Eight Months old already!!

Skipper's Mum 'Nell' (sister to Bugler)

Skipper 10 weeks with his dad, Jaunty

The puppy picked at 5 weeks

Skipper is 8 months old today - where have those months gone?
Incredibly he was the pup I tried Not  to like. Since both Jaunty and his mum, Nell, were black & white I had set my heart on choosing a black & white one. The first time I went to look at the pups they were about 3 weeks old and difficult to tell apart but when I went back at 5 weeks, no matter how many times I pushed the little liver & white one away in favour of his black & white brothers, he always came trotting back.  At 7 weeks one of his black & white brothers was still looking for a home and I was sorely tempted to have them both ... very sorely tempted. Nell's dad even offered to give me a special 'deal' - not exactly BOGOF but close enough. However, as I said to him, it's not about the money. I sent a text to him-the-trainer asking his advice on having two pups from the same litter "from a training perspective". His response was very prompt and very concise: "No, No, No, NO"
So that was it then. One pup only. But which one....? I asked Gunner - Liver and white won. Skipper it was then.. We collected him at 9 weeks - he ran straight to me across the lawn -  brought him home and never looked back!

Bosun & Skipper 7 weeks old

He won everyone over in no time at all - including WaifaCat. Housetraining was a doddle - just a few incidents till he got the hang of always doing puppy weewees when told and asking to be let out inbetween. He was clean in his crate from day one! Nell obviously brought him up well.

It's been much the same with everything else too.  He's a happy go lucky sort of chap who wants to do the right thing and learns very quickly. Which is not to say he isn't cheeky with it. But never (yet) naughty!

Pssst can you tell me what we do next?

We started puppy-training from the beginning; teaching him to sit to the whistle and wait for his food & playing hide and seek with the tennis balls - I'm sure he thinks they grow in the grass!  He learned the 'down' command very quickly and that's now his default position when asked to 'stay'.  Recall has never been a problem; he'll do almost anything for a treat! Now that we've started training proper he's just as eager to learn and, so far, there have been no issues - although I think he feels learning to walk beside me is a waste of time when he'll happily run around my feet!
So far so good then!
However, he is now in his "teenage" months so I freely expect everything to go belly-up and I'll end up eating my words about how good he is...... Although you have only to look at his eyes to realise he honestly wants to make you happy with him....... It's going to be fun watching how he develops from here.......