Dazzle is now 7 months old! Time is already flying by with him. It doesn't seem like all that long ago that I brought him home as just a little pup. Now he's almost 47 lbs. and 22.5" tall..
Today he got a bath because we are going to be staying at the Ritz this weekend! Free room (the only way I could afford the Ritz!) for a big dog show where we will be helping to represent Dog Scouts of America. Big thanks to Martha for making the right connections for the rooms for all of us! Because of the bath, he looks more "fuzzy" than usual. But the photos in this post were taken before his bath. :-)
.We went to a local park to get some posed photos. It was a light drizzle when I started, but by the time I snapped the one on the log that I liked, it was raining. So I didn't get nearly as many photos/locations as I had planned. Also, while it started out nice, bright, filtered sunshine, it got gloomy pretty fast. So we came home. I did spend some time talking with (and educating) a couple about Dazzle, reward based training, finding a good breeder (or rescue dog) and the Malinois breed after they saw me posing him for the first photo. So that was a nice chat.
Yesterday, I had planned to teach him to smack a target with his foot, but somehow it turned into teaching him to push a small ball with his nose. :-) Once he understood what I wanted, he was really sending the ball flying across the room with a flick of his nose. I think I found another trick he really likes! He would push the ball then stand there watching it with his tail wagging. Today I taught him "are you tired?" which means he should lay flat on his side. We also spent some time practicing the "get the money in the bucket" trick with real money and taking it from my hand instead of the floor. At first it confused him when I handed it to him because so far he has only gotten stuff to deliver TO my hand. But he figured it out pretty quick and was back on track. It will be interesting to see how he does with this at the show. I'm taking my camera, so hopefully I'll have photos/video to share.
.Tonight we have Rally class. Then I need to finish packing. I'm hoping the snow/sleet predicted for the morning won't cause us any problems or delays.
.Not sure if I'll have time to get to a computer during the trip, but if not, I'll post about our adventures when we get back!
