We had a litter of Labrador Retrievers born on 7/12/09 so they are now 10 weeks old. Today I took one of my Labs to the Retriever Club http://dunnsmarshlabs.com/bbfarmblog/wp-admin/post-new.php#to work on some issues before our next hunt test and also decided to take Jazz and the female pup we are keeping, River. Basically my goal was to introduce River to a new environment in a positive manner. If she went near or into the water, great, but I wasn’t going to force her.

River was very excited to get out and check out this new place and right away went running after her mom. Pretty soon Jazz was back in the water and River was really watching her trying to figure out what her mom was doing. Soon she was testing the water. Of course she had to test it by drinking it. The bank was very slippery clay so she didn’t actually get in and swim today but still it was a good, positive start. We will try a different pond tomorrow since the nice weather is still holding.

The girls are sadly starting to grow their winter coats. They also have managed to get into a few burrs which is problematic when they won’t get you brush them. I worked with Spice today on that and was actually able to brush her face, neck and back with a brush and get a few burrs out of her mane. That is huge considering she’s never felt a brush before. She also let me pick up one foot briefly and I was able to lead her a few steps using the savvy string around her neck.

Sugar comes right up for attention but as soon as you reach for her and hold another object near her she retreats. I just give her a treat and pet her face briefly so at least she allows that bit of human contact. I’ll just keep working with her and hoping that soon we’ll have that breakthrough with her, too.