Big day at Okotoks Veterinary where Dr Sebastian did his once over vet check and second set of vaccines. The boys did awesome and managed a visit with every vet tech, I think! I still used the wagon to take them in (a vulnerable time to have paws on the ground there) but I felt a little like a dog sledder using their leashes to keep them wrangled in.
We had another big walk out at the farm where Tony chose to go rogue as The Walmart Greeter and learned a valuable correction from Millie the sheep’s Guardian Dog. She barked after him and he quickly tucked tail, changed course and dive bombed briefly under the car. It was appropriate on Millie’s part and well deserved by Tony. Perfect timing to learn respect and listening skills as I had only a moment before recalled him and got ignored — we were not in the field to play with sheep. Today we used the field as a segue to the back 80 acres where we walk. The pups all usually heed me pretty well and stay with the pack but as they grow up they push limits and boundaries of course, as all kids do.
We had an impromptu visit from Sarah & Great-Uncle JJ (Ksenia’s Let’s Just Race RM RMX) this evening. JJ is Grandma Sheba’s half-brother and he has a rather large personal bubble so we spent the first half of their visit defending JJ as if he were our prize-winning sheep. BTW, the puppies were not being aggressive, they were just being normal young, inexperienced, curious puppies. We did not want to set JJ up to have reason to overreact where both he and the puppies had a bad experience. Instead I grabbed a stray branch to use it as pressure (like a stock stick/flag) with the boys with my back to JJ, waving it at them so they would move off of it and give him room. This was really the first use of pressure with them where they were really driven to want to get all up in JJ’s face and successfully listened to my direction giving him space. I was super pleased because it did not take much for them to offer the respect for JJ that I was asking for. Soon the branch was put down, they backed off and everyone got along well.
This exercise was good not only for the puppies but for JJ — he felt safe, secure, defended and respected — that’s all an old veteran dog could ask for! For Sarah this was confidence building as well as she’s hoping to add a female puppy to her family with our next litter. She could see that with an early introduction and ongoing interaction, JJ should be quite amenable to a new family member. The choice to prefer a future female is founded not only in his “personal bubble” but because he already lives with Ole Lady Spur ACD (15yrs) who he gets along well with. Dammit, if only one of these heroes had ovaries they’d be set up! Thank you to Sarah for sharing the photos she took.
