Nico gets a passing grade on the "leave it" command. Occasionally, he takes a minute to consider this request, but he eventually lets go. His retrieving drive isn't all that strong, so the reward of having the toy tossed isn't that great. Food is an excellent reward though. He'll drop just about anything as soon as he sees a hand go into the magic treat pouch.
We may have to start referring to Nico as "crooked ear." He always has one ear sticking out. We all got a little over an hour of boat time in this evening. Life has been go go go for the past several weeks and we haven't been out on the water. It was nice to spend a bit of time on the lake.
As we expected, Nico has entered a phase of selective listening. When he was a little puppy he was great off leash. This is in part due to an instinctive desire to stay with the pack. As dogs age they have a natural tendency to want to venture further from home, explore the world on their own, and be independent. Nico gets "off leash" time as we work through this phase, but with his leash attached. This gives us just enough time to step on the leash if he takes off, which he hasn't. His recall isn't as good as it was a few months ago, but seems to be slowly improving.
