A Very Merry Bosco

Bosco celebrates his second Christmas with us.

Here he awaits the arrival of the rest of his human family and the expected gift-opening excitement.

Below, he visits over the fence with his little lady friend next door, Bella.

[click on image to enlarge]

Lap Dog

Bosco's latest trick:

In the evening, while watching Law and Order, it starts with his nose over the chair arm, then the head, then the front paws, then the chest ...

Before you know it, you have a lap full of 82 pounds of chocolate.

Then he goes to sleep.

[Click on picture for enlargement.]

Bosco is One Year Old!

On Halloween, Bosco was one year old!

Here's the little goblin's Official Birthday Portrait taken on that day.

If he looks a little disgusted, it's because putting on a bandana usually means we're going for a ride in the car to somewhere fun, like the leash-free park. When he learned that it was just for a picture taking session, he put on this expression.

Even though he's a year old, and 82 pounds, down inside, he's still a tiny, fuzzy puppy. Sooner or later in the course of the evening, he manages to squirm his way up into my lap to be rocked to sleep.

Today (Thanksgiving), Bosco will be going to his favorite park in the afternoon to run and play and hopefully get tired enough to let his humans feast in peace.

(Apologies for the delay in posting - extracurricular activities have eroded my free time. I'll try to do better in the future.)

[As usual, click on the image for an enlarged view.]

"The Graduate" - Starring BOSCO

Today, Bosco graduated with honors from PetSmart Intermediate School He has now finished two levels of training with a perfect attendance record of 8 weeks at Puppy School, and 8 weeks of Intermediate Education.

Now he knows and is very good at "Sit", "Down", "Stay", "Wait", "Come", "Heel", and "Leave It". He still has a little trouble with "Stand" - probably because it sounds too nearly like some other commands, like "Sit" and "Stay".

Bosco is now going to take a break from his formal education for awhile to enjoy being a puppy and to mature a little before moving on to Advanced Training.

10 Month-Old Bosco

On Thursday, 31 August, Bosco was 10 months old.

Blogger is so slow that I have been trying all week just to get these two pictures uploaded. Maybe when Blogger gets back to normal responsiveness I'll be able to post more.

[Click on image to view larger picture.]

Bosco is Nine Months Old

Today, Bosco is nine months old!

Last Saturday, he attended his second of eight Intermediate Training Classes at PetSmart. He is now working on the Wait and Heel commands.

Saturday, he weighed 81.3 pounds.

Here he is shown in his backyard, waiting for the Boscoball to be thrown for his retrieving pleasure. [Click on image to enlarge.]

He no longer spends the night in his crate, but sleeps free in the master bedroom.

During the night, he tries sneaking up onto our bed: first the nose, then the front paws, then the front legs, then the upper body, then the whole body, until he is stretched out full length between us. Then we try moving 81 pounds of chocolate lab back onto the floor so he can start over again. A real lover boy!

Bosco Graduates

Today, Bosco graduated from Puppy Kindergarten.

[As usual, click on image for larger view.]

Bosco is Half a Year Old!

In honor of a special day (Bosco's six-month birthday), special photo coverage: not one, not two, not three, but four pictures

Last Saturday, at PetSmart, before his Puppy Kindergarten class, he weighed 62.8 pounds. We are nearly 2/3 of the way to the 100 pound lap dog that we were promised. And sure enough, last night, he was up in my lap while we watched TV and played fetch the ball.

Next Saturday is Graduation Day - completing 8 weeks of Puppy Kindergarten. We plan to enroll him in the Intermediate class starting in June.

[Click on the pictures for full-sized view.]

Five Month Old Bosco

Bosco was five months old on 31 March. Here's his official birthday portrait. As is obvious, he is maturing into a noble hunter, befitting his field champion ancestors. Inside, though, he is still the tiny ball of fluff who loves his belly rubs and sleeping with his original stuffed toys.

He has finished three weeks of his eight-week Puppy Kindergarten at PetSmart. He now knows "Sit", walking on a loose leash, "Down", "Leave It" (for things he's not supposed to pick up) and "Drop It" . He gets along extremely well with his classmates, who range from a tiny Teacup Yorkie who can't weigh more than a few pounds through a couple of Chihuahuas, to a pair of Scotties, and a Boxer and a Rottweiler. They range in age from two to five months. Naturally, Bosco is the star of his class in all the exercises - it's just what Labradors do.

When he was at the Vet's to be "put in neutral" a couple of weeks ago, he weighed 51 pounds. We are sure that by now he must weigh something over 60 pounds.

[Click on image to enlarge.]

Bosco at Four Months

Today, Bosco is Four Months Old. The best we can estimate, holding him as still as we can while balancing on the bathroom scales, is that he weighs 44 pounds. Some change from the wee 8 1/2 pound ball of fluff that came home with us only 11 weeks ago!

His favorite times of day, in general order of his preference, are: Chow Time, Play Time, Nap Time, and Bed Time.

So far, he's only slipped and partly fallen into the pool once, but was able to scramble back out, with our help. We expect many more Labrador swimfests as the weather warms up - his huge webbed paws already look like swim fins when his toes are spread.

He likes retrieving his tennis ball and his special stick, and will chase them for hours - longer than his humans can throw them for him.

He sleeps through the night in his private den in the corner of our bedroom, but is always ready for an "outside" and breakfast by 5:30 am.

[As usual, click on the image for an enlarged view.]

Bosco is Three Months Old

Yesterday Bosco was three months old. He has outgrown his red puppy collar and has graduated to the next larger size - 16 to 22 inches.

He celebrated being 1/4 year old by helping us prune the bottle brush tree in the backyard.

He contributed by dragging pruned pranches around the yard until Marguerite could catch him and cut them up for the green trash bin. He also helped by attacking the rake as she cleaned up the leaffy scraps.

[Click on image for larger view.]

Just Because Bosco

Just because we haven't posted anything lately, here's the most recent Bosco pic.

He has discovered Jake, the huge yellow lab next door. Jake puts his paws atop the five-foot tall fence and looks over at wee Bosco. Bosco really likes Jake, and is sometimes seen peeking through knotholes at Bosco level into Jake's yard. We're looking forward to the time that Bosco puts his paws on the fence and looks across eye to eye at Jake!

You can see the speed of the happy Bosco wag in the blurred tail here.