I grew up with a chesapeak bay retriever (passed at 13). After a two year hiatus, raised a gold retriever to be a therapy dog in hospitals with special needs children but unfortunately never saw service due to a salmonella risk in her coat (passed at 11). Recently adopted a 3 year old yellow lab mix and currently trainning him to become a duck retrieving dog. Just finished my doggie manners class 101 at the Seattle Human Society and an moving on the reactive dogs course in the fall. I love taking my dog (Roy) on walks through hidden gem such as mapplewood park or cougar mountain. It nice to get Roy away from the urban setting and in his more natural habitat with many more things for him to smell and its shaded!