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.