I taught her to use hand signals to aid in recovering a "lost" tennis ball. I'm not sure that it was the "by-the-book" system that serious retriever guys use, but it worked for us. Once we worked out our system, she relied on me for years to help her find a stubborn ball.
If I needed her to remain in a position, I would simply hold up my hand and say "Whoa". She'd stay as long as I needed her to. She understood and obeyed "kennel", "sit" and "go lay down". Every single time.
She wasn't a licky dog. She loved to be stroked, but when it was over she'd go lie down.
She'd bark when someone came in the driveway, but would stop as soon as I told her to.
When it was time for bed, she'd happily go to her kennel...although she did expect a treat or two every night just before bedtime.
She was a great eater....never picky about what food she was given.
Around other dogs she was mainly disinterested...never territorial or aggressive.
She was fine around kids, but mostly disinterested.
She was intelligent, focused and, as I've mentioned before, serious minded. There was never an ounce of silliness or mischief or laziness. She was all business, even when it came to eating. She'd wolf down her treats or meals cleaning her stainless steel bowl of every crumb. Food was business to her and she did not screw around when it was time to eat.
She was a beautiful animal with a gorgeous, thick, smooth coat. It was the most beautiful strawberry blond color, though her undercoat was white as snow. Her coat had many different textures...her ears were soft and wavy, her tail feathering was long, coarse and prone to tangling, her leg feathering was somewhere in between.
Her feet, especially her front feet, were huge and provided a solid foundation for her athletic feats. I think she developed these with all of the hard charging retrieving she did. Speaking of athletic, Bella was a world class athlete and would often twist her body in mid air as she adjusted her attack angle for a retrieve. Some of her landings were messy and she'd roll and tumble when the landings were ill-timed.
Her head was blocky but proportioned and balanced, with a chiseled look and a pointed crown. Her muzzle was square and handsome. Her breeder referred to her as a "block-head" for good reason. She had beautifully set ears and a beautiful face.
I've spent some time combing through the photos I've taken of Bella over the years and I am struck with what a beautiful animal she was. She was a powerful dog, made tougher and more resilient through the endless hours of work she put in retrieving those tennis balls. She developed massive shoulders (that she loved to have massaged) and hindquarters and many people noticed and commented on her huge feet. Her coat was thick and shiny when her Dad put in the time to brush her, never suffering from hot spots like her brother Buck. She was a gorgeous Golden Retriever and I would often sit and study her, marveling at how beautiful she was.
When we'd first set out for a retrieving session she'd carry her tennis ball and trot along the left side of the driveway. The way she moved was poetry...she carried her head and tail high and her gait looked like a show dog moving through a ring. Her movement was part dance, part athletic and I loved to watch her move with such purpose and pride as she anticipated the working session that lie ahead.
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