[DaySleepers]

A little belated, but Sam turned 6 last weekend. We spent it at the in-laws, so I didn't get a ton of pictures, but a lot of what I did get guest starts Monsen, my MiL's 9-month-old(!!!!) Leonberger.

9 months. You can see my shock.

Sam wound up very tired and covered with puppy slobber. But he enjoyed himself.

 

[DaySleepers]

Case and point:

Almost all the noise is Sam (except, uh, the rooster. That's Henrik). He's a loud player, and bitey-face is clearly the best game.

 

[DaySleepers]

He wound up exhausted for a couple days afterward.

Though the heat we've been having doesn't help.

Then I went and sprained the heck out of my ankle yesterday. But at least my wife's a first aider and he was very good at making me feel better.

Don't know what I would've done without this dog these past six years. He's my Best Boy, even when he's being a cheeky brat.

 

[Wet Beards]

awww... I see no cheeky brat there, just a sweet tired boy.
Happy Birthday Sam!

Monsen plays incredibly gentle bitey face for a puppy.

 

[DaySleepers]

He's very good at looking sweet and innocent. But don't be fooled - he absolutely acts like a butt sometimes. Gotta love his attitude, though.

Monsen is just a very, very nice dog, overall. It helps that he lives with the world's laziest hunting dachshund who's taught him how to respect smaller dogs' boundaries, too. But we didn't film the bits where he was hip-checking Sam and pestering him to play, or nearly running him down. We had to do a fair bit of redirection to make sure he was respecting Sam's cut-off signals and corrections, but I'm confident he'll get there! Right now he's still very much overenthusiastic puppy who's delighted to get a visitor who will play games with him at all - and Oda (the dachs) is very grateful for the break, haha.

 

[Sandakat]

Happy birthday Sam!