Friday, January 21, 2011

Family Dog 1

Dog Blog Post #210: The bad news is that the weather was cold but clear, despite my best efforts at a rain dance, so Family Dog class #1 was a go.

The good news is that Henry was practically perfect. The sort of dog that anybody would love to have in class.

So good, in fact, that it pretty much has to be all downhill from here (and not in the good sense of the term) as it would be hard to make him any better.

He gave me flawless attention - no, really, flawless!

He probably only looked away from me a handful of times, and saying his name snapped him right back into sit-and-stare...

... and speaking of sitting - it seems the cramming we did yesterday and today paid off, as he suddenly became little Mr. Sit, sitting pretty much any time I asked (unless he was laying down. He still isn't very good at going from a down to a sit.)

... and speaking of laying down - he did that, too! Sits and downs, and downs and sits. He was on a roll!

I even did some "show dog stands", and he froze and stared off into space as though contemplating world peace.

He was gorgeous.

(I was also frozen, but in the thermal sense, and contemplating how long it was going to take to get feeling back into my body parts.)

Henry barely noticed the other dogs and hardly sniffed the ground. Really, it was almost creepy. You just know the wheels are going to come off here at some point. He'll be six months old next week. Six month old (intact) male dogs just aren't this good. At six months old I could have been on the moon for the amount of attention I got from Beau. Even Zachary had his moments (and sometimes entire days!)

But I'm enjoying it while it lasts, storing it up in memory (and on this blog) to read over and reminisce about when I become less interesting than dirt.

Finally, The Daily Shoot was:

How low can you go? Make a photograph today from a low point of view.

... and despite a few tries at something creative, my first instinct at a shot, shown below, was my favorite. It's neither fancy nor novel, but it's my favorite none-the-less.

6 comments:

Sage said...

How could any dog with a face as sweet as that not be good? Yay, Henry!!

Kiyi Kiyi said...

What a good boy!

houndstooth said...

Ha ha! I remember years ago when hubby and I took our first pair of Greyhounds to obedience class. Hawk did great all week at practice, but in class, he was horrible! You'd think I never worked with him. Treat was the star of the class! But she'd turn her head and ignore hubby every day when he practiced with her! It would drive him nuts! At least Henry decided not to embarrass you...this week!

Anonymous said...

Good job, Henry! I agree, it is always a bit scary when they do so well in class at such a young age. We're your newest followers. We found you from the "I Still Want More Puppies" blog.

My dog Riley is a therapy dog and almost 2 years old. We started obedience school when she was 3 months old and I am into training so it's nice to find your blog!

Elyse and Riley

Pup Fan said...

I love that you do the Daily Shoot every day! I just started following the Daily Shoot on Twitter and I want to start doing it as well. It's hard in the winter when it's dark by the time I get home, but I'm going to try!

Lori @ According to Gus said...

I had never heard of The Daily Shoot Assignment until today...very cool! Yourn photo turned out fantastic!