Coming along nicely! How much sun are you giving it? I find they back bud and brush-up in full sun. Just my experience. I've taken spindly whips from the dark forest and planted them in full sun. Not so different from what happens when they cut away the big trees. They respond exactly the way you want. Boom! Really tight explosive growth. More than enough to replace over size branches, if you wanted to, not saying you should, but I have worked them through a few revolutions of branches as I built the tree. Funny that I only have one now just starting out. I am however about to begin a major Dougie dig. Y'all come now! LOL No, really, our pond will be repaired soon, like when the rain starts up, which will raise the water level to the original state. All the dougies that have grown on the exposed bench have to be removed first. There's at least a couple of dozen nice young bushy trees, ten to fifteen years old, deer and elk pruned trees in the inch to two inch size trunk. Some bigger. Some have grown on the embankment and have great sweeping curved bases. Not fifty feet from the house!