First training lesson

Sophie's been gaining weight and growing at a rapid pace.  I don't have the exact numbers in front of me but, last week at her vet visit she checked in at 30 pounds and 3 weeks before that I believe she checked in at 25.  

With her healed and having energy to burn I took her out to Joe Eschert's place in Franklinville for a first lesson 1 1/2 weeks ago.  Joe is the owner of 4 chocolate lab master hunters and is also the president of Pinelands Retriever Club, which I joined this year.  Unfortunately I wasn't able to make the years first meeting due to working overnights, but several members of the club were at his place for the lesson.  He runs training clinics 4-5 days a week for several hours working with dogs of all ages.  

The first time out went well and I fully realize that I need to be trained as much as she does.  The lesson was good for socialization and a bit of beginning homework that is actually yardwork for the dog and I.  She did get a couple throws in and fetched great.  It seems like force fetch is going to be some work with the way she holds onto the bumpers once she gets back to me, but she is all about whatever is thrown for her and has no fear of the gun at this point.  I think that her yardwork will be harder than the fieldwork.  

We're working on good citizenship and mixing in a few throws here and there.  We're making headway with some simple important things like keeping her off the cough, decreasing the amount of jumping and play biting.  There is still an occasional accident in the house, which is frustrating, but we're sticking with it and tackling the problems one at a time.

I also registered her with the AKC and she's officially titled "Dillon's Dark and Stormy by Lamborn's".  Not bad, I like the ring it has.  

After the injury we also got insurance with PetPlan.  I looked at a couple other places and what they provided, but with the care plan that we already have with Banfield the best option was PetPlan because of the price and what they covered.  

This weekend coming up is another lesson.  I got some training supplies from Gun Dog Supply online.  I liked their selection and pricing a lot.  For anyone shopping around I reccomend it.  The website is good and my order came with a handwritten "Thanks for the order" from someone at the company.