Long time

Sorry it's been a while...Vicente is his normal little self. He's always been laid-back but recently there have been some struggles. Like he doesn't like traffic. Or didn't. I'm not sure if it's totally past yet. We've been working really hard on it, and my leader had him and said he was good with it. We started introducing him to the bus very slowly because of his fear of loud cars. So far he's been on it twice, once with his best friend in training Argo. I only took him once, my co-raiser and leader took him the other time, and while he showed some signs of stress, he did very well. I'm thinking of adding little bus rides to our weekly training.

BUT, even though there are some tough days, with either mischievous Vicente or timid Vicente, I'm really hopeful for his future. I just sent this e-mail to my leaders:

I know we tell you all our problems, so I wanted up tell you a happy story. My little 12 year old brother helped me with my first 3 dogs and is so excited to get his own puppy in 2 years. Today we went to watch his middle school team wrestling meet, but he was injured so I let him have Vicente since we were going to be sitting together. Vicente was amazing. He walked on a perfect loose leash, navigated bleachers that didn't have stairs, and even saw a working service dog come in to the meet. He was interested, but maintained a perfect sit. During the yelling and whistle blowing and clapping and buzzer sounding of the meet, he just watched the people and eventually curled up on the bleacher floor. Walking out was the same....perfect "let's go" as he navigated a couple sets of stairs and a couple little crowded areas. I'm so proud of this puppy. Even with his bad days, he's such a wonderful dog, and just wanted to share with you :)

They all have their personalities and problems, but when it comes down to it, I'm so honored to be raising such a wonderful little guy.