Your dog is very handsome, and I'm glad to hear how well he is doing!
Mine have become terrific ranch dogs. Both love the truck and mule. Zeus, the cur mix, sits next to me and the hound, Laurel, stands point on the hood.
Zeus had taken the task of retrieving my dad's newspaper every morning. I go with him and back because I don't want him jumping across the cattle guard just yet. It's a boundary issue, something neither of them is to cross, so he waits for me to pick up the paper and give it to him and then he takes off for the delivery.
Its 300 yards out from my house and 700 yards back to my dad's. He could do it on command, but I'm going to give it a few more months of understanding the boundaries before he solos. Laurel goes with him, but he doesn't retrieve.