You Know You Have a Retriever When...

...sitting down watching TV for an hour in the evening, you wind up with a haul like this at your feet!

Behold the King of Fetching!

This just seems to be something Alfie does when he's bored (guess he doesn't share our taste in movies)...and trying really hard to get your attention.  Last night I was all wrapped up in the show when I noticed his scruffy little face, depositing a shoe ever-so-delicately on my chair.  So I tell him thanks and give him an ear scratch, still engrossed in the show...then the next thing you know, he's disappeared again.  A few minutes later, he's baaaack...this time giving Tim the other shoe of the pair!  Then, he gives Charissa a sock...and on and on.  I do think that last night's 4 matched pairs of shoes, and a pair and a half of socks, is his current record! He ended up being funnier than our movie, I think!

Of course this is only a thinly-disguised variation on one of his favorite games, "I've-got-your-stuff-catch-me-if-you-can!"  (A game we strongly discourage, by the way.) Since we'd rather have him bring stuff to us than run away with it, we always act really excited about his "gifts"... and if you know Alfie at all you know he's a total attention sponge.

Although...note to self:  Make sure the closets are closed before you start the movie next time!

Find!

If there's one thing that Alfie misses most about being a guide dog in training, I'd have to say it's the privilege of being able to go everywhere with me.  If he's along on an outing and I have to stop by a store, he doesn't understand why he has to stay in the car with one of the kids instead of coming with me!

At least they don't make me wear that jacket any more!

But probably his favorite aspect of the work itself was the "finds."  Happily for Alfie, he doesn't have to stop "finding" things!  I want to do further training with him on scent discrimination, but for now we play fun games that have to do with him "finding" various items -- or even people! -- around the house and backyard.  We're experimenting with hiding things in "hard" places as well as "easy" places...sometimes we'll hide a toy where Alfie actually can't reach it, so he has to "show" us where it is, and then we reward him by giving him the toy to play with.

One really great thing about the "finding" game shown in the videos below is that, as long as the kids help hide his toy, I don't have to do anything at all, except sit with my ankle propped up -- yeah!

[Video description:  First video shows me holding Alfie with my hand over his eyes so he can't peek while Charissa hides his toy.  Then he has to sniff around til he finds it behind the entertainment center nearby (it takes him about half a minute to find).  Second video shows the end of one of these games, where Alfie finds the toy stashed in the space between the fridge and the wall, behind and on top of a folded TV tray.  When he catches a whiff of it he sort of "points" to it, then grabs it.  That was a tough one -- he's pretty excited about getting it!]