Murphy is almost 3 now. We have had him since he was 8 weeks. My wife and I are constantly talking about what a good guy he is. He gets more interesting every day. Murphy is rarely alone. We are both retired so it is easy to keep him with one or both of us. He likes to go out and play about 5 or 6 times a day. It quite hot here so we have a kiddy pool in the backyard for him. He will chase the ball or pine cone a while and then off he goes into his pool to cool off. He has complete run of the place. His bed is over in the corner of the kitchen area (we have an open floor plan so he can watch pretty much the whole house from there). At night he will sleep at the foot of the bed until about 4 or 5 AM, then with much ear flapping off he goes to his bed. Around 7 or so he figures it is time to get up. He does not go berserk, he just waits very patiently to go outside. He is about 45kg now. Not overweight in the slightest. He is not a chow hound. We put two cups of food in his bowl in the morning. If he is hungry later he eats it, if not he eats it early in the evening. Most days he eats a total of 5 cups of food. Sometimes I get McDonald's sausage and egg McMuffins. I cut off a small piece of the egg and sausage. He knows he is getting a treat when we are done eating, but if he is resting in the hallway, he waits for us to deliver it to him. He is the easiest going dog I have ever known. Oh, when he wants to go out an play he lets us know it! He just sits down next to one of us and gives us "the look"...."we are going out, we are going to play, and that is that, so get off your bottoms!" Who can resist "the look" from a labrador. He ate a poison worm out in the yard the other morning, my wife saw him do it, and we had him at the vet's about a half hour later. The worm came out, no worries. But that was ok by him, he loves going to the vet's office. It has friendly cats, other dogs, nice people. It is the only place I have any trouble with him at all. When it is time to leave (after he is done socializing) he just sits down. The only way to get him to leave is to drop the leash on the floor and head for the door. Everyone in the office enjoys that little scene! Well, just thought I would let everyone know Murphy is doing fine, he is progressing nicely in getting his people properly trained and is wondering when we are going to put a full pool in for him.
What training? If we want to call telling him "ahhh, ahhhh" when he was doing something we did not like "training", I suppose so. He is just one of those guys who wants to please people. Here is an example. Every now and then I will be in the bedroom sitting on the bed and he will come in want to play. He eventually winds up on the bed. We have never told him he could not go on the bed. So he plays there for a while. If I leave he might enjoy the comfort for a while, but then he gets down. But he has never just gotten on the bed by himself. Same with the other furniture. We can leave steak bones, pork chops etc right on the edge of the counter with him all by himself in the house. The most he will do is walk by, lift his nose a bit and then keep on going. He loves kids. He will run up to them but he is very careful to stop short and not jump. Of course, if he can sneak a good ol' slobber in one of them he will. His favorite "crime" is sneaking a pair of socks out of the hamper. He gets all proud of himself and wants to play keep away. We sort of indulge him but then let it drop and so does he. It is more like he is bored and trying to stir things up. I have had other dogs in the past. Nothing like this one, lemme tell ya!
