Henry Can Fetch!

Since it's been a while since I've blogged, I'll fill everyone in on a few different updates.

A couple of weeks ago, Henry and I spent the weekend at my Aunt and Uncle's house in NH.  He got some quality time with their black lab, Mace, while I spent a couple of days fishing off the coast.  Mace and Henry have always gotten along great, so they had some fun hiking together on the local trails and bumming around the house.  He's really been much more calm around other dogs lately.  He hardly ever barks when they approach.  That includes the time that two pit bulls off leash ran up to him on the trail while we were running.  The only problem now is that he usually starts howling after they've checked each other out.  He's definitely improving though!

I've also started to take him off the leash to go out back to the bathroom now.  He really enjoys the freedom a lot and it makes a huge difference in his enthusiasm when we play.  Earlier in the summer I would have been really nervous about this but over the past few months I've gotten a good sense of reading his body language and general interest level.  If I can see he's starting to get more interested in a dog barking down the street than playing with me, I'll get him excited to get back inside for a treat.  He also seems genuinely interested in staying with me now.  He never lets me out of his sight inside or outside and my biggest problem when we worked on recall was that he wouldn't let me leave him alone.

Since I've been able to take him off his leash, we've been able to play some new games. He's actually playing some crazy form of fetch at this point.  When I throw him the ball, he'll chase it down and swat his paws at it until he can get it under control.  Then he just sprints around in big loops pretending that he's keeping it away from me.  When he gets tired he'll flip over on his back and wait for me to come take it away.  Like I said, definitely not normal fetch but I'll take it!  Plus, hound fetch is more fun.  I'll try to get a video of it at some point.

Happy Trails,

Chris and Henry