Sauvie Island hunt training

Just downstream from Portland, in the middle of the Columbia River, is Sauvie Island and wildlife refuge. The Oregon Department of Wildlife has set aside several hundred acres of pastures and ponds for dog training (closed during hunting season). This island is also the home of some major AKC hunt trials throughout the year including a huge event of the Memorial Day weekend with hundreds of dogs. On Sundays, Russ meets up with a group of trainers and their ubiquitous Labs. Aspiring to achieve some level of competence compared to Nova, we will continue to pursue more training after his exuberant youth dissipates a bit.

Cooper is an true water dog. He will swim and retrieve bumpers until he approaches hypothermia. So far, we’ve lost only one bumper that Coop couldn’t find.

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Five months and growing

When we sent these pictures to Rosemary, her first question was, “Where did his curls go?” He’d just had a bath and the drier had only temporarily straightened him out. The next rain, and he was all curly again.

We kind of liked the walrus whiskers on his face, but several of the IWS folks suggested we trim them off. Oh well…

And the bottom picture shows the key to all our photos. Hold the “Martian” toy out in front of Cooper, and he’ll stare at it for whole minutes at a time. Creates great opportunities for pictures.

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