Bowie
Bowie is an Australian Shepherd which, to spite the name, were developed in the United States. The name comes from, "their association with the Basque sheepherders who came to the United States from Australia in the 1800’s."[1].
"Australian Shepherd are an intelligent, medium-sized dog of strong herding and guardian instincts."[1]. Bowie is an intelligent, tiny-sized dog, with no hearding or guardian instinct that I've seen as of August 2019. He will nip at ankles and heels, but I believe this is not too far outside of normal for puppies.
Bowie was born Wed, 12 Jun 2019. At the time of this writing he is 10 weeks old.
Contents
Sleep
Bowie sleeps roughly half of his day. Puppies sleep for between 15 and 20 hours a day <reference>https://petcentral.chewy.com/how-much-should-puppies-sleep/</reference>. Bowie's routine cycle is, roughly, an hour of food/training, an hour of play, 2-3 hours of sleep.
At night (when you want to sleep), Bowie is pretty calm; however, he seldom makes it through a full night sleep without needing a potty break. Taking him out at night happens at irregular times—just whenever he's whining. Although nighttime potty breaks are irregular, some patterns have emerged: 10pm, 2-3am, 4-5am. Very occasionally, the 2-3am wake-up won't happen. If he's had a lot of exercise that day, it won't happen.
Potty Training
Bowie is not fully potty trained. He has never pooped in the house. We have puppy pads in his pen in case he has to go and we don't notice for whatever reason. He uses them when he can.
He should be taken out whenever he wakes up from a nap — this means once every few hours. The accidents that he has had, and the times that he's used the puppy pads, are the times when he wakes up and we don't take him outside immediately, or we're asleep and don't take him outside immediately.
Behaviors
Targeting
Targeting is the first thing I taught Bowie via shaping. As a result this behavior is deeply ingrained and he does not need a lure offer this behavior whenever you extend your hand.
This is a good "check-in" or "are you capable of paying attention right at this moment?" exercise. If you suspect Bowie may be over-tired, see if he can target. If he's reluctant, or only does it after moving a bit closer to him; i.e., shrinking the training bubble, he's pooped.
Look at me
Look at me is a behavior Bowie can do even when he's really tired, and it's a good check-in to see if he's distracted. To perform Look at me you can either say "Look at me", "Bowie", or make some noise; in general those are all queues to look at the human saying them's face.
You need to be fairly close to him to get him to do this, but within a few feet from a standing position is fine.
Sit
The queue to sit is to raise a closed fist backwards over his head. This can be done from a fully standing position when Bowie is in a good listening mood. A lure is seldom needed at this point for sit. He's also fairly good at manding when he wants attention (i.e., sitting automagically).
Lie down
The queue to lie down is to put a flat palm on the ground in front of him. I've been trying to do this from standing height, but so far he doesn't really get it :\
Sometimes you need to use a lure to get him to lie down, particularly when he's over-tired. Put a piece of kibble in front of his nose, make sure he smells it, lower it to the floor. Once he's on the floor, click/mark (i.e., say "good") and treat.
Leave it-ish
He is far from expert level at Leave It, but he can leave a pile of food alone on the floor.
Recall/Fetch
Recall, A.K.A. Come, is a behavior with which Bowie rarely has a problem. When we first brought him home Blazey and I worked on calling him back and forth to us as a form of burning energy. As it turns out, this was also the best recall training we could have possibly done. I now work on recall as part of other games, i.e., Bowie is already playing a bit of fetch.
Stand on this thing
I did this as a shaping exercise with a yoga block once upon a time. I clicked and treated every time he got close to the yoga block until eventually he got the idea that I wanted him to stand on it. Now he will volunteer to stand on anything you put on the floor, mostly.
Troubleshooting
Bowie's failure to preform the above behaviors is contingent upon his level of distraction, anxiety, and exhaustion.
Biting
This is currently (as of August 2019) Bowie's biggest issue. He loves to nip at pant legs, ankles, and he'll get hands if you play rough with him. Here's a list of things to try when he's biting in order of ascending biting problem level
- Ask him to sit and look at you, if he does and he stops biting say "good" give him a piece of kibble/treat
- Bring his attention to a toy in the area. Make it enticing so he bites it instead, or just put it in his mouth
- If neither of the above work, it's a good sign that he's over-stimulated and probably over-tired. Pick him up, and put him in the pen for 10 minutes
The Pen™
Problem behaviors are often a symptom that Bowie is overtired and/or overstimulated. When that happens, it's best that he spend some time in his crate or exercise pen.
