He is 40 kg and the vet says this is a good weight for him as he is so big. Wherever we go people come over to talk about him and tell us what a fabulous looking dog we have. The next questions are “What is he”, “Well he’s very big for a lab” – well looking on the web he looks like one of the Drakeshead dogs (working labs), long body, long neck, long legs.
In the home he is exceptional, well-mannered, quiet, obedient; absolutely full of fun and a real loonie if you get him excited. He can get so excited that he mouths your arms but a sharp NO quickly calms him down again. Walks well on the lead, sits at the kerb but has moments when he forgets himself and I now have muscles in my arms where I didn't know I had them. He’s been excellent at dog training except when they do “all the dogs in a circle and one dog and handler weaves between the others”. Each time a dog appears George thinks great he’s coming to play and jumps up, tail wagging, this is definitely a work in progress. Everything else he can do, even down stay for 3 mins when another lab got up and ran straight passed his nose! He has just passed his Bronze Good Citizen Award as well.
He is the clumsiest lab I have ever met. If he’s behind you coming down stairs or in the hallway he always manages to trip you up, his legs seem to go out sidewards - he he!! If you’ve got flip flops on he will somehow stand on the back of them and trip you up that way.
My utility room still looks like Alcatraz with wire mesh panels protecting my units and washing machine
He does chew his bed and would chew anything left out in the utility room when he's left on his own.This dog has brought such happiness to our family and our friends think he’s great. He likes to be with me in the day and happily follows me round wherever I am, he has helped with the gardening (a little too much sometimes, we have a large hole in the lawn and several plant pots have been whizzed round the garden and the plants rearranged), we’ve taught him to bring the papers in morning and night, he can sleep for England and loves to be cuddled.
I’ve trained him to recall to the whistle (thanks to Kathryn and John’s book) and am now doing Stop/Down to one blast of the whistle, and he’s learning very quickly.
Thank you Glenys for letting us have this lovely boy and thank you Ian as without the web site we would never have found him.
