GROWING UP...

This picture of Barney shows him proudly wearing his rosette which he was presented with for getting his bronze award in the Kennel Club`s Good Dog Citizen thingy. I suppose it means that Barney can more or less be taken anywhere and be relied upon to behave - a bit like his owner.

Trouble is, his success has gone to his head a bit and he now harbours delusions of adequacy. Last night at the Golden Retriever Training Class, he, along with his other mates who succeeded last week, started out on the trail of the silver award and the new things they were asked to do, they did with apparent ease, tinged perhaps with a touch of arrogance. The only thing Barney was reluctant to do was to climb into the back of the car without me having to lift him up and put him in, but we`re working on it.

Now, whilst his newfound confidence is commendable, it seems to be coinciding with Barney entering the `adolescent` stage of his development. So, he has been invited to join a class of adolescents on Friday, where he will be able to mix with others of his own age. I wonder how much of it is about adolescence and how much about delinquency. We`ll see, although I suspect that a certain `minor operation` he`s due to have soon might just slow him down a bit.