There’s not much to this post, other than I’m feeling proud of my pup.

I picked up my yellow lab, Ace, from a trainer on Christmas Eve last year. I wanted a dog that would be both a good retriever and a great family companion. It was strange getting a dog that wasn’t a puppy, and was hard to get attached to him at first. My kids are 4 and 2 and I wanted them to have a good dog to grow up with. We only had Ace from Christmas to the end of January, and then I brought him back to the trainer. In those few short weeks, I knew he was my dog. He followed me everywhere. If I had him in the pen or fence, he would whimper until I let him out. Pretty neat feeling. At 6 months, he was great with the kids. The could tug on him and wrestle, and he had a good temperament the whole time.

I picked him up this past Saturday. He had been at the trainer since February, and I had only seen him a few times as it was a long commute to make. It took a day or two, but he has fallen right back into place at home. That dog has got more one on one attention and love in 5 days than he has in 5 months. The kids are excited to see him every day. Wife is too – and I need to mention it was her suggestion to have him trained and help me decide that spending the money would be worth it.

Ace is a year old now, and I haven’t even had him two months. I sure am excited about our future with him though. He looks a little thin, but I’m told he’s fit and healthy. He seems to have what I’ll call the basic commands down pat. He’s fully force fetched, will come, sit, stay, hold, and drop every time he’s asked. Fearless of water and a great swimmer. I can’t wait to bring him on the boat and swimming on the sand bars. There’s still work to be done, but I’m beyond happy with what he is capable of.

It’ll be hard – and I’ll be very selective – on where I take him hunting. I’d hate to lose him to a gator or snake bite. I knew it would be this way, but even though he’s a purebred trained retriever – he’s still going to be a family dog first.

I’ll post some pictures soon.

Having a pup attached to you like that is a great feeling. Mines a little over 3 months now and I've had him for only 2 or 3 weeks and he's attached to me already. I had him around a good crowd of people last weekend and he followed me every where I went without a leash. He got a way behind me at one point and I guess lost sight of me and picked up on someone else wearing the same color shirt as me and started to follow them for 75 ft or so. I turned around just in time to see pure confusion on the poor pups face when he realized it wasn't me and he didn't know where I went. Soon as he saw me he dang near triped over his own feet running towards me. Never having a pup of my own, the feeling it gave me was pure joy.