Get to know Odysseus

The way he's learning to communicate new things - he created his own ways to tell us he wanted to go out or that his food or water bowls were empty pretty quickly, but he's getting more demanding as he gets more confident! He's recently started walking us to his lead to let us know he's decided it is time for a walk! He's also been wonderful with other dogs and so adaptable to new places.

He's a big dog, who can pull like a train on walks! Over time, and with consistent training, he is getting better and better. But compared to lots of his training which he picked up very quickly, it has taken quite a while - the outside is just so exciting and he absolutely loves meeting other dogs!

They don't always retrieve straight away! We took him to puppy classes from a young age and were pretty sure we'd managed to accidentally break the dog because he just would not fetch. Over time though he got more confident, first at home, and then outside, and now reliably with other people - which is great. But it definitely surprised me that we did need to encourage a retriever to retrieve!

The difference the idea of a "fair exchange" made. He loves holding things in his mouth, and once we moved away from taking things from him and moved towards swapping them for things he could have instead, everything got better! He's clever enough to know he can't have our slippers, as long as he can have something. They also get very twirly when they're excited! So twirly! So many teeth!