He fetches!

Maybe it's because he's more comfortable with us now and little more bonded, but Jasper has been acting like an actual lab! If we get him excited enough, he will chase a tennis ball down the hall and bring it back. Actual retrieving? I guess he is part lab after all! However, he won't even look at the ball outside. There are to many yummy smells to investigate and critters to hunt. We'll just be thankful for small miracles.

The barking in the middle of the night also seems to have calmed down for now. Letting him sleep on the couch and running the fan so he can't hear noises outside as well seem to have solved the problem (knock on wood).

His critter-dar is better even on walks now. When he spots a squirrel, he will freeze, then slowly stalk it, get close enough to it that it runs up a tree (though the squirrel is never scared), watch it in the tree for a while and then he's good. We can walk on without whining, pulling or barking. I think he needs to be able to tree it to feel like he has done his job. Even so, if I tell him to "leave it," he actually kind of does. It's awesome!