13 years old! He celebrated by eating snow and a few repetitions of fetching. We’ve had a retrieve ban for a few years due to his enthusiasm. I have video of the game but I won’t be sharing it – we stopped after he flipped over as he skid to a stop. That’s not safe for any dogs – and especially not old dogs!
In the last year we did some rally obedience, getting quite a few passing scores and doing his level 2 title. Next month we may make an attempt at level 3. Most nights we just play instead of working on the few training skills he needs. I thought we might enter a tracking test this spring, but with such a bad winter we only had about 4 days from Dec to now that we were able to work.
He’s finally acting like an older dog. I think I can run faster than him now. He sleeps. If he’s resting and I enter the room or leave the room he doesn’t always move. He needs help in the car and he can’t see if the lighting is dim. But he can still chew bones or other things for hours, he still wants long walks and he can still pull me over if I’m not careful! This week we reached another milestone in his life – I had Blaze and Griffin off of the room where I was teaching and I was able to take Griffin out for a demo with Blaze staying quiet. Blaze then spent the rest of the lesson in that area and did not bark. We probably could not have done that just a year ago!