Max and James... part 2

Well, our time with James is over.  We are all tired but renewed in the excitement of our training efforts with Max William.  Max proved himself to far surpass what I thought he was capable of.  He is obedient, compliant, eager to learn and please, and he's excited as well that he gets to learn new things and put them into practice.

We spent time in different environments and let Max train his off lead skills.  This is something I've been hesitant to try so waited till James came back to do.  Max was amazing!  He heeled along side us as we walked through stores, zig zagging through aisles, stopping to shop and he would automatically sit and wait.  We practiced leaving him in a down position and walking off, out of his sight.  He never budged!  We went to the cemetary and practiced there as well.  Outside with lots of things to distract him... lawn mower, squirrels, birds, tall grass, golfers across the fence, he never missed a beat.  I had one tired puppy on my hands by late afternoon.  He took a very looooooooong nap when we got home:)

Over the next three months we'll continue training him in skills like this as well as teaching him to begin to differentiate to us the difference of Gracie's blood sugar being high or low.  He already knows the difference, we are just teaching him ways to tell us what's going on.  As far as I'm concerned, I think he's just an amazing little guy (OK, not so little;) and we are so very happy that he's part of our family.  He's the perfect addition:)