Hey guys! This post is definitely a long time coming, And I'm excited to finally share our new puppy with you!
Meet Poppy! 💙
Poppy is now a 3 months old Australian Shepherd/Blue Heeler Mix, or what others may call a Texas Heeler! (How exactly they got Texas Heeler out of two separate Australian born herding breeds is beyond me lol)
We were talking about getting a puppy for our son for a while, and randomly found out about Poppy from a man my Fiance, Murty, found through another friend on Facebook. Ahh, the glory of social networking. After exchanging a few messages, and recieving a few pictures of the pups he had left, we knew immediately that she was the one we wanted! I mean, just look at how gorgeous and fluffy she is! 💙
Anyhoo, she's been a very good pup throughout the last 3 weeks, and bonded very quickly to all the members of the household! I am also very proud to say that we were able to housebreak her within the first week! We do have an occasional accident every now and again, but these things are expected from such a young puppy.
Other than her potty training, I worked extensively with her on calling her name and saying come, and even whistling a certain way, then giving her a treat when she successfully completed the task. Being a herding dog, I know how smart they are, and apt to praise and attention. After about 5 successful attempts she started coming on command, and happily accepted loving and praise as a substitute for a treat! This is when I knew she had it down and I could keep working on that periodically, but I could start to incorporate other tricks!
First up was sit. Gently nudging her bottom, I would calmly and sweetly tell her to sit, and give her a treat upon completion. This went on periodically throughout the day, for about 2 days total. On the third day (less than two weeks in our care), she came upon calling, sat upon request and (tail wagging crazily) very happily accepted praise and love for being such a good girl! Throughout the rest of the week, she actually started sitting before she was even told, in anticipation of receiving her tasty morsel of protein, so I would alternate giving treats and giving strictly love and praise for sitting upon request to further the correlation between the word sit and the action.
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For the past few days now we've been working on laying down after her command to sit, and she's getting pretty good, but there are some times where she gets a little too impatient, and tries to jump up.
Honestly one of the only "problems" we have with her and can't seem to break, is her jumping. I know it's a puppy thing because she's excited, but she likes to jump up on our son, who is just shy of two years old. He's a sturdy little fellow, and can take the knockdown pretty well. However, the issues we have and why we want to train her to stop is when they are outside playing. Junior will be running around and then Poppy comes out of nowhere at full speed, jumping square into Junior's chest, plowing him over. Thankfully, neither Junior or Poppy have been hurt yet!
Other than that, the only other issue we have is her nipping and chewing, and we don't know how to get her to stop. We've tried diverting her to her toys, and gently reprimanding her for chewing on things she shouldn't, but we realize nipping is in her nature and we don't want to punish her too hard. Anyone else out there have any similar issues with your puppy? If so, how did you deter them from jumping, nipping, or chewing on things?
As an added bonus, I've been working on a training montage video that got me thinking! While recording clips to use for the montage, I began to consider starting my own community, and am very curious to know if there are any other doggo or pet owners out there that would be interested in a Pet Trick and Training Progression Community?! With the main goal being to help other users explore new training possibilities as well as help keeping our pets active and healthy by posting pictures and videos of your pets doing tricks, and the progression that is being made during training! Any and all feedback on this possible community would be greatly appreciated, although never required!
And with that, my fellow pet lovers, I'll wrap up this post, so I just want to thank you for stopping by and giving this a read! And don't forget to tune in next time for a training update!
Stay Trippy, My Little Hippies! Have a wonderful week!
