...

June 23, 2011

64lbs!

Not much new news- still progressing well in all his training. Will post some pics this weekend when his buddy Xander visits!

June 7, 2011

7 months and 1 week old.

I'm hoping to get some new training videos soon. Ruff has been tracking 3 times now, and he's officially started learning the obedience routines. We're working on the heel, and we're going to start on the hold and bark soon. He continues to be absolutely incredible and I can't wait to see him trial.

He's also beginning to transition from puppy to adult in terms of mentality. We babysat for a friend's new 12 week old puppy this weekend, and he showed some adult behaviors as far as correcting the puppy for trying to take toys/bones out of his mouth, crowd him at the water bowl, and so forth. It was cute, if not a little sad... our big boy is growing up. I don't have a recent weight on him, but after trying to heft him into the bathtub today, I'm betting we're nearing 70lbs. He certainly looks like a grownup, until he starts bunny-hopping across the yard.

I did a slideshow movie of his growth-comparison photos. I wish I was better at editing, but it's okay.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JSqJJFqJOqY

May 18, 2011

62lbs at 6.5 months (plus a few days).

Ruff has officially started work on the bite sleeve and has been doing excellent. He had his first day of tracking and did very well with that too. Right now Juergen is handling him for tracking, since we're both beginners and tracking is difficult to teach correctly. Right now, he's only doing very short, straight tracks, 50 footsteps or less. By the time he reaches Schh3, he'll be doing 800 foot tracks that cross each other, and passively indicate 3 lost articles along the way. We have homework to start with some basic heelwork, but his formal obedience doesn't start for a few more weeks.

In the meantime, we're gearing up for Canada! We've started putting together their first aid kit, Shakespeare has his life jacket already but I still need to order Ruff's. I think the boys are going to love it!

And one more video: Day 2 of the bite sleeve!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eve0qU8fLxY