Fronts, dumbbell, and update on his cuts

The "front" command is coming along nicely. I'm still luring him to the front position, but not taking a step back or moving my feet at all, and he seems to be understanding the general positioning now. I'm becoming more picky about only rewarding straight fronts. Hopefully by working on fronts, I will see improvement on the front after recall... I can only hope! I haven't been working recalls much, though because I'm doing more Advanced Rally exercises since we will hopefully be ready for our first leg in March.

Red loves his dumbbell! Sometimes he still needs reminding about the proper way to pick it up but I think he's catching on. Also, he didn't ever want to sit still and just hold it in his mouth - he wants to prance around with it, then drops it before he sits - so I'm working on getting him used to just sitting holding it in his mouth. He drops it really well on command, which is good - and different than his toys because I usually have to get firm with him to "out" his toys...

The cut on his paw pad on his left front foot is healing well. We went for our first off-leash run since cutting his paw pad last week, and I watched carefully for blood spots, and did see a couple. I examined his paws though and everything seemed fine. It wasn't til I got home and examined him more carefully that I realized the cut on his left rear hock was open and bleeding again. That damn thing just won't stay closed and heal! It had been doing fine so I didn't wrap it before our run this time - that was a mistake. It's in such a weird place that I think he gets snow shoved up into it when he runs and just keeps it open and bleeds. The tissue around it is getting thickened now because of this. I'm going to have to keep it wrapped up before any other runs now until I now for sure that its completely healed.

I am planning on doing the therapy visit that we canceled last week due to the paw pad injury later this week instead. Probably Thursday or Friday. It's supposed to warm up marginally so we can go for runs ahead of time. I hope he still behaves since its been since over a month and a half since our last visit! I'm hoping to get some photos this time as well - if its ok with the facility.