Well, Lily continues to adjust to her new home. She is a very smart dog and tries to please.

Her “out-of-the-kitchen” response is near perfect. She seldom enters the kitchen when we are preparing food but she waits on the edge patiently for her treat.

It’s always fun going down stairs with two dogs especially when one prefers the left side, the other on the right and I’m in the middle. Hang on!!! cause they don’t stop!

Lily hasn’t figured out the cellar door yet. Stand on the left and the door swings right. Fenway always slips in beside her and pushes her to the right, into the door, so he can go first.

She is adjusting to the many strange sounds and is a good watchdog but for some reason never hears the meterman or the UPS truck. She is fearless and we thought that we might explore Agility with her. Time will tell

Lily has been getting better on-leash but prefers to stay away from loud vehicles and busy situations. She does a great sit / stay and down although she can be stubborn at times. We have to start her “recalls” but I think she will be good at that as well. Her training eval was delayed due to her UTI and recently discovered Giardia.

We brought Lily to the travel trailer this morning and she had no trouble climbing the stairs and exploring the inside. We might take a Fall trip if we think Lily can accept the new sounds that are present at campgrounds without barking.

Amazing, Where does the time go. Honey has fit in well with us. She is the most gentle, polite dog we have had.

Lily has been with us for a week now and has proven to be a very sweet dog. We have been working on her socialization spending 15 minutes at a farmers market and visiting the neighbors which is about all she can handle right now.

Lily loves to retrieve so that helps with her exercising. In the house she is a little clingy and lick-y but that will soon pass. She often sleeps on her back, feet in the air but never when we have a camera around. We’ll catch her yet!

Monday was bath day. Our Lab walked into the shower stall and had a nice shower. When Lily’s turn came 10 minutes of treats and sweet talk didn’t get Lily into the shower. So we grabbed the soap and bucket and went outside to wash the old fashioned way.

Lily loves to ride in the truck and settles right down when we get going. She is very smart and has learned to sit and leave her food until given the OK. Even more important for our small house, Lily has learned the command “Out of the Kitchen”! She and our other Lab wait along an invisible line while we prepare our food. They have learned that a piece of fruit or a veggie will be their reward.

We all sleep in the bedroom and Lily has decided that 6 o’clock is get up time. We always thought that 6 o’clock was supper time. Who knew there was a 6AM? With dogs you learn something new every day.

Bruno is a happy, healthy dog these days. He’s getting along well with our daughter’s Miniature Pinscher, who comes to visit and stay with us regularly. Bruno gets plenty of exercise and so do we. He’s still excitable around other dogs and animals in general but, he gets a little more calm each day. He still is very skittish around the garden hose. We had lots of firecrackers in the neighborhood over the 4th and it didn’t bother him at all (it just bothered us). He loves to roll on his back, swim, play ball and eat. And we swear he talks to us, making the most entertaining noises especially when he gets up in the morning. Thanks NEARR. Retrievers are the best companions and we have a special one.

Just checking in with my NEARR update! Riley is doing fantastic; we actually took him camping in NH last weekend and he loved it. He is wonderful with our family and friends. We couldn’t have asked for a better dog!

Our daughter arrived with her 7 yr old yellow lab and after a rather “frisky” welcome, the two dogs are best of friends. Rocky now bring the tennis balls bold back to me to be thrown again, loves chasing them in the water. We are awaiting the arrival of an LL Bean life vest to improve his swimming.

Rocky loves his crate (door open), still feeding him in there. Growled at me when I attempted to remove his collar in the crate at bedtime. Addressed this issue with a dog-trainer.

After walking the house perimeter for several weeks he now goes out alone and has never wandered off our property.

Still on medication and shows no sign of pain - you wouldn’t know he had bad hip except for the bunny hop when running and lack of paddling when swimming.

Here is the annual update for Maisy. She is doing very well. She had her 9th birthday in May. Maisy is full of energy. She loves to have visitors at the house and to visit our friends and family. She loves to ride in the car with her head out the window. She gets annoyed when we have to stop for a light. She had a great time with all the other dogs at the recent social. It took her a day or two to recover, but she loved it. We’re enjoying another great summer together.

I have been meaning to update Zeus’s “Happy Tail” page but we have been busy fostering labs…

So far old Zeus who is now 6.5 years old has tolerated all the fosters that have come thru our doors… we are on our 13th Foster Lab.

Zeus is still obsessed with tennis balls and his whole world is controlled by the little green fuzzy ball… he’s starting to slow up a bit, but still can pour on the coals, when need be, and still loves to retrieve and go swimming… Life has been good to Zeus, no health issues, and is still a chocolate missile.

The pictures aren’t the best of Zeus, the one with him in the black pond with the yellow lab, is his retrieving/ swimming buddy, these two are hard wired alike….both love to retrieve and both love the water. (The yellow lab was a foster that we adopted, his name is “Scooter bug” and he came from Ky, he’s 9 yo and does not show it at all, he’s a real peach of a lab).

Our pack has now grown to four labs… we’d have more if we could, but fostering fills the void for more labs!

Zeus is good with the toys and bones that the labs share… I can have 5 labs all eating beef bones without any issues… it’s a sight to see…

Thanks NEARR for giving us the chance to adopt a wonderful Labrador… and as you can see Zeus has a very good home!