They took him to the vet the next day (this was three weeks ago) and they said he was only four weeks old. Can you believe someone would dump a four week old puppy???? He was wormy, hungry and slept a lot at first, but now after deworming, shots, a bath and good food he is a whirlwind of energy!
It's anyone's guess what breed he is, but we're pretty confident he is at least part Australian Shepherd. He doesn't seem fluffy enough to be a purebred. We also thought Catahoula because of his color and webbed feet, but we're not totally sure. It will be easier to guess as he gets older. With his color and ears I still definitely think he's mostly Australian Shepherd. I will get some current pictures of him soon (this one was a couple of weeks ago I think). Maybe I can break out the good camera this weekend. I might have to go out of town though so we'll just have to see.
So the reason I decided to blog is because today was his very first clicker training session (he's 7 weeks old now)! I want to blog about it like I did with Jackal because it's a great way to keep track of what we're working on and what worked or what didn't. So I broke out the clicker and his dog food with the intention of just charging the clicker (click, feed treat, click, feed treat, etc. until they know what it means). He was doing so great that I actually taught him to sit too!!! In the very first five minute session he's ever had.
If you're not familiar with clicker training the way it works is you use the click to mark the behavior that you want. It's such a wonderful method of training because it teaches dogs to problem solve and seek good behaviors. So all I did was sit there and watch him. When he sat down naturally without me having to touch him or lure him into it I clicked and gave him a treat. In less than a minute he was sitting so fast I could barely click or say the word sit fast enough. I was having to toss the treat on the floor just to get him to stand up (Jackal was the same way when he was a puppy).
So he knows how to sit. He obviously doesn't know the word yet, but that will come in time. I'm telling you this puppy is SO scary smart!!!! He's going to challenge my creativity I'm betting. I think we can outdo Jackal's record of forty tricks for sure! Anyway I'll try to get pictures and video sometime for you, but I'm not making promises on when. For right now I'm just super excited to be training a dog again. I've missed it so much!
P.S. If you want to see a video of Jackal doing all forty of his tricks you can look back at this old post here http://myfarmerlife.blogspot.com/2012/04/jackal-40-tricks-video.html. That will be our goal to beat someday.
P.P.S. There has been things going on at the farm, but I haven't had the time or energy to post about it. Most of the goat kids are sold. I'll try to do an update post sometime, but I don't know when it will be. I have lots of pictures I've taken with my new camera, but just no time to edit or upload them.. Oh well.
