Happy Gotcha Day Morgan!!! (kinda long and pic intense)

Allow me if you will....

I cannot believe that today it has officially been one year since I got my boy. Time flies by so fast. I remember when I got him, I was not even really thinking about getting a dog. A friend of a friend was looking to give up her dog since she and her ex split up and she "could not handle him anymore". My friend realising that my family was into labs and loved them informed her friend that rather then give her dog to the shelter, why don't they pay a visit to me and maybe I knew of somebody who would want him.

Soooo...I agreed to take a look. They brought him to the house, he pulled free of the leash and came charging up over the stairs and into me....all 50 pounds of 6 month old lab puppy. Well I fell in love and instead of giving him the once over, he became a part of my family.

This was two pics that were given to me by his previous owner...a puppy pic with his sibling and a pic taken a week before of him on Signal Hill



And this was taken about a week after I got him



I keep thinking what a different life he would have had had we not found each other. When he came to me, he was very skinny and not muscled at all. He had no manners nor training. He walked all over his previous owner. He was kept in his kennel for very very long periods of time and leash manners were a joke.

Well, I commited to him realising I was going to have my hands full and nervous about taking on somebody else's dog. I remember he slept with me the first night and for the first month he travelled back and forth to work with me. We spent every moment that we could together. I enrolled him in basic obedience class the second week I had him. The first class the instructor looked at me and said "You have your hands full don't you, that dog is full of beans". He kept using Morgan as a demo on what a dog should not be doing. Grrrrrr!!!!

I started working with him connstantly. I knew he was not stupid, just that he had no boundries or any training. By the fourth week, the instructor commented on how far we were coming, the fifth he was using him to show the class on what should be done. End of the class, he graduated "best in class". I was so pleased.

Morgan fit so well into my life. We walk a lot. I scuba dive and he swims with me. He has attached himself to my side and has never looked back. About a month after I got him, his previous owner contact me and asked to see him. I told her we were heading out for a walk and she was more then welcome to join us. He met her, sniffed and licked her and then looked at me as if to say..."Dad, you coming or what".

I remember his first swim...he was not fussy on the ocean. My dad's lab loves the water. I brought both of them out together and by the end of twenty minutes, seeing her crash into the water for the stick, he was charging in as well...all gangly legs and paws. Pretty it wasn't but it got much much better. Now he is a retrieving machine when it comes to water.





I remember the first compliment we receieved on a walk from a couple walking a 4 year old lab and a small terrier. They were going nuts and pulling. They looked at me and said..."wish our dogs were that calm and well behaved, they could never be like that". I swelled up with pride, gave them a smile and said..."if you only knew..."

He completed the advanced course and graduated best in class there. The instructor asked me to come help him out as an assistant instructor and Morgan is used as a demo dog in the novice and advanced courses to demonstrate skills to new students.

We are currently enrolled in the Therapy Dog Program. Testing is in a couple of weeks he should pass no problem and have fun with the visits. The instructor has already demoed him with previous classes.

We went on many skidoo rides this winter and I found he LOVES running alongside and riding with me. I never saw my dog more tired nor contented then after a day of skidooing.



We started roller blading ala Cesar this spring and I found him another new passion.

I take him everywhere with me and expose him to as many new situations and activities as I can to try to make him a well balanced fullfilled dog. People comment on how great he is now...how well behaved and well trained. He just turned a year and a half old. I fired back and thank them and think to myself if he has come this far in the year I have had him imagine where I can get him by the time he turns three or five or eight.

My life was soooo hectic, I could not imagine owning a dog, especially one that comes with the commitment of a lab. Now it is hard to imagine my life without him. He is my shadow, my buddy, my confidant and my DOG!!!

Here he is now...this winter on top of a snow bank:



And during one of the breaks on a skidoo ride



Happy gotcha day bud. Thank you for coming into my life.