sam is hardly any fun anymore, he has calmed down considerably since we adopted him. they talk about a six-month settling-in period; and as sam has been with us for six months and is indeed quite settled, i am a believe in it.
that's not to say he doesn't ever do mischief, or has stopped bouncing or any and all monkey business. oh, no. it's just more of a surprise these days, and usually a big surprise.
his biggest recent trick happened when he was out in the garden for a long time. a very long time. i had a touch of that star wars feeling, and went outside to investigate.
our garden has its oddities: because of an extension, it's impossible to see half of it from indoors. because of the river at the bottom, there's a fence enclosing the inner part of it. as soon as i entered the garden, i saw that the gate in the fence was open.
now, sam has opened this door previously, but that was only when i was on the other side and he was very excited. this time, he must have gotten excited all by himself. all the stuff he'd get to do, without me saying no, too!
this is where experience and training stepped in as my friends. i knew he'd been very interested in one of the neighbouring gardens. i also had been doing a lot of recall training on our walks, although i'd been too nervous to let him off the leash for ages. i went out to the river section, and called 'come' with a bright and happy voice. i yelled again. and then, galloping down that very garden, sam came bounding towards me. he did some manic playing while i herded him back into the garden. with the relief of him not having gone completely astray, and the astonishment of his perfect recall, it was easy for me to give him tons and tons of praise.
we now lock the gate with a chain.
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