New Labrador Puppy Painting

Here is my newest Labrador Retriever painting. It is entitled: "Top Salesman" and is the first in my Fort Labrador series. Fort Labrador was something I built for each litter of Lab puppies I raised. We used whatever scrap lumber we had and created fun and educational forts that included a couple of steps to a raised platform, a tunnel, an under "cave" and a ramp. The pups had wonderful times playing in their forts and learned about going up and down steps and ramps, under and through the various spots. I had a grand time watching them play, invent fort games and gain confidence as they mastered the stairs and ramps. I painted silly things on the different forts, including this sign for selling bones, a "barkaton" window, "enter", "exit" "up" and "down" with arrows. A visiting breeder who knew I loved to train my young puppies once asked me if now I was teaching them to read (haha).
This picture is based on a photo I shot of this 6-week-old puppy waiting for someone to come and play. It looked like he was waiting for a customer. I was amazed as I watched a scene unfold, snapping pictures as it happened. A black Lab pup came up outside the step as if to buy a bone. They had some silly puppy exchanges through the opening and then the yellow pup walked outside of the fort, picked up a little chunk of wood and went back under the fort and laid it on the step for the black puppy. It was as if he said "Sorry Miss, we are all out of bones. Would you like this wood instead?" I will be painting more of these wonderful memories and call it my Fort Labrador series. Some of the forts had flags, or painted duck cutouts, or low teeter-totters. All of them had a sign saying "Bad Dogs Keep Out!" It worked. All of my puppies were good dogs.