Every Drop of Rain that falls…

So our puppy is 15 weeks old; this week he has added a new attribute to his personality – that of attention seeker. The walks, toys, play time, training time are not enough for him this week and he is seeking attention on his terms.
This usually turns out to be something like; barking at my husband early in the morning while I am getting ready for work in an attempt to get him to play. (Mind you this is after he has been taken out for a walk and played with in the yard.) He will bite and pull on the bed covers and also hands.

We have been diligently working on his play biting, as this is not something that I want him to continue to build. He very rarely play bites me any more, but he is still doing it to other family members. So I have been working with them to make sure that he stops doing this.
The other aspect I am working to stop him from doing is jumping on people. Now, he doesn’t jump up on me, but he is doing this to others. Of course, the family knows how to work with him to let him know this isn’t acceptable behavior, but he still hasn’t work it out on his own, that people are not like other puppies and dogs. He believes that everyone is around for his play time and amusement. While, I find my puppy adorably cute, I recognize that these newest behaviors are not ones that I want to encourage or allow others to encourage. Sometimes it is more difficult to “train” people to not encourage something a puppy does, that it is to teach the puppy not to do it.

As we have been working on our “walks” suddenly, my puppy has taken to try to take me for walks. He grabs his end of the leash, puts his head up high, and walks me. Interestingly enough most of the time he is walking right next to me, which is where he is suppose to be.

You can always tell that these dogs have a mind of their own. I didn’t get my puppy to be a ‘farm’ dog, even tho that is what they are bred to be, I got him for a companion/family dog. Even tho we live in the country; and we take walks down by the river and on our property, we don’t have other animals. He is being raised as an indoor puppy who gets lots of outside activities.

When its late at night and we have to go for our last walk of the night, if its too cold outside, he will complain. Its really interesting how vocal he can be. Besides the barking, that he has taken to recently, to get our attention. He also has different groans, whines, and various sounds that he makes to indicate what he wants to do. Like when he doesn’t want to go out in the cold, he kinda whine/growls to tell us he isn’t thrilled about it. Once you get him out the door, however, he jumps around running back and forth; tail in the air, proud look on his face, grabbing the leash to ‘take me for a walk’.

As with all puppies, they require training. I have had my fair share of puppy training over the years; mostly as I have had a number of dogs over the years.

What I have learned about the NWFT (Northwest Farm Terrier) is that they are absolutely adorably cute. They are extremely smart, and can be  very, very stubborn. Add these things together and you have… trouble. Well, not exactly.

So, at almost 15 weeks, our puppy has mastered “sit” “down” “follow” “come”; we are still working on the leash training and stay. Now, when I say he has mastered these things,what I actually mean is that he knows what he is suppose to do. However, this is where ‘stubborn’ comes to the front. You can tell him to sit, and you can see the wheels in his mind turning as he decides whether or not he is actually going to do what you say. Basically, these dogs have the “whats in it for me” type of attitude.

Now, I have never owned a terrier before, but I have owned a couple of dalmatians, and not since my dals have I seen this look of quiet rebellion over take them when they are told what you want them to do, while they decide if they are actually going to do it. As I said, smart. Unlike the dals, the NWFT have a much more expressive face (in my humble opinion), so they can work their outright stubbornness with a touch of, ‘but I am cute’. I can not express this enough, you must not allow your NWFT to take advantage of you too much, if at all by using this ‘cuteness’. You must be the alpha, as every small inch you give them, they will take a stubborn mile with it.

Now, I can offer a few comparisons to the dal here; I think this occurs as they share some of the same genetic ancestry in their breeds. They are very loving dogs, they both learn much faster with positive rewards than with anything else. As an example, I was training the puppy to lay ‘down’, I train both with voice and with hand signals. As sometimes I just prefer to instruct my dog without a vocal cue.

Anyway, I was teaching him ‘down’ and he would do it with a vocal cue, but not the hand signal. Now, I was simply using a treat. So I changed up, and when he reacted to the hand signal, not only did I give him a treat, but I gave him a lot of added verbal praise along with it. That was all it took for him. Now he will follow both the verbal and/or hand signal with no problem; except for the occasional “do I really want to do this” response. {Puppy hood, you gotta love it.}

Just remember, in my opinion, any “smart” dog will respond much better, faster, and reliably to praise reactions (vocal and treats) than to anything else. Like a stubborn child, if you scold them to much they will rebel, rather than do what you want. After all, any attention is good attention, right?

The thing about Petco is that you can bring your pet into the store as long as they have a leash. So it allows you to take a puppy into an environment that is rich in sound, smell and people while at the same time it is a controlled atmosphere.
Now, I have ferrets and have done some shopping for their food and litter in the store, but to be honest, most of it is done online. (Due to the prices being a lot less; as long as I don’t forget to actually order it.)
Anyway, I digress, so took the puppy into the store for the first time and he did amazingly well.
It helps that we have been working with him on the leash since we first got him. Although he hasn’t learned to heel yet, and still pulls from a lot more than he should, but that is due to our not working with him as much as we need to yet.
He met a couple of people who work in the store, and another small dog that was in there. He wanted to play, but the dachshund didn’t want anything to do with him. However, he didn’t try to pull anything off of the shelves, or roam. He sat for a treat and people were courteous enough to ask before petting him.
I met one of the dog trainers and am considering puppy kindergarten for him. I haven’t fully decided as I have never actually taken any of my dogs to training classes and have done it myself; with very positive results. Yet, I am interested to see how they do it and this would present a very good opportunity. I already have been working on socializing him, and am taking it slow as he still hasn’t had all of his shots. (State law is 16 weeks here.) So, we are waiting that out, while allowing him to experience different environments; sounds, people, places.

We took our puppy to the vet, and it went well. First, and foremost, no car sickness. He still has issues getting into the car, but as he gets bigger and more used to these rides, I am certain he will do better.

He did very well at the vet as well. She saw no problems with him, which means, of course, he has a clean bill of health. He also enjoyed the attention and running around the room a little while; exploring every nook and cranny. She has treated other NW Farm Terriers before and said confirmed that this group of dog is a very hardy bunch with little health issues. The health issues that she has seen were not due to the breed itself. Of course, that is good news!

He is a very smart puppy and we are still dealing with a bit of his personality shining through. He does like to ‘lead’ on walks, so I have been using the trick of randomly changing direction on him. That is working very well, and he enjoys the game of it. He is beginning to watch me more closely while we are out for our walks.

He barks when he hears noises he is unfamiliar with and/or to get our attention. However, this morning he was playing a game with his food dish, barking at it before pouncing on the poor unsuspecting dish. He would then take a bite and bounce away from it. Then his ‘game’ started over again. I have noticed he does this with other toys as well, he does the toss and pounce, which is a little bit cat like in my opinion.

He is also starting to jump around more while we are walks, and I have added this as part of our daily walk and games. It helps to expend his energy and he seems to thrive on his dancing and bouncing around, the interesting part of this is that he is doing it at my side, not behind or in front of me.  He is a very fun, fun, fun puppy.

Want to know more? Well, first, it is a bit more difficult to find information about this (for lack of a better term) ‘designer’ breed. As with all breeds, they have to start somewhere, and most of them started out as a mix of two different breeds. Take the Jack Russell, for instance.

When a breed is started, it has a purpose in mind, or what is the point in it? So, to put a couple of links into easy grabbing view;

Northwest Farm Terriers

Tweed Family Farms

Background on Northwest Farm Terriers

Now, what I have been told about this breed is what you will or probably have read. As with any dog breed lover, you can say pretty much the same thing about this breed that you will hear about other breeds. I have been told that this breed is very healthy due to the cross breeding. With my puppy just about to turn 12 weeks, I really can’t speak to that yet.

What I can say is that at 11 weeks, our puppy is pretty much house-broken. (We got him on Oct. 12th so you can see how smart they are in this short time.) Of course, I take him out for several walks a day at various times. He also has learned to sit and no longer requires a treat. As a matter of fact, when we go to the door and I get his leash he automatically sits and waits patiently while I put on the leash for us to go out.

Speaking of leash training; I put a collar on him the first day I got him and took him out for a walk. He displayed very little of the normal anti-leash behavior that you see in other dogs. The straining and bucking that a lot of dogs will do when learning to walk on a leash. For the most part, but not 100%, he will walk right next to me. Other times he will put the leash in his mouth and I have the very distinct feeling he thinks he is ‘walking’ me.

I am really over the moon about this little guy. I could give you the positives about him, but in reality any where you read about these guys you will see the positives. So here are a couple of negatives; however, they are things you will experience with pretty much any puppy.

He is a chewer. In particular, our pup likes to chew wires and bed spreads. We are still working on this behavior and on redirecting him to chew on appropriate things.  He does try to chew our hands, toes, and socks – with our feet in them. He tends to be very mouthy and the redirection to things that are better for him to chew on is going very slowly. (Hence, I went out and bought him even more acceptable  things to chew on today.)

He is stubborn. At least mine, and not sure if this is a representation of the entire breed, although with the genetic background I can’t see how it wouldn’t be, can be very stubborn. Due to his high intelligence, and quick learning ability, he is also exhibiting and working on his own place in our pack – and you can tell he is trying for alpha. He will sit and whine when he doesn’t want to do something. No amount of calling him will make him move, however, the treat trick does.

That brings me to the last little thing. He is a talker. You might take it for whining, but it really isn’t. He has a different ‘sound’ when he is crying. No, he actually is talking to us; and often times complaining (usually about having to do something that he doesn’t want or us not doing something he wants us to do.)

A really interesting positive is; when he is in the house, he is low energy for the most part. When he is outside, you can see that high energy kick in. This has been a really nice surprise for us.

And finally, this isn’t breed specific, he gets car sick. I have been reading various articles about how to help puppies over come this so I am working on it. However, as of this writing he still does. One of the things I read was to take him for short drives, to get him used to the car. I have done that and on my shortest trip he managed to not get sick. However, when I extended it a bit, he did. So we are still working on that. I am hoping that the vet is in the ‘short distance’ no car sickness route, as he has an appointment coming up.

So I found a puppy in our local paper. It wasn’t the first time I had seen the ad, it had come and gone and come and gone and it was back again. It was for a Northwest Farm Terrier. Now, having read about various terriers; as I had briefly considered a jack Russell and a rat terrier, I was interested to know more about this particular breed.

The Northwest Farm Terrier is a new breed. It originated on the Olympic Peninsula in Washington State; and is the made up of Welsh Corgi, Border Collie, Airedale Terrier, Irish Terrier and Jack Russell Terrier. As with any ‘mixed’ breed, I read up on all of these dogs to have a more informed idea about them. However, you can find more about the Northwest Farm Terrier by doing an Internet search. (Will reference more in a later post.)

Anyway, I called the number and set up a time to go see the puppies and learn a bit more about them first hand. It was raining most of the day, as it does in the NW, so when we got there, the ground was muddy and so where the dogs. We spent time with the two boys that were left, as well as the mother (and a few other dogs that were there.)

The puppies kept sneaking off and disappearing. (They were basically going behind a tree and beelining it for the front porch.) The owner would go get them and bring them back. Every time we bent down to pet one of the puppies, the mother would be there wanting her attention as well. Needless to say I was very muddy by the time we left.

The tough decision came as to whether or not to get one of these puppies. In the end we decided to. To sum it up after almost a week; I am glad I did.

The one thing that I decided was as much as I wanted a puppy, I wanted the right fit for me and my family and our lifestyle. So, with this in mind, I began to watch the papers for puppy ads. When I would find one, I would research the breed; finding out what it was like, how big it would get, what its temperament was like.

I had an idea of what I was looking for; a dog that would be low energy inside the house, who would make a great companion that I could take on walks with. I was looking for a dog that would help me be motivated to get in better shape.

Now, I have had people argue this with me. That a dog couldn’t motivate me to do it, if I wasn’t going to do it without one, then I wouldn’t do one with one. I can see this side of the argument, but I also know myself. I need a reason to actually go out and do it. I know that for health reasons I needed to get out more and take walks. That between working (where I sit at a desk most of the day), and going home or out to pick up the necessities of life, isn’t enough exercise.  However, with a dog, I would be required to put its needs before my own wants of not being motivated enough to go out and just do it. Besides, I didn’t want to go out for walks alone; I wanted both the companionship and the lack of need for talking while enjoying the outdoors.

Anyway, one would think that it would be easy to find a good dog to meet these needs. (Lucki had been a pound puppy [she was 6 months when I got her] and I did go to the humane society a lot over the last few months looking for my “perfect dog”). I, however, wasn’t looking for just any dog, I was looking for my ‘perfect’ dog.

Quick segue; when I got Lucki I was single and wanted a dog to go everywhere with me and give me a sense of protection. I went to the humane society and happened upon Lucki; she came up to the kennel door, I told her to “sit” and  she did and I took her home. I was the lucky one with her. She was such a great dog.

When it comes to researching what dogs are like, the internet is a great thing. Especially with all the sites that are dedicated to specific breeds. With people writing not only what a breed is like, but what you should expect; the positives as well as the negatives. It is easy to shine a light on how great a breed is, but unrealistic if you don’t know their tendencies; such as how well they do with children? or small animals? etc. You have to be realistic in your desires to know what you are looking for in a pet; not just because you think that a husky has pretty eyes.

This saga begins last year when my dog of 16 years died of natural causes. Oddly, I had scheduled to take her to the vet and have her put down due to how bad she had gotten with arthritis, and both her eyes and ears going.

Lucki was the best damn dog ever, and I do not say that with any sort of bias. She was a large dog, a lab mixed with Sharpei or Chow. She had a black tongue and her skin would fold over her face at times. She was a big, fluffy golden lap dog, or so she thought. People would met her and want to take her home. She was a great ambassador for mixed breeds. Even though she was extremely large, she was also extremely gently. She would let kids lay on her and she let me use her for a pillow at times. She even ate like a princess, one piece of food at a time. It was odd to see such a big girl eat as gently as she did. So, when she passed away and I found her, to say it was devastating would be an understatement.

Although she wasn’t my only dog at the time. There was Buddy, a lab/dal mix and Apache an AKC dalmatian. So, six months after Lucki passed, Buddy was sick and dying and Apache had developed cancer. I lost both of them at the same time.

When that happened my vet asked if I would be getting another dog and my response was simply, “I am not ready”.

Earlier this year, I decided I wanted a puppy. Everyone told me that getting a puppy, at this time in my life, was not a good idea. These statements didn’t change the fact that, I still wanted a puppy. So began my search for the perfect puppy for me.

Today is the first day. Every moment. Every breath begins an opportunity for us to create, inspire and become something more than we were a moment ago. How rare it is that we actually take these changes to grow, change and become more than we were and less than what our future potential really is.

Challenge yourself to begin each day as an opportunity for something great to come out of it. Even if that great moment is just a chance to slow down the fast pace of life and breath.