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I meant to send you an update closer to his adoption date, but my boyfriend and I were very busy that week, closing on a house! So Orion and I have been very busy moving into our new house. It's absolutely beautiful there and we now have three acres, not fenced in yet, but our priority is to fence in almost an acre as soon as the ground thaws!BackOrion is doing wonderfully! He is an absolute blast and he has come such a long way in a year. He knows so many tricks: speak, crawl, sit, down, smile, hit it (slap me or whatever object I'm directing him to to with his paw), shake, bow (we call it Ta-da!), spin, come and touch (an object or me with his nose). We are really working on a really, reliable recall. He runs with a long line on in parks and we play with his squeaky football, his absolute favorite toy! His 'heel' is pretty good most of the time and he knows he's supposed to sit for petting and not jump up on people (even though he only weighs 10 lbs) and he will sit if asked. We are working in lots of different locations trying to be comfortable doing these behaviors all over the place Down of course is the hardest, who wants to down in a tennis court or on the grass even? Not a crested, not even a powderpuff - it must still be too cold most of the time (of course I don't make him down when its below 40 or 50 usually, that's just too cold for him!).
He's so funny all the time. He keeps my boyfriend and I laughing all the time, he wants to play with Amazon parrot and the rabbits and he met goats for the first time a couple of weeks ago in Maine and after initially being nervous about them, he wanted to play with them too! He thinks everyone is here for him and is so bummed when someone doesn't stop to say 'hi' to him. He gets so much attention.
I am now assisting classes in dog training and if Orion plays his cards right he will be a demo dog soon. We have been in agility for almost four months now and he's doing so well! He's not crazy about the A-frame or the tire jump, but we're working on that, but he's really fast and as long as I have a squeaky toy he's very focused. He loves squeaky toys! He is so fast, I've been calling him my speedy little agility dog! Hopefully we can enter a match before the year is out, he's already been to a couple of dog shows/agility trials, just to get used to the craziness and he has handled himself pretty well. My trainer last week told me I better start running or I won't be able to keep up with him. Right now he is sleeping on the couch next to me, because we just got back from class a little while ago. He's fantastic and I couldn't imagine life without him. I can't wait to have someone take photographs of us doing agility - I will send them to you as soon as I get some.
We are going away with Orion to an island off the coast of Maine in May. It will be Orion's first ferry ride and I can't wait to take him - I think he will have so much fun.
Thanks again for such a wonderful dog!!!
UPDATE (April, 2006)
I haven't got any pics of Orion doing agility yet, but I just posted a bunch of other cute pics of him on his blog. We are totally settled into our new house and out of our apartment in MA as of today. Orion loves the new yard and actually started digging for the first time the other day! It was so funny!