Well, I had forgotten how much time (and energy) a puppy takes. Annie has filled in the spare time I had most mornings and evenings. She is incredibly smart and quick learner, but she is definitely my dog and has definite expectations about when I should feed her, walk her, play with her, and basically give her my undivided attention. She certainly give me her undivided attention. The only small snag, so far, is that she definitely get car-sick. (I can't take the *_*_*_*_*_* anywhere). The great thing is that she seems to like to hang out in the back yard with me when I am shooting. This week I have been mostly plinking, but I did post scores for two matches today -- the first in several weeks. Annie seems to entertain herself pretty easily. She has a cloth frisbee she is very fond of. She will chase it as long as I throw it. She is starting to bring it back to me and drop it at my feet. This began when I would throw it into back corner of the yard, then sit down to plink for a few minutes while she ran around chomping on the frisbee. It took here about 4 or 5 minutes to realize I wasn't paying attention to her, then she would appear at my feet, frisbee on the ground, waiting for me to throw it again. Another throw, another few minutes of shooting, and again, Annie sitting patiently at my feet waiting for me to stop shooting and play with her. She sits quietly and obediently without any regard for the fact I am still plinking away with the air rifle.
I believe I have a new game figured out for Annie. It will go like this: I am going to get myself several big wooden clothes pins and screw them into the backstop. Then I am going to get a 1-inch flat washer and screw that into the other side of the clothes pin so that if I shoot the washer (probably with something low power like my HW30 or my Walther, or even my Izzy, so that it dogesn't get destroyed too quickly) the clothes pin will snap open for a second and drop whatever I have pinned in its jaws. Then, I am going to pin Annie's cloth frisbee, or some other retrievable object to the back stop I plan to train her to sit at my feet, and on command, retrieve the frisbee when I shoot it and it falls to the ground. German Shepherds aren't know as hunters and retrievers as far as I know, but I believe this dog will hunt. And she seems to have a pretty good nose, too. She is definitely one of the smartest dogs I have ever worked with. LOL -- I saw this avatar on another forum, and I love it. I may have to steal it:
