Step By Step

Alfie loves to learn, and the more things I can give him to do, the happier he seems to be!  It's fun to work with an eager beaver, and a good day's work also helps to take the edge off of his puppy mischief.

Red alert!  Low branch dead ahead!

Lately we've been working on overhead obstacles -- such as when a low branch overhangs my path.  He didn't pay them much attention until one day I pretended to actually hit my head on a branch, making a really big deal like I was horribly hurt!  Now he seems to anticipate the "overhead" game more, and is just beginning to develop the ability to scan above when prompted.   Eventually, he'll have to do it on his own to help keep his partner safe. 

Most days, we have two outings...one usually outdoors, one in an indoor environment.  Alfie likes "finding" things for me, such as the trash can in the picture below.  Probably his favorite thing to find, though, is the button at crosswalks.  He goes right up to the post and points to it with his nose!  We'll have to try and get a picture of that sometime -- it's kind of cute.

Doing our part to keep Austin litter-free.

One nice thing about walking Alfie out in the neighborhoods is that so far, he's relatively unconcerned about other dogs.  I say "relatively" because of course he's interested in them; but he doesn't really misbehave or go nuts trying to meet them.  He treats them pretty much as he does human passersby, giving them a friendly, smiling, tail-wagging look and then getting back to work. 

Having a new puppy is kind of like having a child...it seems I notice everything so much more as Alfie experiences it for the first time.  Everything from the barking dogs I'd tuned out, to the blowing leaves I never noticed -- it's all new to him.   Funny how that works!

See, I'm good for you!