Just two more weeks to go...

We went to visit Sadie today. It was her first time on the grass, and she didn't know what to do with it. So she tried eating it, and lying on it, and then decided that it was most fun to run on it. So run she did... straight to the puppies in the puppy yard (older than she). She didn't know there were other puppies besides her own litter, which is in the "nursery."

Right now her eyes are blue, but when she is an adult, they will be amber. I love the puppy stage, but I can't wait for her to be all grown up! She is going to be beautiful!

Last night I dreamed that we had gone out to see Sadie and that they brought the wrong puppy out to me. I kept insisting that it was the wrong puppy and they kept insisting that it wasn't. And then the ranch was infested with fire ants and we had to run to get away from them. Dreams. Strange things.

Sadie is smaller than her sister, who was the smaller of the two when we saw them last week. That's a good thing. I want a small dog. Her little brother is tiny tiny... so little you'd think he was a good two weeks younger. He's more sedate than my puppy, although how sedate can a puppy be? She plays with her sister more than her brother, though.

That's all for now. Random thoughts. My ADD is working overtime these days, and it's really hard to follow a train of thought.

Until next time...

A Journal Begun

Right now— after the passing of my beloved Tosh— only Mac lives with us. Mac is an eight year old miniature pinscher that we rescued six years ago. He's starting to gray a little in the face, especially on his muzzle, which makes me sad. I watched Tosh's little face go completely white; but she was gray when we rescued her, six years ago, too. We got them together and enjoyed these dogs immensely.

So last weekend, we drove an hour and a half to a nice little ranch in Blue Ridge, Texas, where I chose a red tri-color toy aussie. My new puppy will be named Sweet Paprika, but her call name will be Sadie. I get to bring her home in two and a half weeks from now. I'm dreaming of puppies!

Mac and Sadie need their own blog because from day one with Sadie, we will be documenting their training. Mac is rather mercenary, only willing to do what we ask if we have treats available. I plan on changing that through clicker training. And Sadie will be learning clicker training from the ripe old age of eight weeks. I'm really excited to see how the training  progresses with both dogs. And though I've owned many dogs throughout my life, this will be my first time clicker training. Up until now, I've used old fashioned methods that mostly used punishment for bad behavior, not rewarding good behavior. (I cringe as I write this!)

Mac understands the clicker, and knows to try different things to see if he can get the thing to click so he gets his reward. Thus far we've worked on come, sit, spot (down), sit up, touch and watch me. He's doing pretty good for a dog being trained by someone who doesn't really know what she's doing! (I plan on reading and studying a lot between now and the time I bring Sadie home. After that, when she's old enough for puppy class, we'll probably put Mac in a class to help him learn to focus through distractions.)

Meanwhile, as I said, I'm dreaming puppies and training and clicking and rewarding...

'til next time!