Follow the training progress of Hunter an 11 month old lab in training to be a Service Dog for a 4 year old Autisitc boy.

I have to admit that I didn't take Hunter out and about on Thursday. Most of Thursday I spent working at home and Hunter was for the most part my very sweet shadow. He took a lot of power naps near my chair, which in itself may not seem like a big deal, but with Hunter being a young lab with little training, that in and of itself is a near miracle and very encouraging. I couldn't take him to work with me last night because my training class was filled with unknown pups and I need to be hands on the first night of school.

After spending an entire day observing him, I feel that I now know him really well. He is so very sweet and oh so very goofy and completely uncoordinated. Young dogs have little body awareness and just don't come knowing where their feet are and what they are doing! I can't even count how many times Hunter bumbled and stumbled his way around my house yesterday in a vision of total disconnect. The biggest laugh my son and I have had in a while was when we were watching the Purina's Incredible Dog Challenge on TV and the fly ball dogs were barking. Poor dear Hunter went on high alert and couldn't help but bump and slide on into just about every thing in the house looking for the hidden dogs. He was slip sliding away. I do think that dogs have a sense of humor and a sense of embarrassment (ever see a dog with a bad haircut?) and Hunter looked truly befuddled when he realized the frenetic barking was coming from the idiot box. Even Charlee thought it was funny and it set her off on a wild chase her own tail excursion.

In the comment section yesterday Dagny, his human Mom asked if he rocked the crate. Well yes I have to say the kids and I have nicked named him Hunter Boomer. This dog gets so happy at the sight of us that he gives full body wags knocking his body side to side and rocking the crate while he does it. It sounds like pile driving. Hey, can't fault dog for happiness right?

While Hunter didn't to get out with his service vest on, we still worked lots of house manners and I found a dog savvy cat for a weekend training session. Thanks Dana!

This morning we are hitting the mall. I will try to post an update about that adventure later today. Currently Hunter heels while pushing on my leg and it is not only annoying, it is dangerous and he can knock someone over. So far I have tried to gently bump him back (didn't work), and then I was hit with the genius idea of having the leash attached to his gentle leader on the outside of his head, instead of the inside so I can just keep him off him. That worked really well, but not without people looking at me like I don't know what I am doing holding his leash backwards. Oh well, you gotta do what you gotta do and sometimes that means thinking outside the box and using things differently from the way they were intended.

All three kids are coming to the mall this morning and middle school son has told all his friend we are taking the dog to Hot Topic and Victoria Secret.

Photo credit goes to Merrill's Mom Dagny

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