13 Weeks

Sitting like a dork, but pretty little ears!

Still growing like a weed. Last weekend the little purple harness fit perfect. This weekend it is almost too small - we'll have to move up to using Spencer's harness!

This weekend we rocked demo doggin the warm up drills for my Saturday agility classes (just flatwork, not really a drill per say.) Usually I'd use a student dog, but since I have a handy dandy untrained dog of my own now, I can demo with her and work on tiny bits of stuff with novel new distractions!

We also did some fun shaping after class. Starting to shape retrieves - or at least rewarding the return of the ball to the human. It makes it a better game when you actually bring the toy to the human instead of running off to chew on it. (At least in the eyes of the human.) We also did some bang game stuff, which was very adorable and precise. Very nice 2 foot "pouncing" on the end of the board and no worries whatsoever. Handy how all the pivot/perch/feet on the thing work has translated into her putting two front feet on everything!

Today we all went to agility practice. The boys were wonderful. Spencer has remembered how to weave again, which is nice. Hopefully that will hold over into competition since our next trial is coming up in March. Baxter reminded me about some of our weaknesses with threadles, at 8 though, there isn't a whole lot of retraining that I'll be doing with him. Mostly I modify my handling to what he'll get right - and that works too. Such a good boy. Love my Fluff.

Nike hung out and didn't scream in her kennel. Then we did some recalls and just chased our human around. Relationship building is still very much a work in progress. Despite being a herding breed and smart, Nike is also very independent. So far training isn't a lot different than training my non standard breeds at this point. Very much a case of convincing her she does want to do this thing with me. Or rather, make it easy to do what I ask and reward heavily for it. 

Super high value human! Hard at times. Actually harder than my boys to be honest, but we're learning together.

Legs, legs more legs and now, lots of tail too!

Learning the ways of the indestructible squeaker ball

No back feet!

One Month (and 12 weeks)

Time flies. I've had Nike for a month now, and things are starting to fall back into place and come together. She's 12 weeks old now.

Penny is pretty okay with her, but wishes she'd stop playing so rough now. The boys are slowly starting to accept her and tolerate her better. Once she's got her shots and we can go run off leash I hope she and Spence will discover that they can play chase and that should cement a friendship. 

12 weeks. I need to figure out a better way to stack her!

She's grown like a weed and is now (visually) taller than the other dogs. It may just be puppy fluff, but she looks larger than Spencer already!

She's not a fan of being contained in the xpen - especially since she can't get to the other dogs. However, she is fine kenneled. So she's been coming to work with me and just staying kenneled in the car. That way I can play with her at lunch/feed her lunch and I play with her at the end of the day before we drive home too. So far with the mild weather this has worked great. In the summer I really hope she'll stay quiet in her kennel so I can continue to bring her (it'll be too hot to crate out of the car all the time, but if she's quiet no one cares if she's in the office.)

Self stacked(ish) 12.5 weeks

She is still a very confident little thing.

At puppy play time on Thurs she figured out bullying with a worried Coton. He was a lot of fun. If you bounced at him, he'd run away and you could grab a mouthful of his fur and play tug with him ...

It was also the first day for a 11 week old Mini Aussie. He was twice the size of her! Pretty little black tri with a much nicer head than she has. It was quite funny to watch her gravitate to him.

Finally she ended up having a great game of bitey-face with an older Corgi puppy. It was pretty cute.

This past week she's made appearances at agility since she now has 2 sets of shots and I am slightly less paranoid. With all the melting and dog poop everywhere we haven't been out walking or socializing much and I wanted to work on that, especially since one of her sisters is having some issues with people.

On Tues she came to TA and hung out/ did some shaping in between my runs with the boys. She did really well with both and generalized to working in a new environment. She's not always keen on being touched by strangers. I'm not sure if that is just reserve or if it is just because strange people have no value to her and she is rewarded for turning back to me. Regardless, strangers now feed cookies for the time being. 

I'm not too worried about people having more attraction than I do - what I am concerned about right now is her vacuuming food off the floor at puppy play time (I keep having visions of Penny.)

Pretty puppy profile

She's got "blushing" coming in on her cheeks!

Yesterday I took her to an agility trial to socialize as well. We met many more people and ate lots of cookies. She was very brave and outgoing. Such a fun little puppy!

First time in a comfort flex harness, she fits Penny's harness without any adjustments now. She's also graduated to a "real dog" collar. The tiny puppy collar was too hard to find in her fur and since loose leash walking isn't a thing yet I was worried about how thin the collar is on her neck/trachea with pulling and bouncing like a crazy thing. I will say that I am pretty proud of myself for not buying any new collars/leashes or harnesses for her (yet.) I have so many old ones she can wear those until she stops growing so much!

Crazy? Who, me??

Recalls!

 She did great at the agility trial as well. Met people. Heard noises. Learned to focus on me in this environment too. Did some more shaping. Met a friend's Kelpie puppy who is a week older than she is. Met another friend's Shetland "pony" (17.5" Sheltie.) She thought he was great fun despite the size difference. She is very much a rough and tumble little puppy! We worked on calling out of play (with cookies in front of her nose, but still) Had some moments of brilliance where she thought about leaving but didn't. Good girl!

Herding Breeds

Nike is my first herding breed. She's also my first purebred dog (the Lhasa and Poodle my family had when I was kid don't count.)

I can already see where people could run into issues with higher energy herding breeds. Especially people who maybe have not had a dog before or aren't sure about training. She is a handful. Small does not mean lazy or low energy that's for sure!

I'm also beginning to see just what the addiction is for sport people. When they want to work. Wow. The train-ability is incredible. Coming from my "non standard" breeds, it's jaw dropping and Spencer is very smart.

Pretty and smart!

Nike has learned about shaping and the clicker with me from the get go. But, to let you in on my dirty little secret ... I'm not putting a lot of emphasis on pet dog manners yet. Really I don't care if my dog jumps on me - the other 3 do, what's one more? I also don't care overly much about biting my clothing - especially with Nike. She doesn't really want to tug yet - if tugging on my sleeve makes her happy, I'll work with that until I can transition it to a toy. Maybe we get a CGN, maybe we don't. Not a really big deal.

I don't want my dog to sit there in a shaping session and offer attention instead of interacting with an object. I also don't want to break her backing up, which is being shaped and not on cue yet.

 So in our first puppy lesson, I wasn't working on "handler focus/attention." I want my dog to DO things, not just stare at me when I don't offer any information on what they should do.

On Saturday our first real puppy lesson was on loose leash walking/nose touches. Do you know how is hard to do any kind of walking, let alone on a loose leash without any handler focus? We struggled quite a bit with focusing on the other puppies and ignoring the human on the other end of her leash. It didn't help that she wasn't very hungry having eaten a TON of cookies for nose touches.

So I changed up my plan a little.

Not having handler focus is not setting my puppy up to succeed in class. Especially considering how she loves other dogs. I don't need her to practice ignoring me to look at/try to get to them. So I've modified handler focus (like I've done with pretty much everything taught in puppy class!) Attention is the thing we do on a mat. 4 feet go on a mat and you offer attention for cookies. Sitting, laying down, standing - whatever you want. Just be on that mat.

We have done 1 and a half sessions on this. For 3 handfuls of kibble.

Tonight in class I plopped our blanket down and Nike was a rock star. Absolutely ignored the older higher energy puppies who really wanted to play with her. Howling, shrieking, flailing puppies? Not a problem - they're not the game. The game is stare at mom for the click then eat the cookies. Tons more handler focus. After playing the game with the mat and the clicker for 5 min at the start of the class, she's watching me as we move as well. It's crazy how quickly she picks things up. I love it!

Very impressed with my little one (and my training with her so far.) Clickers for the win!

Weekend Adventures!

Weighed Nike on Sunday, on my parent's scale that may or may not be accurate. She's 5.6 lbs at 9.5 weeks and around 9.5" tall. She is supposed to theoretically finish around 10-12 lbs, but I'm not sure on the height - since under 12" seems unrealistic, I'm hoping around 14.5" to 15". Ideally the closer she gets to 16" the better it'll be.

9 weeks

Adventures this weekend included:

Friday - Visited Kal Tire. Heard lots of loud noises. Met about 7 men and a couple of women. There was also this surprise give away thing and they set off a confetti bomb. Basically it sounded like a loud balloon pop. She stopped what she was doing and just looked, but wasn't too upset and was happily bouncing around again within minutes.

Sunday - we went out to my favorite dog field under the power lines to play in the snow. The boys went out first and played ball until Spencer was cold and Baxter was covered in snowballs. Then it was Nike's turn. She had great fun chasing me through the snow. However, it's hard to get awesome puppy pictures when she just comes running every time you crouch down to get a photo on her level!

Hey! Don't forget about us!!

I think the snow was a hit ...

Pretty ears!

We also did supper again at the Parent's with K & C and my 5 year old niece and 3 year old nephew. Nike isn't worried about the kids anymore, but neither does she particularly want anything to do with them. We did do some shaping of the multi wraps in the living room. She stuck with me and worked! Good baby! I need to video and review this stuff.

This week we start her puppy class, so that should be lots of learning and fun!

The worst part about containing the baby in a xpen to prevent bad behaviors is the fact the bars get in the way for cute pictures =(

Week 1 - Adventure Day!

Today marked Day 5 with little Miss Nike. It was also the first day she was home alone in her pen while I went to work (only a half day today but still.)

When I got home she was still in the pen, so that was a success. I think she was probably sleeping because she didn't start screaming right away when the rest of the dogs did. (They're a little excited when I get home and don't mind telling the world about exactly HOW excited they are!)

Today was also adventure day. Once a week I'm planning on taking Nike somewhere for a big adventure for socialization. Ideally we will do something every day, but once puppy class starts up I'm off the hook for 2 or 3 days a week depending how many classes I want to go to! After fearful Spencer I don't care if this is overkill - I'd rather over kill it than not kill it enough.

Today we went to Sunridge RONA. I have no problem with my almost 9 wk old puppy walking somewhere that isn't a dog centric environment, but we won't do pet stores etc until she's got the full set of puppy shots. Likewise, I'm not worried about agility trials with people I know, but some of the other agility places are a no go as well.

She was very brave. We went pee in the parking lot before heading over to see the sliding doors, which were a little worrisome at first. So we watched those and ate some cookies and finally walked through them. She's never really walked anywhere on leash before so this was quite the adventure in and of itself.

No sense of self preservation with the human feet. Not one ounce! So I have to be careful not to punt her as she squirrels around on the floor. Mostly we got the hang of staying to one side or the other of the feet. I'm glad I practiced this with the Chi's when they were babies who at least had some self preservation. It's just like falling off a bike ... or not punting the puppy!

We walked on a pallet and climbed on 2 carts to move lumber. One was solid but wiggled some and the other had a grill instead of being solid. Both were no problem!

We listened to people loading carts with hardwood floor. To the big saw running. To the squeaky bird noise over by the paint aisle. No worries about the noises, that's for sure.

We also met some people! A few worker people pet her and said Hi. We also met some friendly strangers who also said Hi and some people that we just walked past. She was very good with all of it. No repeat of the backing between my feet growling that we had at the airport when I first picked her up thank goodness. Not over the top mindlessly friendly meeting new people, but also not super reserved and suspicious of strangers. We're also doing well with defaulting in a sit looking at me when I stop moving (not that this is something I've actively worked on.)

Sadly we don't have any adventure pictures from RONA. Not that I mind looking crazy, but she doesn't hold still far enough away from me to get a picture. Enough to handle the puppy, without complicating it with a camera too.

Week 1 Adventures

Friday - Car rides to the pet store and back (didn't come in)
Saturday - E&D's house and met them, the kids and Fiona their dog
Sunday - Mom & Dad's - Met K and her kids as well as Sidney the parent's dog and saw E and kids again
Tuesday - Sunridge RONA - Recalls, Friendly Strangers/Noises and Leash Walking

Saturday - Discovered playing with Penny

Started playing with Toys

Met Fiona, who is 9

Played with new toys at Mon & Dad's after Sidney proved defective in the play department!

Learned to relax and sleep in her puppy pen. It's exhausting being a baby!

Clicker Training

With a new puppy there is always the question, what are you going to do this time? What are you going to do different?

For me especially, I have never trained a "performance puppy" from the get go.

Penny did puppy class, but as the tiny dog in the class didn't get much from the socialization aspect since there were no puppies small enough or gentle enough to socialize with her. She was however taught to hoover the floor for lost bits of treats ...

After the abysmal fail with Penny, I didn't do puppy class at all with Spencer. Maybe it would have made a difference. Maybe not. The first class we took was a Intro to Rally-O @ 6 months. He can left pivot like a pro!

The point is, I have a bunch of puppy raising theory, but no actual plan of "this is what I did, my dog turned out like this, I love what I did!"

So with Nike I've read/watched all the puppy stuff I can get my hands on. Susan Garrett's Puppy Peaks. Justine & Jessica's Puppy Diaries. Silvia Trkman's Puppy Diaries. I think like most people it'll be a somewhat blended approach with bits and pieces from many things based on what they feel is important.

Blurry, but still cute! Learning about toys!

Wobble board does not faze her in the least

We've started with the clicker a la Silvia though. It seems the most fun. Movement based is easier for her right now, and with my focus on agility movement and enthusiasm make sense.We're also starting crate games and some It's Your Choice stuff of don't mug my hand for food, you won't get it.

So far I've discovered that training with kibble isn't going to fly. It doesn't matter how hungry she might be. Also, she is small with tiny little teeth. So eating a kibble takes a bit, lowering the reinforcement rate.

She's magnetized by my other dogs and the cat - great play skills with those and respects Baxter and Spencer so I don't worry so much about them out together while I'm supervising. However, right now they are too much distraction, so we're learning new stuff in the puppy pen before we generalize to working outside of it. Also, none of my dogs will wait their turn for treats, so it's hard to shape the puppy with the others bulldozing in! (maybe I should train that too ...)

Rewards have to be rewarding!

Today, after 4 days we had a break through and it almost seems like Nike has figured out the idea of offering interaction with a object to get clicks and cookies. We had pivoting this morning and then tonight we had 4 in behaviors once I got the objects right.

We're Leaving ... on a Jet Plane ...

Well, more like arriving! After 12 hours in transit (12 for me, 4.5 for her) on Thursday we're home.

Introducing Rival's Power of Flight.

"Nike" is a Miniature Australian Sheperd, with a distinct possibility to stay toy sized (which just means under 13.5 inches at the shoulder.) Yes. She's a girl. She also has a tail! I decided that a puppy pretty much guaranteed to fall within my size criteria was more important than holding out for a boy.

So starts our journey! I'm pretty excited. After 5 years of adult dogs it's going to be a change of pace but it'll be fun!

Puppy pen, complete with a kitty friend!

Pretty sure that the puppy pen is pure torture