The one year anniversary of Raz joining our happy family was the end of March. He's a year and a quarter old: almost 9 in dog years. At first he was a lot of fun, being a rolly-polly little puppy. Once house trained he was a bit more fun and then he started not being so much fun. He chewed EVERYTHING and ate everything, some of it quite disgusting. He also didn't listen what-so-ever. Not even in the slightest. We took him to training classes, walked him on the leash, and so on without any obvious progress at all. He seemed to be totally willful without any interest in taking direction from us.

This was a real bummer, for a couple of reasons. First we kind of hoped he'd somehow magically become Zeke, either through osmosis or because we were such good trainers of dogs. Neither happened. Secondly Zane was acting a lot like this too, and having two stubborn agents of destruction in the house was a bit tiring for everyone. I'd mostly resigned myself to the fact that he was always going to be on a leash except when the two of us went on hikes deep in the woods. Even that was troublesome as he got distracted by animals or scents on a couple occasions and disappeared. On one hike I thought I'd lost him, he didn't show up again for almost an hour.

I'll freely admit there were a number of times when I came home from work and told Faith, "That's it, we need to find a home for that dog." And she'd say, "Oh, you can leave him home for a while and we'll watch him." I'd grumble and then Raz and I would have some great noon hikes and make up. Many times. Mom came out and spent part of Winter with us and, surprisingly, I think she wasn't sure what to do with him either. He had this "devil dog" aura that made everyone dubious.

And then something happened. A month or so after he turned one he started listening. Not always, but there was a glimmer of training there. If he started running away or barking at someone I could tell him to stop and he would... it might not last for long but it worked. Around this time I put up a fence around part of the yard and he started going out on his own, running around, eating mulch, watching people go by and enjoying some freedom. I think this really helped. Over time he figured out which parts of the yard weren't fenced, spurring me to put up more fence. Now we're up to a 3/4 of the yard fenced and he's staying put. We also used to lock him in his crate each night, but he now goes in on his own accord when he's ready for bed and stays there all night.

Lately I've been able to walk him without a leash. Not in a busy section of town or anything, but on our quite country road. It's a little high maintenance still ("walk... walk... get back here. stop! walk...") but he's listening and staying close. In fact the other day we were hiking in the woods and emerged by a road with other people going by. I told him to stop and he did. I also told him to sit about a dozen times without any results but the key point is he didn't move. Super good dog.

Raz shows other aspects of being a smart dog. I've been able to tell him to stay while I throw a ball and he does, only going after it when I tell him to. He's also very good at finding hidden toys at the office. I tell him to stay and then hide a toy in another room (sometimes above his eye level) and then walk back and tell him to go find it. He's rarely stumped, in fact he usually finds it in no time at all. Lately he's also becoming better at retrieving, which had been a problem. In the office he'll drop a ball after fetching it. Lately he'll even bring frisbees back after running and catching them.

So, all in all, a good dog showing great promise. He's still a bit of a chewer when he's around Faith (no idea why), likes to stuff his nose between peoples legs at times (to get them playing ball I guess), and kind of loses it when being around noisy cars or lots of people. At the town's easter egg hunt this year he escaped from the car and made a mad dash through the crowds of people. I think there were so many that he couldn't focus or stop or harass any one group, making it easier for me to eventually catch him.

In summary: we like Raz and I think we'll keep him. I hope he feels the same way.