Sorry, I have to just brag a little bit. So Bode is a year old now and (fingers crossed) we haven't seemed to have too much "teenager behaviors". He's actually doing really well with everything. He's getting over his shyness with strangers, though it's been slower with men than women. He is also just fantastic in public. Took him to my BF's softball game last week and he sat there with me on the ground like a perfect angel the whole time. Then this weekend we were coming home from up north and stopped at an outlet mall. While someone was inside a store, another sat in the shade with him on a bench. He just sat and people watched.

Our cabin up north sits on around 50 wooded acres with trails running through them and all that fun stuff. Bode has been listening really well, no signs of bolting and his recall is very good. So we decided to work with him off leash a bit since we were in the middle of nowhere and my parent's dog was there too who Bode basically just follows around anyways. So we attached a 15ft rope to his harness for safety and let him go. He stayed within visual sight the whole time and came back when we called. There were even times when my parent's dog, Riley, took off and Bode stayed with us. I would never risk him off leash in even a remotely populated area, but the fact that he listens well up north is really great since we go up there a lot and it's tough if Riley is running around off leash in the woods (he's a bird dog, so that's what he's trained for) and Bode has to stay on his leash, he gets too excited and pulls the whole time. I'm not fooling myself into thinking he can't take off after an animal or anything, but we're making progress =)

Here is a picture of Bode and Riley snuggling after a fun filled day. It's from my mom's ancient cell phone, so not great quality photo.


And just for fun, a pic from our kayak trip down the AuSable river. Bode and Riley sat this one out.