Our little graduate

That's right. Our little Chancho recently graduated from his obedience school with flying colors. We are so proud! :-) The best part is that he got to be around other dog owners and their dogs. At first he would show his teeth to anyone or anything that got close to him. By the end of the classes he was wagging his tail at almost everyone who wanted to say hello. The funniest thing about the whole class was that we learned very quickly that Chancho is a teacher's pet. Ohhhhh he loved it when it was time to learn. He would sit very still and stare at the teacher as she instructed the other dogs. He would stare and stare very still until she finally came to him (which seemed like an eternity to him). She loved Chancho because he would do anything to please her. He was probably the best behaved dog in his class (except at first when is was scared of everyone). We also learned that he's a teenager with very little patience. There was a little puppy in the class that would always hop around him in excitement. What did Chancho do? Show his teeth. Of course. He never did warm up to the pup. We also learned that Chancho is very stubborn (yes, mom and dad, just like me). He obeys when he wants to. We go for a walk every morning and before we go out, he choses if he's going to be good or not. He has surprised me many times how in that he doesn't pull the leash at all...and then there are some days when all he wants to do is chase the squirrels and birds and pull away he goes. Sigh. Yes, those are the days that are not so fun for me. That little stinker!
We are almost to the point where we can take Chancho to the park and let him roam around and come back when called. I dreamed of that day! It's going to be so fun to take him out and play fetch. We are also looking forward to the day he gets excited about water. Supposedly Viszla's love to play in the water. Not ours. Well, not yet at least. He's finally starting to gain confidence, so we'll see how long it take to make him the water loving dog he's meant to be.

Garden Update: Bad news: our peaches that were growing (yet still green) have been stolen!!! Yes, stolen by either those crazy birds or squirrels. Only two itsy bitsy ones are left. We also got our blueberries eaten by crazy wild animals. We are crossing our fingers that our strawberries, peppers and tomatoes will be left alone when they're ready for harvesting. Our apples are doing okay - we don't care if those get eaten as we have PLENTY and would prefer they get eaten rather than have to rake every day to pick them up off the sidewalk, street and from the top of my car.