Well, is it STILL a new beginning when the guy grows up? It seems it. He learns more and more tricks, and makes up some himself.
He is doing still better on the leash, and now recognizes the 'Walk" offer, and the "Inside" command.
He came up with the "Morning Trick" he only plays with my wife. He hears her getting up and skulks in the seat of an office chair whose back faces the door. When she walks up to the chair he JUMPS up onto the top of its back, into her face. The first time he did it, she screamed. So now he makes a point of it every moring. We laugh, and his tail is up proudly, pleased with himself.
He is generally pleased with himself most of the time, and he and his Daddy are closer and closer friends all the time.
This is the way we look at each other...
He makes me laugh many times a day, and knows that laughter is applause.
He and Auntie Murphy are slowly becoming friendlier. He is always willing to make friends, but she is an old crank.
When they are both absorbed in a mystery, they are fine, and work as a team:
On the morning of his birthday, I awoke and wondered if I was dreaming of the snow-covered Alps. There were these tall white peaks.
It was his FEET sticking up in the air. He was asleep on his back at the foot of the bed.