I’ve included the above photo to share how I raise puppies at this age whether I have one or several not yet placed in a litter. As I stated in a previous post, when a group of Australian Cattle Dog puppies are left together they rarely rest — someone is always up and insisting that the others play whether they want to or not. Giving everyone their own space not only reinforces the “Off-Switch” but it keeps the sibling squabbles to a minimum.
Each of these 4×4 x-pens are 36″ tall and are zip-tied to a 4×4 piece of ?” plywood covered in a rolled linoleum remnant (double-sided tape). The bottom of the plywood also has felt furniture pads attached so that it can slide around on my floors without damaging them. The linoleum is easy to disinfect in the event of an accident or a spill. Each pen has a water bucket hanging from the wall (reduces spills & playing in the water), a wire basket of toys (wire basket can’t be chewed), tug toys hanging from the walls and a dog bed. These day-pens are where they are fed, where they hang out while I am working or if I cannot keep eyes on them loose in the house. This set-up is meant to set everyone up for success and keep the stress to a minimum. Generally I keep this arrangement until a pup has earned trust in the house with respect to accidents and decision making around being destructive.
It was raining all day so The Heroes got to utilize their sprinkler conditioning from last week. So happy to report that in spite of Shazam’s “mortar shelling” reaction to the sprinkler… the rain was no big deal! Yay! They enjoyed getting dirty at the farm and getting to experience smelling the difference in the earth when it’s wet.
The day’s inside efforts included our old position change training with spins & rollovers and the addition of targets with “Touch”. It’s Day 3 on “Go to your bed” or “Place” training which is the beginning of “Stay” without a word attached to it. I put out a bathmat and attach value to staying on it by using high value treats. We mixed it up before bed and reinforced it with their first Group Training including the big dogs. It worked out wonderfully – they’re so fast to get concepts!
I processed a couple sets of beef lungs and some kidneys for training treats. Lung & kidney have distinctive flavours (and aromas) especially when still soft in mid-processing. The boys decided they were quite delightful… so much so that they suddenly had a reliable recall from the back yard to the kitchen!! They usually recall pretty well when they can see me, but the blind recall was a fabulous first!
These lungs came to me with some “extras” this time which meant the boys had some <gross> fresh tracheas to gnaw on. This was a big hit for Tony but Peter & Shazam we’re not quite as eager.
They will get a second look at it before the opportunity is passed on to one of the adults in the pack.