Hahaha, that was kind of funny. I took him out front today to brush him (you know, so the fur doesn’t end up all over the HOUSE). He started getting hyper, so finally I decided he’d been combed enough and said okay, let’s go. Well he was SO happy about that he yanked the leash right out of my hand and took off around the yard! Man, he had a blast… crazy-dog tuck-butt, having a BALL. He didn’t come when I called him, BUT he stayed in the yard - having been out there a lot on the long lead, he knows he has to stay on the grass, and he did! He actually went and pounced on his ball, then came RUNNING towards me, veered off… RUNNING towards me, veered off. I’m pretty sure he would have come to me (and stayed instead of running off) once he lost a bit of that energy, but I didn’t want to wait that long. So when he dropped to the ground (we don’t have a solid enough down for me to tell him to, yet), I said STAY, and walked up and grabbed the leash. Then he got a BIG belly rub for being such a good boy.

So obviously we can’t trust him off-leash yet, but he’s doing so SO much better!! Stayed in the yard and stayed put so I could go get him - now that’s a good puppy.