The last few days have been interesting with Gal here at our house and no other puppies to mask her soft little personality. I was just a little surprised at how timid she was when she didn't have her siblings and cousins around to give her the confidence she was showing before. Now I knew she was a little on the soft side but she is more like her mother than I thought. Of course all this means is that she needs a few confidence building activities every day. She loves the little fleece tug toys I made for her so I use them to play tug several times a day I sit on the floor (which also builds her confidence) and play tug and retrieve. I let her chase the tug toy as I pull it around making it act like a small animal, this stimulates her prey drive. The last two dogs I worked with were much more aggressive with the toy so it is taking some getting used to. She doesn't last as long as the boys did when they were pups so I need to make the sessions shorter. I like to leave her wanting more so my goal is to keep her going until I think she is getting ready to quite on me and then I quite before she does so that she is ready to play the game enthusiastically next time we start. I try to play the game only when she is feeling energetic so that I don't have to work so hard. That also helps her to be the one engaging instead of me which is what I want.
Another thing I started this morning is giving her all of her food from my hand, not from a bowl. I want her to look at me as the giver of all good things. I want to keep her a little bit hungry for training. That keeps her focus on me. So I measure out her food and put it in my training treats pouch and use her kibble, along with some cut up, somewhat dried chicken dogs to keep her interest. I also discovered that she loves the fleece fabric I make her tug toys from. I decided to make her a blankie! Ha! Never had a pup with a blankie but she likes it and I will use anything she like to keep her coming back for more. She kept bringing me the left over fabric so I cut her a small piece for her very own. She seems to like having me put it over her head so that she has to roll around to find her way out. I don't think I have ever had a soft temperamented dog who seemed to like this before.
She really got excited when the boys (my four grandsons ages 5-12) came to my house yesterday. Even without the other puppies around. This tells me that she is not excessiveily shy or that would have been overwhelming for her. She takes a few minutes to adjust to new dogs when they come for a visit. If they come at her too quickly she lets out a scr-e-e-ch..... especially if they have tails. She eventually investigates what that thing is that is hanging from the back of those (non Aussie) dogs. She tried to use them as tug toys and that didn't go over too well. Ha! Anyway, she will be going with us to the bowling alley tomorrow. That should be an interesting sensory overload. It is so quiet out here at Rachito Larapinta that the sounds of fast moving cars on the main road and such noises are a bit intimidating. We need to make sure that this becomes normal to her if she is to become a service dog or even if I just want her to walk on a leash where she might encounter those things in daily life.
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