Feral cats, raccoons and Milo the surfing dog

Milo and I are in Florida visiting my parents.  My parents are very old and fragile.  Milo is young and very active.  What I have noticed is that he treats them very differently than he does other people.  He is careful not to jump on them or bump into them.  It always amazes me what dogs instinctively understand.  Milo and my dad have bonded.   Dad’s hands shake and when he eats he tends to drop food.  Milo, who is never fed people food, has decided that the best place for him during lunch and dinner is with his head on my dad’s lap.  Milo polices the area to make sure it is clean of all dropped food. 

Mom feeds feral cats; consequently they are always around the house.   When I take him for a walk Milo, has made several attempts to pull my arm off to get at the cats.  The cats,  the wood storks and raccoons that my parents also feed keep Milo busy patrolling the parameter of the house. 

Not far from where we are, there is a dog park attached to a beach.  Dogs are allowed on this part of the beach and Milo and I have been visiting to go swimming.  Yesterday the waves were quite high.  We are on the gulf coast so there are no really big waves; quite high is about 2 to 3 foot waves.  This was a new one for Milo.  But when a ball is thrown, it must be retrieved.  He got use to the waves and actually learned to body surf.  I had never seen a dog do this.  When Milo felt a wave lift him he started swimming and rode the wave into shore.  He did this several times and seemed to be really enjoying himself.  

Milo is continuing with his obedience training. He is almost ready to show in novice.  His big failing is stand for examination.  He understands what he is supposed to do, but when the judge comes up to examine him, he melts in a pool of dog happiness, wiggles and greets the judge, thus blowing the examination.  We are working on this and he is getting better. 

We are also working on agility.  The instructor says that Milo is doing great, but that I am making lots of mistakes and really need more work.  I have never done agility before, so I am figuring it out as I go.  Can anyone recommend a place where I can go to pick up some pointers?  Milo loves agility, but we are just not getting enough practice time.  Our class has about 15 dogs in it and that means very little time working each week. 

Attached is a picture of Milo, relaxing on the couch after a hard afternoon of swimming and patrolling for cats, raccoons and wood storks. 

I'm not sure why the picture is sideways, I hope everyone can see how comfy he looks ln the nice leather couch!  Thanks for the update Art, looking forward to hearing more from you and Milo.