Hardy loves Holiday decorating

Ah, yes, Hardy's first Holiday season! Once again, I'm reminded how special the world is seen through the eyes of a child (even a chocolate Lab youngster). It's been an exciting time for our Mr. Hardy! First, cold and snow - what could be better than that! And, now we are decorating the house with all sorts of interesting, shiny, new things - poinsettias (fake), Nativities with lots of pieces, New England village complete with fake snow and best of all, the Christmas tree! Hardy's favorite cat, Maggie, likes to sleep under the tree which presents all sorts of interesting possibilities and although we use nonbreakable ornaments, we did put some on the bottom of the tree . Thankfully, Hardy tends to bring it to us if he does take something off the tree! 
With the big winter storm this week, most of our classes have been canceled but Hardy has been on crate rest quite a bit anyway. A couple weeks ago, while working at the training hall, Hardy tore one of his dew claws. The claw was hanging sideways off his leg and he was leaving tracks of blood where ever he went. Because Hardy is so stoic, we have no idea what happened! We took him to the Vet the next day where Dr Neal cut off most of the nail, prescribed pain killers and gave us vet wrap for when he was outside. I tried putting ointment on the raw area where he pulled the skin off but he immediately licked it off. He seems to be healing well and feeling much better - he no longer limps. 
We're headed to the IX Center for the big Crown Classic dog shows Thursday - Sunday. Laurel and I are competing in Advanced Rally and Hardy will be attending in his official capacity as my service dog in training. This will be a test for Hardy since the facility is huge, noisy, and overwhelming! So far, we haven't found many things that bother him (trains racing by on both sides of a platform being the exception); we'll see how he does with this new challenge!