Blade is a loveable lab. He is about ten years old and was adopted from the humane society. Because labs are so popular, they are also overly bred. Because of this, there are hundreds of labs that are lost, abandoned and generally unwanted. Much of this is because they are very active as puppies and people don't know how to handle them or they are a lot more dog than they bargained for. Blade was adopted as a young puppy and shows the true aspects of the lab that many people love.

I don't think that Blade had more than one accident in the house as a puppy. Once he taught that outside was where he had to go, he never had another accident inside. This level of intelligence is what most people love about labs. They learn very quickly whether they are being housebroken or obedience trained. Even those that tend to be hyper will often perform on command, even if their tails are still shaking their whole bodies.

The lab also likes to do his fair share of exploring and this is something that Blade is not a stranger too. He loves his trips to the alley, but if the gate is left open it doesn't take long before he decides to go on a walk of his own. Many labs are known for their tendency to escape, but Blade never really "escaped" per se. It was more of an open invitation for him to go exploring if you left the gate open. In his older age, he likes his trips to explore the alley under supervision, but he doesn't usually go wandering off, he's too old for that.

Blade has always performed well in terms of obedience. He learned to sit, stay and lie down at a very young age. He seemed to learn his dog obedience training very quickly. Even as an older dog he likes to go through his commands for a treat. In particular, he gets a treat for one specific trick that my husband taught him. It's pretty remedial, but it's good for an old dog. He sits and waits until he is told "up" and then he jumps and gets his treat. It's funny because you can say anything you want to try and trick him and he might think about jumping but he doesn't jump until he hears "up."

Blade's main pastime these days is sleeping. He has his own bed that he sleeps on, and until we recently added on an enclosed patio to our house, which is the unofficial "dog house" to him his bed was in our bedroom. He generally would get up in the mornings with my husband, but one day he didn't. In fact, I got up and went to work and then my husband got up and went to work and neither one of us realized Blade was still asleep in his bed until my husband stopped by the house at three in the afternoon and he was still in bed! Not only can this dog sleep, but he has one heck of a bladder as well!