Joey is Growing Up

Joey seems much more mature since he came home from puppy camp.  His doggy distraction issues have definitely improved.  That was not surprising since his sitter has another dog at home and also works part time at SEGD.  So, Joey was around other dogs a lot, as well as professional doggy people.  Any first-time puppy raisers worried about puppy camp, this IS a very good thing for the dogs.  Yes, you will miss your dog, but if you are camping somebody else’s dog at the same time, you will have that void filled.  Maybe not completely, but close enough.  It’s fun to compare your dog to their’s. 

A couple days after he got home, Joey went with me and my youngest son, Colby, to his Cub Scout Blue and Gold Banquet.  For most of it, he stayed in a down-under at the table.  Most of the Cub Scouts already knew they couldn’t pet him, but there were some brothers and sisters that very politely asked, and I had to turn away.  It is very hard to tell a very polite young child they can’t pet him, but they seemed to understand.  Now if Joey was a cute little 9 week old puppy, the child might get a little upset that he can’t play with the puppy, but when Joey is much bigger than the child, I don’t think the kid is too upset about it.  The kid is probably relieved!   I still get surprised every time an adult asks me if he bites. 

During the ceremonies, I knew I would have to go up front with my son when it was time for him to get his badge, and I thought about leaving Joey under the table with a STAY command.  But, the badge presentations were taking longer than I knew Joey could remain in a stay.  So, we went up there together.  Joey was perfect and cameras were flashing like crazy.  Back at the table, after the meal, Colby had sat still as long as he was able, and had to go vent some energy.  He was running around with a bunch of the other boys.  Every few minutes he would run back to the table and fly into his seat.  Then he would jump up and be running full blast again.  That was more than Joey could endure  and he tried to chase after Colby.  He caught me by surprise, but I was able to stop him, catch the chair, and keep the table from flipping over.  It was such an amazing display of dexterity that nobody even noticed my fantastic feat. 

Oh, I found another one of Joey’s brothers in another group near us.  Kenny is the other black one in the litter.

His raiser was thinking that another dog that came to the group for finishing might be the last one of the four, but he ended up being from another litter born 9 days later.  So there is still one yellow goldadore out there somewhere that I still want to find.  Joey, find the goldadore.