We are Members of the FCI, of the German Retriever Club and of the Chesapeake Bay Retriever Club of Nederlands www.straight-and-gentle.eu Here comes Bosco our chocolate labrador mix. He was our first dog joining the family and we bought him absolute spontaneously when we saw an advertisement in a local newspaper. Bosco is a strong dog in every aspect and we really had to adjust ourselves to his traits and dynamic behaviour. Without any lead time, we got faced with the task to educate a demanding dog and - needless to say - our life got changed considerably. Fortunately we discovered a good dogs’ school nearby that was able to offer an acceptable educational concept: train the handlers, motivate your dog and beware the hierarchy. So we had to learn how to create confidence, to find a way to establish an effective communication system and to consider some other basics. Eventually, we were really successfull and very satisfied with the offspring of “our obedience and endurance”: Bosco turned out to be a wonderfull dog with a great will to please, a sound social balance and always ready for work or hilarious playing with us or other dogs. When Samtess entered the family scene, Bosco was really not amused at all. It was a serious change to him as his status of being the alpha dog got questioned and he felt that there was competition growing. However, all competitive activities became settled very soon, because both dogs recognized that cooperation makes life easier and more attractive. The mutual learning effect was amazing. Bosco for example, did not like to work with canvas dummies and simply denied to retrieve these objects. However, when we started dummy training with Samtess with Bosco as an onlooker, he became interested in participating. As a result, nowadays Bosco loves retrieving canvas dummies and he even is doing an excellent job. Samtess is also profitting by Bosco’s partnership. Her endurance, strength and skillfulness were further developed through all the common activities and experience. Last not least, she adopted from him some charming characteristics regarding the relation to humans. In this respect she almost performs like a labrador. OUR BOSCO ETZEL-HUNTER BETTY SAMTESS