Post by dmbenson on Sept 17, 2012 6:33:29 GMT -5
Well I've gone and done it now! I was checking on Craig's list (My name is DMBenson and I have an addiction to CL ;D) and found an ad for a "free to the first person who calls" PB Australian Shepard puppy". I check Mapquest to make sure it wasn't some ungodly distance from me, and call. Turns out the elderly gentleman produces about 1 litter a year and since his Grandkids have fallen in love with a couple of the newest pups, he needs to give away 2 from the last litter to make room. So I drive out.
The first pup is black and white and really shy, which makes me nervous considering she'd be coming into a bit of a zoo at our house, but the second one is red and white, 10 months old, hyper (of course) and very curious and outgoing - so I bring her home.
She's spent the past 3 days with her nose almost permanently attached to me knee (figuratively speaking), Listens really really well (I was able to, with one word, call her OFF of a duck she was chasing - boy was I impressed!), ignores the barn kittens, and gets along great with my well loved, but basically useless house dogs!
According to the gentleman I got her from, she's had virtually no training, not even basic obedience, but he'd worked cattle with both of her parents - so she has the working dog genetics.
We're going to start on the basics, Sit, Down, Wait and Stay as soon as I find a treat she likes well enough (not big on cookies/biscuits or, believe it or not, raw meat) and she gets over her perfectly natural "OMG I'm in a new place and all of this is sooooooo NEAT!" -ness. She's got to be, next to my Jack Russell, the smartest dog I've ever been around - and may have him beat - simply because she's so tuned on "me", unlike Jack who tends to completely lose his mind and obsesses on whatever it is he's focused on. I've been taking her everywhere, barn, pastures, chicken house - wherever I go, with me (except for shopping ) And she's finally, after 3 days, gotten so she'll lay down and be quiet when I'm sitting somewhere - like here on the computer.
And have I mentioned lately that I absolutely ADORE my DH, who arrived home off the road to find a new dog in the yard and his only comment was "Good Job - you got a herding dog!"
The first pup is black and white and really shy, which makes me nervous considering she'd be coming into a bit of a zoo at our house, but the second one is red and white, 10 months old, hyper (of course) and very curious and outgoing - so I bring her home.
She's spent the past 3 days with her nose almost permanently attached to me knee (figuratively speaking), Listens really really well (I was able to, with one word, call her OFF of a duck she was chasing - boy was I impressed!), ignores the barn kittens, and gets along great with my well loved, but basically useless house dogs!
According to the gentleman I got her from, she's had virtually no training, not even basic obedience, but he'd worked cattle with both of her parents - so she has the working dog genetics.
We're going to start on the basics, Sit, Down, Wait and Stay as soon as I find a treat she likes well enough (not big on cookies/biscuits or, believe it or not, raw meat) and she gets over her perfectly natural "OMG I'm in a new place and all of this is sooooooo NEAT!" -ness. She's got to be, next to my Jack Russell, the smartest dog I've ever been around - and may have him beat - simply because she's so tuned on "me", unlike Jack who tends to completely lose his mind and obsesses on whatever it is he's focused on. I've been taking her everywhere, barn, pastures, chicken house - wherever I go, with me (except for shopping ) And she's finally, after 3 days, gotten so she'll lay down and be quiet when I'm sitting somewhere - like here on the computer.
And have I mentioned lately that I absolutely ADORE my DH, who arrived home off the road to find a new dog in the yard and his only comment was "Good Job - you got a herding dog!"