If it wasn't a totally stupid registered name I'd name Ziggy after this song... "Maximum's It" is somewhat lacking however! :)
My favorite lyrics from probably any Ziggy Marley song are from this song linked above...
"I hear you wanna try to find it do you know what it is I hear you gone looking for what you want hope you find what you need I hear you gonna try and find it do you know what it is I hear you gone looking for what you want hope you find what you need"
So far Ziggy is everything I need. I didn't go looking for the most outgoing puppy in the litter, I didn't go looking for the flashy blue merle - I came away with both and I have to say - I'm loving it!
This past Sunday Ziggy, Spice and I headed to Bradenton to participate in some agility run thrus to benefit an agility pug about to undergo radiation. Spice needs the experience in other places and I figured it would be a good "entry level" exposure to an agility trial environment. I was right on both counts! Spice was spacey at the beginning of her run but pulled it together nicely by the end. And the environment was very much like a trial. Very crowded. Ziggy did awesome! Greeted everyone with enthusiasm, got his belly rubbed by a teenage girl, met a variety of different breed dogs from PWDs to a little Staffy who he really liked.
After the run thrus we went over to my friend Liz's house. Liz has Ziggy's brother Peak (used to be Coal). We let the boys play at the house, we ate lunch and then we headed to Desoto National Memorial Park. I've lived in the Tampa Bay area my whole life and I don't believe I've ever been to that park. Cool place. Nice historical experience combined with a mostly shaded walk through the mangroves that ends in a very calm beach. Dogs are allowed but have to be kept on leash.
Peak, Ziggy, Liz, Maggie and I set off. The boys got to meet a lot of people along the trail. Ziggy was the Wal-mart greeter of the group. He loved everyone he met adults and kids! He also was sporting his new reggae collar! :) This was his 2nd trip to the beach. The first time he didn't get in the water at all but that was on the east coast and the waves were frequent and noisy. At this beach however there were hardly any waves at all and the few that came along were quite small. Peak had been swimming here before and dove right in so to speak. Ziggy hung out in the shallows not going past his elbows for quite a while and then just as I was going to video Peak heading out to swim around Liz for the 10th time Ziggy started swimming too so yay me for getting it on video!
One "cool" thing that happened was at the end of our walk we were resting by the interpretive center and the park ranger came up. Full uniform including hat and sunglasses. Ziggy greeted the park ranger with glee and when her hat fell off and landed on top of him and then on the ground Ziggy didn't bat an eye. Good boy! A couple of pics of the Wal-mart greeter...
So I’ve told you how everyone is handling the addition of
Ziggy and how it was decided that the little blue merle was the one for
us. Incidentally had Noire/Keep come to
live with us his name would have been Ferris but Ferris didn’t fit Azul so he
became Ziggy instead after Ziggy Marley (in case you didn’t notice the theme to
the musical blog posts yet). So now to
tell you about Ziggy!
Ziggy is one happy little puppy. He loves to love! He’s happy to play, he’s happy to eat,
basically as long as he’s with you he’s happy happy happy! Now ask him to sit alone in his crate or
ex-pen and you likely will hear some screaming.
Those first 24 hours were hell, however we are into 2.5 weeks of having
Ziggy and he’s doing much better. He reminds me a lot of Mickie in his zest for
life (and in his separation anxiety) but he has a LOT more built in focus than
she did at the same age.
His first week with us I didn’t really see any fear at all
in him and I was really impressed. He
handled the drive from Texas beautifully.
An hour and a half down the road from Brenham we stopped in Houston to
visit a friend and Ziggy did awesome with him, his wife and their pack of 4
adult cattle dogs. Rest area potty stops
and a hotel visit were no issue despite the fact he’d only been on leash once
before we left. Once home he settled
right in (other than the screaming while alone thing). I had planned for an outing and for a visitor
to come over that week but those didn’t work out so all we managed in week 1
was two visits to my mom’s house (5 acres away). On Thursday or Friday I started to see a
little bit of a fear period starting in that he’d jump a little at a noise or
look oddly at “weird” objects in the yard.
The cool thing is the moment something like that happens all I have to
do is say “ZIGGY!” in a really happy voice and he comes bouncing to me to get some
love. We finished off the week with a
play date with two of his brothers at my friend Sally’s house. It was there we had our first and so far only
(knock on wood) melt down. Sally greeted
me at the car in a hat and sunglasses and Ziggy was not impressed. Barked and barked. Took a little while to warm up to Sal after
that but once he did he was fine and he’s been great with everyone ever since.
Week two brought more adventures. First was a trip to an outdoor mall with his
brother Moses and my friend Debbie.
Ziggy didn’t seem too confident about walking into the area on his own
and being that this was only his 3rd time on leash I went ahead and
carried him. Once he saw a group of
people though he started wiggling in my arms to go see them. I put him down and off he went to say
hello. He spent the rest of the visit
greeting everyone that would pay attention to him and playing with his
brother. He met adults, kids, light
skinned people, dark skinned people. It
was a really great time. Later that week
we headed down south to visit our friends Jason and Andrea. On the way we stopped at my work so some of
the folks could meet him. He was awesome
and everyone loved him. He’s so full of
love! Later at Jason and Andrea’s Ziggy
ran up to them right away and made himself right at home with them and their
pack. On Saturday we went to the beach
and he did fantastic. He wasn’t a fan of
the water or the waves but he loved all the people and dogs. Jack and I were beaming! Saturday evening several of J and Dre’s
friends came over to the house and again he did fantastic. He met a really big biker guy, a big teenage
boy, a small girl. At the beach he met
folks in hats, sunglasses, old people, kids, a Cavalier, a lab, a pit mix, etc. It was a really great day for him. He also spent a lot of time in an ex-pen
outside watching the big dogs play disc and I think he’s caught on to the fact
that the roundish plastic thing has high value!
We started this week with another trip to the mall with new
dog friends and again Ziggy did awesome.
I saw a lot of stress yawning the first 10 minutes or so but he still
was happy to greet everyone and saw no deterioration of any focus or
happiness. And last night we went to a
friend’s how for a play date with her two adult dogs and her 7 year old
daughter. That went very well too!
Socialization…
Some folks wondered why we left Ziggy with his breeder Terri
for an extra month. The main reason is
that I was petrified I’d screw him up somehow and wanted him to have extra time
in an environment I knew wouldn’t screw him up.
Groovy turned out to be a disaster of sorts and that was the last puppy
I raised. Spice on the other hand is
awesome and we didn’t get her till 6 months old (from Terri). So I have a lot of baggage left from Groovy
and poor Ziggy has to deal with that.
Groovy’s inability to effectively deal with the world around
her has been blamed on me by several people one of those individuals being a well-known
dog trainer/agility person. And this
despite the fact that she showed signs of unbalance from the first hour in my
house – seriously – how I can I be solely to blame for that? Some people told me I didn’t socialize her
enough… some told me I took her too many places and overwhelmed her. Thing is I had friends who had puppies at the
same age and took Groovy to the same places they took their pups and yet their
pups handled it well whereas Groovy found something to freak out about on pretty
much every outing we went on. In the end
I’ve concluded that I did take Groovy too many places but that it didn’t really
matter anyway cause I had I not taken her she would still be just as unable to
deal with the pressure but she would trust me a bit more. That is evident in the fact that she trusts
Jack more than me when we are at a competition.
She’s still unable to function like a normal dog but he can help her
keep her wits about her better than I can and I attribute that to the fact that
she associates me with all the scary stuff she managed to find while on our
puppy outings. Interestingly enough her
brother Hammer is very similar to her in this inability to handle the world
around him but on the flip side she has a brother that is a certified live
search and rescue dog. Genetics are a
funny thing aren’t they?
What does this have to do with Ziggy? Well I spent the first week or two constantly
comparing him to Groovy as a puppy and was constantly on the lookout for Groovy
like issues. Was this fair to
Ziggy? No… but I couldn’t help it. TOO MUCH BAGGAGE! Every time I took him somewhere new I’d have
anxiety about how it could possibly go wrong.
I was about in tears when he barked at Sally cause I thought to myself “Here
we go again! It all begins now!” Luckily I was wrong! Terri had been using essential oils with the
litter from the time they were born and had gotten me started on them. From his first trip leaving Terri’s house he’s
had Peace and Calm on his car crate bedding for every outing. I can smell it to though so I think it might
be more for me! J The good news is that with every successful
outing my baggage is falling away and my anxiety level is decreasing. This is really important because I’m sure
Ziggy can sense it and despite that he has been doing stellar. He is an awesome little pup! I pray that his love of people
continues. While I know that being the Wal-Mart
greeter is not in the breed standard for the aussie I really wouldn’t mind one
that deviated from the standard in that way.
Mickie is the Wal-Mart greeter of the pack currently… the rest of the
crew vary from indifferent to people (Jam and Spice) to downright freaked out
by them (Groovy). It’d be nice to have
another Mickie but I’ll be super happy if we just end up with indifferent. I suspect we’ll end up somewhere in between
the two.
I know that as Ziggy goes through different types of fear
periods over the next year my baggage will pile back up and then leave again
but I am ready for it. I will continue
to take him lots of different places and keep adding to his bank of positive
experiences as well as being there for him when he isn’t feeling so
confident. More than anything I want
this little guy to trust me and love me!
So far so good and I plan to do my best to keep it that way!
Ziggy! First of all he is freaking adorable. I know… I know… what puppy isn’t? But seriously… he is beyond cute. Most folks likely think I picked him for his striking color but the truth is he isn’t even one of the puppies that I was considering when I flew to Texas to pick a pup when they were 8 weeks old. My top 3 were black bis and black tris! Terri really thought I’d like Noire – a black bi puppy that was low key with the other dogs and very very handler focused. I really went to Texas expecting that is exactly the puppy I’d pick. Several of us went to Texas that same weekend (6 of the 9 pups in the litter now live in Florida!). It worked out where I got there early Friday afternoon so was able to spend time with the entire litter of pups and additionally spent 1 on 1 time with 5 of the 9 pups. The only 2 puppies that were definitively spoken for were Graehm and Sapphire. Before I arrived I really liked Noire, Night and Domino but I knew that Domino was likely going to my friend Debbie and that he was very likely going to be a bigger dog than I wanted. Azul (Ziggy) and Coal had started catching my eye in the photos in the last week or two before I left but I still didn’t pay them much mind. Additionally Azul had been the bully of the litter in the whelping box so that had accounted for much of my disinterest.
While playing with the whole litter Night didn’t give me the time of day. Noire took a little bit to warm up but was very sweet. Meanwhile Coal and Azul were all over me right away and super affectionate (as were their sisters Raven and Jett but I didn’t want a girl). Domino was very cool – very “middle” in every way. I liked him a lot. I started thinking “hmmm if Debbie doesn’t take him maybe I don’t care about what size he ends up”. Then my 1 on 1 time with them came. I planned to spend time with each one and get photos of each one but ran out of time and I played with them in the order that I could get them out of the ex-pen without a mass exodus of puppies! The 5 pups I played with were: Night, Graehm, Noire, Azul and Coal. Again, Night didn’t really want to play or snuggle. He didn’t like my camera, etc. He was just blah. In retrospect after seeing him over the next 2 days after that Terri and I strongly suspect he wasn’t feeling well from his vaccinations earlier that Friday because by Sunday he was a little maniac and a totally different dog. Graehm wasn’t all that into me either which was fine – he knew I wasn’t his momma! Noire again was very sweet. He approached very submissively. He liked toys and chased the rollers but just stood on them when he got to them and lost interest quickly. I knew he had enough interest I could train it so wasn’t too worried. I was a little worried he’d be too soft for me but he was still the top pick for me based on Terri’s observations of him over time. She was right – he definitely was low key with the other dogs and not at all a bully or short tempered which is something that was important to me. I knew he’d fit in well with my pack. Then I played with Coal who was a favorite of mine from my time with the entire litter and our 1 on 1 time just cemented that. He was very outgoing and loving. He LOVED to get his belly rubbed and was all over me. When I tried doing rollers with him he chased them and picked them up but didn’t return them. He was a super tugger however. Lots of toy drive! I was very impressed with him. He was at the top of my list at that point but I wanted to do more observing of him with the other pups to see how he interacted to get an idea of how he might do with my pack. Then came Azul, such a sweet and happy puppy. He was very bouncy in body and in spirit. He still had the stigma in my mind of being the bully of the litter though so I still wasn’t sold on him. Then I threw some rollers for him and he freakin’ rocked it. He chased them down and after a little bit of wobbling to adjust for the disc’s weight (Jawz pup disc) he brought it right to me and then wiggled with delight at my excitement over his accomplishment. He then repeated this behavior at least 4 or 5 more times. I was in love but still tentative because of the bully thing.
As the night went on more puppy parents arrived, my friend Connie from Jacksonville and my friends Debbie and Liz from Tampa. Connie had been slated to get Sapphire the blue merle female and sure enough they fit together quite nicely! Liz and Debbie didn’t arrive until late Friday evening so only got to see the pups for a short time but Debbie fell for Domino (now Moses) immediately so I knew he wasn’t an option for me. That night we all headed to bed with the intention of waking early to play with pups and to put them on sheep and then the decision making would begin after that. Terri had to see which would be her pup after all! At that point I was interested in Noire, Coal and Azul and anxious to see what the next day would bring.
The next morning came EARLY but the excitement of playing with pups was enough to get me up before Liz (who is a morning person where I am not)! The puppy playing began. I spent more time observing vs. interacting because 1) Debbie and Liz hadn’t really gotten to interact yet and I wanted them to have that same ability I had the day prior and 2) I wanted to see the pup’s interactions with one another – especially Coal and Azul. Despite my “stand offish” approach Coal and Azul were still all over me (and everyone else). I watched Noire a lot and with more people there and additional people coming in I saw a lot of reserve in him whereas the other two were the first two pups to go running up to the new comers (people arriving at the ranch for herding lessons). I really got the sense that Noire was not the dog for me. I knew I wanted a more confident dog and I wasn’t seeing that in him. He wasn’t scared mind you – but definitely withdrew from the hubbub which isn’t what I want in a disc dog that will be performing in front of large crowds on a regular basis. Watching the pups play with one another both Azul and Coal got in little puppy spats with the other puppies but Azul was very often on the bottom whereas Coal was almost always on top. This got me leaning towards Azul some more than I was.
Picking time! I thought it had been said that we were going to wait and see how the pups did on stock before any final decisions were made but I must have heard wrong because all of a sudden it was announced that Liz would be getting Coal. I was confused and in a bit of a panic at that point. That just left Azul (the “bully”) and Noire (Mr. Reserved) for me. Granted Night was still available but he still was being ho-hum about stuff. We gathered all the pups up and headed to the barn to put the pups on sheep. In my gut I knew that Noire wasn’t a good match but I felt bad because Terri had really thought he was the pup for me. With Liz now getting Coal that meant Azul would stay with Terri. Terri had been planning to keep Coal but in the past week or two before we got there was thinking of keeping Azul. Well Azul got out there on the sheep and walked underneath them. Not a tragedy by any means (and kind of comical) but not ideal. Then Noire’s turn came and he was AWESOME on sheep. We were all amazed! I can’t recall what happened first - the dogs on sheep or Terri and I discussing Azul and Noire. I said that I’d like to take Azul but that if his bulliness came back over the next month (I was leaving my pup with Terri an additional month for socialization) that maybe I’d look at Noire again and see if he had become more outgoing, etc. Terri agreed we could do that. I think maybe that conversation happened before the sheep herding cause once we all saw Noire on sheep it became apparently clear he belonged with Terri. I still was worried about taking home the bully but my friend Kim who was there made a good point. She said I needed to take the dog that was best for me and for what I wanted to do and that I could make the rest of it work out. And besides, I hadn’t seen any of that behavior from Azul yet. If anyone was the bully it was his sister Raven but really no one was the bully. As the day went on and I kept watching the pups and interacting with Azul (named Ziggy by the time we went out for lunch) I knew the right decision had been made. That little flashy blue dog was mine! He’s been with us for almost 2 weeks now and every day he shows me he belongs with me. My gut knew Noire (now named Keep) was not the right fit. I’m proud of myself for listening (I haven’t done that in the past with puppies) and staying true to what I knew I wanted and although it took me a little time to see it and adjust to the idea of a pup I hadn’t even considered I am glad I stayed true to myself.
All the pups truly ended up with who they belonged with. Noire is now Keep and is staying with Terri to be her ranch dog. Coal is now Peak and Liz is having a blast with him. Domino is now Moses and Debbie couldn’t be happier. Night is now Pete and living with Gail and she is really enjoying him. They are a great fit. Graehm was pre-named and Heidi is enjoying his adventurous nature. Sapphire, Maxine (Raven) and Charlotte (Jett) are all perfect matches too! Azul is now Ziggy of course and I love him. He’s confident, happy and fun! More about what Ziggy is like in the next post.
What is this thing here? A blog? I sort of remember that I have a blog. Clearly I’m not a good blogger. I do much better at short snippets of info than long ones i.e. Facebook status updates, but the drawback there is that I can’t easily go back and re-read them to recap what I think I’ve learned or said over time. I can’t promise I’ll blog more often but I’ve had some thoughts fluttering around in my head that I want to put down so here goes at least 1 blog entry for 2012. I suspect with having a new pup in the house I might manage to blog a few more times this year. We shall see…
A new puppy? Yep – a new puppy! I imagine anyone who reads this is also my Facebook friend and thus already knows about Ziggy. Quick recap in case you’ve missed it somehow… Ziggy is an ASCA registered Aussie from Terri Carver of Maximum Aussies in Brenham, TX. He is out of Mojo (Slash V Midnight Cowboy) and Maggie (Maximum’s Steel Magnolia). http://onedropaussies.com/ziggy/ He is a ½ brother to Spice through Mojo. We are still working on a registered name for him. Currently I’m leaning towards Maximum’s Catch the Wave but haven’t settled on it. Catch the Wave is a lyric in Ziggy Marley’s song “Into the Groove”. It also fits because of Ziggy’s crooked (or wavy) natural bob tail!
So with the addition of Ziggy we now have 7 dogs. “That’s a lot of dogs” is pretty much what everyone says when they find out we have 7 and they are right, it is a lot of dogs, especially when management is required within the pack and one is a pee pot! We are adjusting and managing it all pretty well though Jack is complaining that he can't remember dog's names anymore. I must admit I've had a few of those moments myself! To add to the fun we’ll be dog sitting for a friend for much of August so that will make things interesting but luckily Kicker is well liked by all but 2 of the dogs in my house so it shouldn’t be too bad.
Some folks have asked how Ruckus is handling the stress of the new puppy. For those that don’t know Ruckus is in congestive heart failure and doesn’t have too much longer to live. Most things I’ve read state that most dogs live 6-12 months once they go on the meds he is on. We truly thought we were losing him a few months ago but the meds have done wonders for him and he’s living quite comfortably right now. We took several weeks to decide whether we wanted another puppy right now. I had been on a list for a Spice sibling and that litter was planned for this spring but it didn’t happen and the Maggie x Mojo litter happened instead. Other than size there were a lot of reasons to go with this litter over waiting for another Fly x Mojo cross however we weren’t sure it was a good idea to bring the pup in with Ruckus doing so poorly. But it became apparent that Ruckus was going to do rather well on the meds and we decided to go ahead and get a pup from this litter. How’s Ruckus handling it? Pretty darn well actually. Probably the best he’s handled any new addition. He’s more focused on stealing Kongs and chew bones out of Ziggy’s ex-pen than he is on Ziggy, to the point that when I let Ziggy out Ruckus is right there to go in the ex-pen. In the past he’d have stayed far away. They’ve even been loose together in the front yard once or twice and Ruckus just ignores him and Ziggy seems to get that Ruckus isn’t a dog you approach. Kudos to Ziggy on that! Ziggy is very respectful of Mickie too! His Uncle Max and Aunt Sadie taught him well!
How is everyone else adjusting? Groovy likes him though is only allowed to interact through the ex-pen. She’s funny – she tries to guard his ex-pen from the other dogs but Ziggy is allowed to have all the stuff in there. Mickie appreciates that he is respectful of her and she’s even been spotted play bowing to him when outside. Inside she lets him know she needs her space and he complies. Spice… well Spice doesn’t like him. The little queen feels like she’s been dethroned but to be honest she probably needed to be. J She hasn’t been allowed loose with him much at all. She isn’t aggressive with him but definitely tells him she doesn’t want him near her or her stuff. Hopefully they’ll eventually become good friends, time will tell. Jam is very tolerant of him and occasionally likes him. She hasn’t taken to him like she has to other puppies that have visited. Maybe because he’s staying… I’m not sure. She does play with him on occasion but isn’t in love with him. And then there is Tali. What a fantastic dog she is! She loves the puppy and plays well with him and he loves her! They are so fun to watch. She is always a good big sister/momma dog to our new additions.
So overall everyone is adjusting pretty well. More to come on Ziggy and what he's like. Look at that... already the promise of 2 blog posts in 2012! Till then here is the new addition!
Ziggy at 8 weeks in Texas
Ziggy at 14 weeks at the Wiregrass Mall
Ziggy and his brother Moses at Wiregrass Mall - 14 weeks
