It's all about Cooper..

The plan initially was to pick up Cooper on Saturday, but the trainer called and said he would be gone all weekend at a hunt test; therefore we had to drive down Friday to get him. I was able to leave work early, picked up Derek from his job in Seattle and we headed south.

When we arrived, Butch brought Cooper out of the kennels and he was running free.. We called Cooper over to us, he stopped about 6 feet away, hunkered down and looked at us as though he was unsure of who we were and why we were calling him over. For 3 months, he basically has probably only had Butch's attention and I would assume no other interaction with people other than the kennel employees and Butch. My heart sank in that split second, my worst fear came true that Cooper did NOT remember us! :( Derek and I were only 2 feet away from eachother and I called Cooper to me again and he decided he would come visit, as soon as he got to me, he REMEMBERED who I was!! He got super excited and then he immediately went to Derek. My heart smiled and I knew all was going to be okay.

Butch pulled a live hen out of the pen to work Cooper a little, demonstrate his abilities and how he'd like Derek to work Cooper etc. Cooper sat next to Butch as he threw the bird and then Cooper waited for the command to retrieve, slowly loped off to get the bird, struggled with wanting to pick up the live bird, needed some guidance and support and finally picked it up and brought it back. After that, he was doing retrieve after retrieve of the bird. At one point Cooper brought me the bird and Butch told me to grab it and throw it.. as I was swinging back to throw, Butch says "hold it by its wings" but it was too late and I threw the poor hen from her ass feathers, plucking about half of them out as she went flying in the air, she landed poorly due to the lack of tail feathers, I felt a little bad about it all.

We went in the office to wash our hands and for Butch to say goodbye to Cooper, we could see very clearly he was sad to see him go as he let Cooper jump up in his lap and gave him lots of hugs and kisses. :) Its pretty special to watch the trainer love on your dog so much and know that he was in such great hands and see the connection between them. As we loaded Cooper into the backseat of the truck, he got very nervous and hid his face under Derek's arm. He panted most of the way home. He is used to going places, but it's been in a metal box all this time and not in the backseat, but he did NOT get sick! :) Yeah!!

We pulled in our drive at about 10:30pm Friday night, Cooper was a little unsure in the yard, he was slowly starting to figure it all out and remember things. Ellie of course was pretty excited, she remembered him. Russell just had this look of disgust as I'm sure he thought Cooper was gone for good. :) Derek went in the house and I stayed outside for a minute.. A few seconds later, I could see it all just clicked in Cooper and he bolted for the front door, burst through that doggy door without a second thought and in the house, he just went crazy running all over, down the hall, in the bedroom, out in the living room.. he was truly happy! It was like the lightbulb turned on and he knew 100% he was home and safe.

Over the weekend, Cooper has gone back to his normal self, like he never left. Except now he is smarter! Derek took him in the backyard on Saturday and did a few retrieves with him and we were so happy to see he was actually excited about doing it.. actually he wanted to retrieve so much so, that he was heading out for his retrieve before he was given the verbal command to go, whereas with Butch, he would sit and wait very patiently for the command and then would non-challantly trot off to retrieve. Cooper also remembered how he loved to show off his toys to us and show us how proud he is of himself.. when he gets the bone, he loves to bring it to us, puff up his chest, hold his head up high and whine with joy at his great accomplishment! :) We really encourage it from him because we want him to LOVE LOVE LOVE showing off to us, bring out that desire to please so he will continue to make for a great hunting partner.

Butch did indicate that Cooper was not as far along in his 3 month program as most other dogs are at that point, sounds like Boykins have a mind of their own and can take a bit longer to get the same results, so we have some work to do, but it is the fun kind of work.

I think Ellie is a little annoyed, Cooper thinks she is the bees-knees (whatever the hell that means!) and he likes to chase-tail with her and since she has no tail, he really just has his nose on her ass constantly :) He puffs up to her, shows off his beautiful self, side steps over to her, paws at her to play and notice him and occassionally mounts.. she's been a little bit bitchy these days as she certainly does NOT appreciate it as much as he wishes she would. They get along just fine though, but at times I can see she just wants a break.. Russell, well again he is just annoyed that the kid is back, he really thought the problem was solved and gone for good. We have to be a little cautious though, because Cooper we've noticed is trying to establish himself back in the household and occassionally he seems to want to prove he is the new man of the house, and Russell is having non of that BS. Russell is standing his ground and demanding Cooper to back off, I just hope Cooper doesnt overstep his boundaries because I worry a tiny bit that Cooper will get a little too cocky and an actual fight might happen. So far its been okay, but part of the problem is that Russell is cranky and likes to growl at Cooper and Cooper LOVES to antagonize Russell.. If Russell has the bone, he will bat his legs at Russell, he'll play bite at Russell and just do all he can to annoy the shit out of him and if Russell is relaxing on the couch, Cooper thinks it is such a hilarious game to raz him up and bark at him, so then Russell starts barking like crazy, which gets Cooper even more riled up and excited. I am not sure Cooper understands that although he is playing and thinks its all funny, Russell on the other hand truly is pissed off and does not think it's so funny!