Meanwhile, in my personal life ...

My husband and I recently adopted this sweet guy.

His name is Sidney. He's nine months old, is a black Lab mixed with something, and is fun, playful, bright and clever. He has lots of energy and is a very fast runner. He came to us knowing "Sit" very well. We didn't have to house train him, which was a blessing. I think he might know "Stay". He has selective hearing with "Come here". We taught him "Gentle" for treats and he got really good at it really quickly.

We had our first obedience class last week. We worked on sit (reinforcing it for us), getting and holding his attention, and loose leash walking. He picked up on that one very quickly as well. I worked with him a lot on it today in the backyard, and when my husband gets home from work we'll try it out on a real walk around the neighborhood. I'm looking forward to learning "lay down"! He's still a puppy and likes to chew on whatever he can, including my arms, legs, feet and slippers.

We adopted him from Lab Rescue of the LRCP. He was given up by his owner to the Humane Society. No reason was given, but I think it has something to do with the fact that he is small. He's only 51 pounds, which is small for a Lab. We don't think he's going to get much bigger, if at all.

The Humane Society gave him to the Lab rescue, who placed him with a vet until a foster home opened up. Our adoption coordinator brought him to our attention, though, and we drove to Virginia just south of Frederick to visit him. He was totally spastic from being in a kennel at the vet for 11 days, but once he calmed down a bit, we could see that he had a sweet, friendly disposition, and that he was eager for love and attention. So, we brought him home! He already has a play mate; neighbors of ours have an 8-month-old silver Lab. They wrestle, then chase each other around the yard, then take a water break, then run some more, wrestle some more, have some more water and then wrestle again. And then at night, they sleep :)

Update: Not long after posting this, my husband did some research into what Sid might be mixed with. Sid has a small white patch on his chest, plus one on his groin and some white on his back toes. My hubs googled "Labs with white spots" and found some very interesting results. Turns out, Sid might not be mixed with anything and may actually be a pure bred Lab. Labs were developed from the St. John's dogs, which had white chest patches. So they pop up from time to time in Labs. The American Kennel Club has listed the white patch as an undesirable trait, though, so Labs are sometimes given up if they have one. Most people think Labs are always supposed to be all one color, but sometimes they aren't and it's perfectly normal.

Also, some Labs are bred to be field Labs. They are smaller, typically 50-60lbs, as well as sleeker and faster. This explains some things for us. Sid is incredibly fast and obsessed with birds. He will stalk the birds at our bird feeder like a cat (he never catches anything, though). He also likes to dig and put his whole head into holes if he can. It probably also explains his small stature. 

I am totally smitten with my young field Lab!