NOTE: This male, NBT pup is looking for his forever home. He’s about 13 weeks old now. A puppy buyer questionnaire will need to be filled out for me to consider placing him anywhere. I would love to see him go to a home where he will be possibly used as a stud dog, some hunting or performance. With some paperwork, he can be registered. He is $400. Not sure if his ears are going to prick or not. So far they are a cute little button ear. Sire is Clan Clark Diesel and Rat Race Cricket, so fairly heavy on the hunting side. Should be medium size.
Well, it’s almost been a week since we picked up the young pup from our friends. He’s settled in really well here and is enjoying all of the dogs’ and our company. Our crew has been rather interesting with him. Sammie and Chance for example growl at him, and then at other times they initiate play time. I guess they just don’t want him to snuggle up with them most of the time.
I have taken him out for several walks, including one up in the ‘dobies. I shortened it a bit, as it is a long distance for a young pup. He stayed close by me, wandering off a bit to follow a scent or one of the other dogs, but then when he reaches a certain distance, he races back to me. Hubby has been taking him out on the 4-wheeler with the rest of the crew and says that he does really well. I’ll have to get a shot of him on the 4-wheeler. I know all of our dogs love the 4-wheeler and can be found snoozin’ on it during the summer months, hoping that daddy won’t leave them behind if he heads out to irrigate.
He slept thru the night the first night without a whimper or whine, but I’m thinking that was because he was pretty worn out after his little adventure of coming to live with us. The next few nights he was sooo not happy being locked up in a crate at bed time. After a few nights of it, I had to get pretty strict with him. But thankfully he learned quickly and last night he didn’t whine or fuss. Whew! We wouldn’t mind letting him sleep with us, but with 2-3 dogs sleeping with us already, we don’t need another body added. I would be out on the floor! And we feel that he does need to learn that he can survive on his own for awhile. He’s surrounded by dogs and us, so he’s not really alone, but he should learn to sleep with no problems in the crate when we say he needs to.
Today I took him and auntie Maddie to work with me. There is a fenced yard there, so they had a safe place to hang out. As he’s not exactly house broken, I can’t let him come in the office, but I go down to the warehouse frequently and can also take short breaks and play with them. I took some blankets and toys, and they hung out on them in the sun. I think it was good for him, as it is a new situation, new place. After work, I took them down to our local little town and took them for a walk around the fair grounds and took in a few blocks of the town too. Maddie was extremely patient with him, as he doesn’t yet have much in the way of leash manners. He did really well, not pulling or refusing to come with us. But boy did he go back and forth and stop when something startled him or he wanted to check something out. So I was trying hard not to jerk Maddie too often and not get tripped up on the leash. I’ll work with him a bit more on this, take him down by himself and walk around the town to expose him to the neighborhood and noises.
With the number of dogs we have, I was trying to figure out a way that I could make sure he ate his own puppy food and not have it eaten by the big dogs or have him take food out of the big dogs’ bowls. I usually feed them in the morning and leave it down during the day. Sometimes they eat all the food, and other times they aren’t as hungry. Obviously, just leaving the bowls down and food available isn’t the optimum situation for feeding the puppy just puppy food. I happened upon an article that stated that the handler of a drug detection dog didn’t ever feed their dog. Instead, they feed their dog while he works. They measure out the amount of food that he should eat during the day and put that amount in a pouch that they keep with them all day. So whenever they train, they use this food as rewards. So, a light bulb went off in my head and I decided that breakfast for puppy can be fed when I am training him! I just started tomorrow, but I’m hoping this will result in a well fed puppy that is also well mannered!
Last night he got in a rousing game of tug of war with Sammie, but of course as soon as I pulled out the camera, they mellowed out and only half played. Ah well, maybe next time. He is playing well with all of the dogs, even our heeler Sage. He also plays well with me, not too aggressive and doesn’t have a temper tantrum if he loses his toy. I have a book laying around that teaches you how to teach a solid retrieve of toys on a puppy, so I’ll see if I can find it and play train the little guy. I’ll let you know how it works! I’m also thinking of bringing out some pipes and other obstacle things and play with him on those, weather permitting. He’ll be fun to work with! He’s inquisitive and pretty confidant so far, so he’ll be interesting to work with.
Rat Race Rat Terriers 