“But it did not all happen in a day, this giving over of himself, body and soul, to the man-animals. He could not immediately forego his wild heritage and his memories of the Wild. There were days when he crept to the edge of the forest and stood and listened to something calling him far and away.”
Jack London, White Fang
Finn is about to turn the first page in his life and has quickly won over the hearts of me and my family as well as our neighbors along Old Edgemere Drive and beyond.
As I write this, I am about to drive up to the Salmon River for a day of fly fishing, ironically in the same place and on the same day I first learned of his birth from his breeder.
If dogs had a resume, Finn’s would already be chock full of accomplishments, many of which were recorded in this post. Beyond those, he has added many more. Though he won’t be fully mature until he is 2 years old, he has reached his peak height and is filling out his athletic 80-pound body with muscle. His coat has lightened a little to a dark chocolate brown compared to early on as a puppy when he appeared almost black in color. His disposition continues to be outstanding – he loves people and all dogs, even though some may not take kindly to his youthful exuberance.
I am still working diligently at his approach to people as he can jump higher than a tall man in one bound. It’s all I can do to get him to hold a sit-stay before his butt starts wiggling and he’s ready to launch when he meets a human!
Finn’s conformation as an American or Field labrador retriever is exceptional – most people who see him for the first time gush over him, many calling him handsome, and commenting on the deep luster of his coat, to the point where I feel I am walking with a rock star. I laugh when a few of my neighbors greet Finn without mention of the human on the other end of his lead.
I have been doing a lot of formal obedience training with him at a local dog training academy and the work is paying off. He now heels well, sits automatically when stopped on heel, stands for examination, and can hold a sit-stay off leash for a minute or more. His recall still needs work and is fundamental to me getting him out fishing and hunting. He’s already accompanied me in the many parks and wildlife management areas around our home, and he is very good about not taking off, ranging ahead only so far before he stops and looks back.
I use a prong collar on him which to many might look a bit medieval, but my trainer assured me it was best for controlling him. “It’s like power steering” she told me and she was right. The prongs pinch the neck under the tension of the leash but the proper way to use the collar is using very quick and short corrections. The standard choke collar was useless given his strength.
Finn’s a proven retriever and goes crazy when I break out the bumper. The mere sight of it sends him silly with excitement – winging it good out onto the lake and watching him charge after it is a sight to behold.
He loves the water and is a strong swimmer. With patience and time, I’ve trained him to get in and out of the canoe I recently bought – another skill carefully mastered.
For the unaware, new things require a patient and gradual introduction as dogs do not like change and introducing a dog without careful preparation for the sound of a gun for example or to an unstable platform such as a canoe can ruin them to it.
There will be many more new challenges coming Finn’s way – higher levels of obedience training, certification as a therapy dog, upland hunting for pheasant (Finn flushed his first pheasant just the other day), and fishing from a boat as well as wade-fishing. Eventually, we may also pursue waterfowl hunting. All of these will take time and patient, consistent, training.
But best of all, Finn remains a warm and happy heartbeat at my feet. Of all of his accomplishments, the greatest is the strong bond he has developed with me and my family. Dogs are the first animal that humans co-evolved with, after all, somewhere around 15,000 to 30,000 years ago. They’ve had a lot of time to become tuned into humans’ gestures, moods and general behavior and it is because of this that dogs and people get along so well. As it is said, a dog is part of your world, but you are their entire world. And so, to my Finn, also known as Finnie, Finnigan, the Finster, and Count Chocula, happy birthday! Oh, the places we’ll go!
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