Andy - one year later!

If you recall, last year we lost our furry four legged freind Kia-dog.  Two weeks later we adopted this little guy: 

The night we brought him home.
The Look says it all...

It...was a rough summer.  When he came home with us he had a new name (came to the shelter tag-less), he had no obedience training, regressed on or no potty training, and was in a new place with a new pack.  For the first three months we couldn't let him off lead as he didn't know his commands.  We focused on basic obedience (sit, stay, down, off, No!, etc).  There was a lot  of marching up and own our highway going for two and three mile walks, sometimes twice a day.  Yes, he was getting exercise, but not enough for a 2 year old pup.

We turned a corner in August when we introduced a training collar.  Suddenly he understood that when we said "come!" we meant it.  Everyone - Andy included - breathed a sigh of relief.  He could run (and oh boy, can this dog run! So fun to watch!)  around our very large yard, and we could enforce the "come" command. 

Andy           Ben
The Dynamic Digging Duo

At the beginning of 2012, Ben and Andy figured out how to play together and now in the evenings it's not uncommon to see them tussling out in the yard and chasing each other around.

Is that a bird? I think I saw a bird...

Andy has turned into a very well mannered, incredibly sweet, absolutely beautiful dog.  He's still got a lot of puppy in him - two hours of exercise a night are a must -  but he's come so far that I just had to share our progress.  We still have things we are working on, heck, Ben is over 9 years old and I still work on obedience with him, but the leaps and bounds we made with Andy over the past year have paid off. 




Can I go play now?