Ringo went to Lowe's today to help me pick up some new door knobs and dead bolts.  First, it ended up taking an hour and he was so good.  He loved all the attention from the folks in the store.  He also took a nap in the basket and on the counter for a bit.  They started making keys while we were waiting and I was afraid the noise would scare him.  Not a bit, he wanted to go explore what they were doing.  Then came the deluge (which was great since we haven't had rain in months), but it was making an awful noise on the roof.  Still know problems.  Finally, the thunder boomers and all he did was yawn.  He was such a good boy and took it all in stride.  I was very gratified to see that my brave little boy at home is also very brave in strange and noisy settings.  He also now knows when I put him the the crate in the car, we are going on an adventure and gets so excited.

We are also making great progress on on leash walking.  So far he doesn't seem to notice or care.  Once in while he wants to go a different direction from me, but a couple of gentle tugs and lots of noisy encouragement and away we go again. The next step will be to take him for a short walk to see how he does.  I will probably also take Belle as Ringo loves to emulate his big sis.

Ringo also met his grandma and grandpa from Beaumont this week as they were up for a short two day visit.  He loved the extra attention.  He also showed us all that even at 8 weeks GSPs are escape artists.  We had him the the backyard and we were playing when he took off. Next thing we new he had wiggled through the wrought iron rails in our fence and he was outside looking in at all of us.  I quickly ran to the gate and got to him so he didn't make his way into a dangerous area.  After that we put some chicken wire around the bottom to keep him in until he is too big to wiggle through.

We also took a trip over to my mom's house today for a quick visit.  He has now officially mastered the doggie door both in and out.  He leaps as the plastic flap so his full weight is on it and then goes right through.  Ringo is very proud of this accomplishment and loves to show off his expertise.

Finally, Ringo is sleeping through the night except for getting up one time each night around 3 AM to go and do his business.  The accidents in the house are down to just a few and always when mom is too slow to react or he is so busy he forgets he has to go and just stops mid-playtime.

All in all, Ringo is doing very good for only being home a few days.

Funny how this worked.  When I first introduced Ringo to the girls, Belle was aloof and Halo was fine.  Then after a day, Halo got really aloof and Belle warmed up to Ringo and has been playing with him.  Well today, Halo finally came around.  I was playing with a new tug toy with Ringo and Halo couldn't stand it.  She had to get in on the action.  Well the three of us played tug for a while and then Halo took over and played with Ringo for another 15 minutes.  Looks like all the kids are adapting just fine. Ringo really likes his big sisters.

Ringo discovered the water hose today when I was watering plants.  He loved playing in the water coming out the end.  My dad put a mister on the end and Ringo loved that too.  Of course, it is a 100 degrees here during the day so I am sure it felt good. 

I have started some very informal training with Ringo. He is doing pretty good with his sit, and knows what no means .  He is very focused when he wants something and it is very hard to side track him.  He is also very food oriented.  So, when I sat down to eat lunch today he kept trying to jump up on me to get to the food (I was sitting in a chair).  I would catch him by the collar, tell him no, and gently pulling him back into a sit while I said sit.  (So, I am actually training two things at once.)  Well it took about 30 reps for mister bullhead to get it into his head that I wasn't going to give him anything from the plate .  So, what did he do, he casually walked back over to me, sat very prettily and looked at me.  I gave him a treat as he was giving me the behavior I was asking for.  We will see tomorrow if he remembers.

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I started a Blog on this site to keep everyone up to date on Ringo.  It is called " The Life and Times of Johnny Ringo."  I have hopefully set it up so you all can add comments.  Check it out.