Beach in Hawaii

OK so it wasn't a beach in Hawaii - it was a beach in St Petersburg, FL!  Last weekend was our disc dog club's annual beach day at Ft Desoto park.  We had a good turn out and it was a fun time.  Ziggy really had fun swimming and running with the other dogs.  Jam came along and went in the ocean voluntarily!  I guess her time swimming after ducks in Christopher Steele's pond taught her that swimming isn't so bad after all!  Ziggy did awesome and finally got to meet some of the disc dog group other than Jason and Andrea.  My favorite part was watching him try to help various kids build sand castles!

Monday night was puppy class.  Ziggy did great!  It didn't rain so we got to be outside.  It started off with off leash play and he did well.  No issues at all.  His brothers did well too!  He did great in class too though he was making out with a border collie at one point!  :)

This week our training focus has been on stay and on retrieves.  I hadn't played any disc games with him in about a week and he was kind of sucking when I tried on Wed. night.  I figured it out though... he's teething! Duh!  When I switched to a soft disc and to soft squeaky balls he was all over it.  Poor little guy - the squeaky balls came away with blood on them and he's really starting to chew this week more than he has and thus finding inappropriate items that never interested him previously!  Going at lunch today to get him one of those chilly bones!

Also new this week is some alarm barking!  It was bound to happen - especially with my noisy pack.  He started at the beach when all the other dogs went on alert as crazy Haze approached the picnic bench.  I told Colleen that she should feel proud that her dog was the cause of my dog's first alarm barking!  Anyone who knows Haze is not surprised by this I'm sure!  Then on Sunday he saw Andrea out on the deck through our bedroom window and alerted.  I was able to get him out there pretty quick to see it was her and he was all wiggles.  Last night he heard something in the woods that scared him and he stopped mid poop and came flying up on to the deck with me.  It was kinda of funny but definitely tells me we are in a bit of a stage at the moment!  No biggie - he'll work through it I'm sure.  I love that he comes to me for reassurance though!  :)

Last but not least... I snapped this pic this AM.  Ruckus is definitely mellowing in his old age!  This would have NEVER happened with previous puppies, especially a male puppy!  Granted the two of them did get into it earlier this week and I have no idea over what - I suspect Ziggy got too into Ruckus' business but they've been doing really well since then (with a lot of vigilant watching from me).  It's just so heart warming to see them get along.

Comings and goings

Ziggy, Jack and I headed down to Bayfront Park in Sarasota this past Saturday to meet up with our friends Liz, Maggie and Heidi and Ziggy's brothers Peak and Graehm.  What a really nice park.  Lots of people, dogs, nice views, etc.  It was a great experience for the dogs.  We walked around a bit, let the boys play at the beach, had dinner at the tiki bar/restaurant and then took a short drive to St. Armands Circle for some icecream.  The boys did great - especially at the over crowded St. Armands Circle!  Ziggy gets in trouble with the other puppy owners cause 1) he attracts the most attention due to his coloring and 2) he's the most outgoing so thus keeps the attention.  Ziggy apologizes in advance for his handsomeness and outgoing nature!  I suspect we won't be invited along for every future outing!  LOL

Ziggy, Graehm and Peak at the beach in Sarasota

Sunday my sister's family came over to meet Ziggy.  This is only the 2nd time he's met people AT my house (other than my parents).  He did awesome.  Ran right up to them and snuggled up to them.  My brother in law is a big guy so this was extra cool.  My nephews are in their early 20's.  On another good note Spice who is often standoffish in the house with strangers warmed up to them all quite quickly and was vying with Ziggy for attention from them.  This is the 2nd time I've seen this happen (her vying for attention) and I think it's safe to say that maybe Ziggy is a good influence on Spice!

Speaking of Spice she got her first agility title in the mail the other day!  Not a big deal really because it was CPE level 1 and that is a SUPER easy title to get BUT it was still her first so we had to take a picture!

Sunday night I took Ziggy over to my mom's to meet my brother and his kids.  This is the 2nd time Ziggy has met someone new at my mom's house.  Both times he's been a bit standoffish which is very unlike him.  Normally he treats all strangers as his best friend.  This doesn't freak me out or worry me but I do find it odd and I'm definitely curious as to why that is.  In the end he was OK with my brother and his kids (ages 8 and 10) and as seen below was taking treats from them and gave Nathaniel (10) some lovin'  before we left.  Just an odd observation is all.  

I can't recall if I've mentioned our visitor that we have for 3 weeks.  We are dog sitting my friend Allison's dog Kicker.  Spice does NOT like her but seems to be coming around.  Ziggy LOVES her but Kick isn't too sure she wants to spend a lot of time with a 4 month old puppy!  She's starting to like Ziggy more though.  Jack said they were playing together last night while Spice and I were at agility class.  They make a cute almost matching set!

And last but not least Ziggy had his first puppy class this week!  It's a puppy class/puppy agility foundation class rolled into one.  His brothers Moses and Peak are in it too.  This week it was raining and our instructor Bonnie decided to have class anyway but to have it inside.  It was quite chaotic at first and fitting 8 pups and their owners in Bonnie's living room was quite the squeeze.  I was very pleased with how Ziggy handled it.  He was SUPER focused on me.  He was friendly with the other puppies too though he did have a little melt down and go off on Peak at the end of class when Peak climbed on his back while Ziggy was getting treats from me.  Kind of upsetting but really he spent an hour getting treats from me while he had a dog on each side within 1-2 feet getting treats from their owners and was fine.  One was Peak - the other was a new aussie pup he hadn't met before.  His focus only got better as class went on so I suspect his puppy brain was fried and considering I know he has a tendency to resource guard good stuff he did pretty darn good.  I'm looking forward to next class where we'll be outside and the pups will get to play with one another and then have more space when the "work" begins.

Till next time!

Ziggy

No reason for this song choice other than I like it and it does contain some lyrics that are also in consideration for Ziggy’s registered name.  Maximum’s Catch the Wave (for his wavy coat and curly tail) and Maximum’s Come for the Ride.  Groovy’s name was inspired by this song but she isn’t technically named after this song since her name is C-Me Ima Groovy Girl.

More about Ziggy… well clearly he’s a very happy and friendly pup.  He proved that again last night.  We met a friend of ours at Grillsmith at Wiregrass Mall to belatedly celebrate his birthday.  Ziggy did awesome.  Spent the first 30 minutes sitting and staring at me (he was randomly being rewarded with treats).  He went on to chew his bully stick until he got a whiff of my dinner then he was back sitting at attention in hopes of sharing my chicken and portobello stack – which of course he did.  He was so good - nothing bothered him and it was kind of loud compared to some of the other experiences he's had.  He got restless just as we were finishing up and turns out that is cause he had to go potty (we went for a little walk and took care of that issue!).  This was Ziggy’s first outing as the “only dog”.  Everywhere else we’ve been there have been other dogs with us that he could take his cues from, etc. so I was curious to see how he would do and as mentioned – he did awesome.  He got some lovin’ from some of the folks at the table near us and some teenage girls after dinner as we were walking around.  Such a good boy.  I really love this dog!

Learning stuff… so far we’ve been mostly focused on socializing with people and dogs, learning to love our expen and crate and usually once a day we do some sort of “formal” learning.  Sit, down, left, right, perch work, disc dog set up moves and rollers/retrieves.  We are alternating between food rewards and tug rewards.  Sit, down, left, right and set up moves are all done via luring.  Perch work is really the only capturing type of learning we are doing.  Oh and we’ve done some with offering to go through jump uprights.  Mostly though so far it’s just about play and being a puppy.  His recall is stellar and up till about a week ago we were really just rewarding with neck scratches and belly rubs but now that he is 16 weeks old I’ve made a point to reward any and all recalls that I deem “difficult” (outdoors, distracted, etc.) with love and good treats.  I’m hoping to really be sure and send the message that listening is awesome before we hit that independent puppy stage.

 

So far he seems pretty smart.  Sometimes he blows me away with his intelligence – other times he shows he truly is an aussie boy!  LOL!  He’s very athletic and very bold with his body – luckily he also has good control of his body already.  Groovy was a hot mess with her body at this same age!  He could jump up on the couch from day 1 (13 weeks old).  Problem is he doesn’t just get down… he leaps down.  Luckily our couch is pretty low and our carpeting is thick!  He was the first of his sibling to jump up on the exercise peanut unassisted and that was after just being on it once a few minutes earlier.  He conquered climbing up on the bed about a week ago and it isn’t low.  He’s attempting to jump in his crate at night – the problem there is that his crate is on top of Spice’s crate which I’m guessing is a 24” tall crate.  He doesn’t seem to care that he doesn’t make it – he keeps trying.  I’m having to keep an eye on him to prevent that.  He’s also mastered a box turn off of the chaise part of the couch on to the ottoman.  He jumps over Tali and Spice while playing.  I think it’s safe to say he’s going to be quite athletic.

He really is a great puppy and I am completely in love with him but no puppy is perfect and our “watch outs” so far are that he isn’t inclined to share high value resources well with other dogs with.  He can take treats while sitting next to another dog no problem but if another dog approaches his bowl/Kong (even when he’s in his expen) or if two dogs go for the same toy at the same time he is quite vocal about making sure the food or toy is his.  I try to keep in mind he comes from a long line of cattle dogs which are tough cookies but I’ve corrected him for it when I can and Jam and Spice have as well and he truly seems to be learning from that.  We are also rewarding any interactions that might cause an issue but don’t.  He totally respects Ruckus and gives him space.  He’s got great dog skills in that way and he’s greeted every strange dog very well.