The first month with Tod

When I wrote this, Tod had already been with me a month! Time flies with a puppy and since he was already 16 weeks when I picked him up it feels like he’s grown into a lanky youngster at the speed of light.

He’s a great puppy with lots of good qualities that I really like. He’s happy, confident and comfortable in everyday life and has a wonderful focus in training. The very best thing about him is that he’s the cuddliest dog I’ve ever had; he’s a real lap dog

We’ve been taking it easy during this first month and spent most of our time getting him used to different environments and the very basics of field dog obedience and competition obedience. But I’ve had the chance to make a video with the different parts of the retrieve that we’ve been working on during this month!

The film shows how I train taking, holding and deliveries with Tod:

The day before yesterday, Tod discovered that he could swim (before this he had mostly been splashing around by the waterside) and the joy in being able to really explore the water was hard to miss! He was so cute that I have to share his first swim strokes with you. In the beginning he was mostly splashing around with his front legs, but he quickly became more skilled and by the end of the day his swimming was quite good: