Sherwood's Breeding Plans

[lvoss]

Rally sends love to her mama Luna. She says having "kids" in the house keeps you thin. Here is Rally with her daughter Rio.

[YodelDogs]

This picture was taken a week ago. Ayla stacked at 8 weeks.

I let Ayla go home with Steph and Chris Friday. She sleeps in her crate next to the bed and stays quiet and clean. Housetraining is coming along well though she has discovered that Chris and Steph have a lot more "stuff" within reach to chew on than I do. The house is being marinated with Bitter Apple spray, much to the puppy's annoyance haha.

Video of her first night at her new home.

Luna snarks at her a little bit (manners little one, manners!) but is starting to express curiousity towards her.

Today's email from Steph:
"Yesterday the puppy was trying as usual to get Luna to play. The response she normally gets is a grumpy "get out of my space". But when I came home last night, Ayla was excited to see me and was full of puppy exuberance. She ran over to Luna to entice her into playing with her and what do you know.. my big lumpy old girl started bouncing around like she was a puppy! She went down on her front paws with her rump in the air and WAGGED HER TAIL(!) at Ayla and then she bumped her with her nose and actually picked up one of the toys and tossed it at Ayla. It didn't last long and my stupid battery on the camera was charging so I missed getting it on film - but I was so happy that I teared up. So did Chris."

Stories like this makes being a breeder worth all the headaches.

[YodelDogs]

I have kept Bindi apart from my other two girls, Jozie and Pippin, for much of the past few months. Hormones were high when they were in season last fall, then they were back together, then had to be apart at the end of Bindi's pregnancy, and then completely apart the whole time Bindi was raising Ayla. When Ayla was old enough to be without Bindi through the entire night, I started crating Bindi in the room with the other dogs. There was a lot of "foul language" through the crates but I could tell that Bindi missed being with Jozie and vice versa. A couple days after Ayla went to her new home, the temperature dropped way down and it snowed. It was just too bad to switch dogs around with some inside and some outside so I said to myself, "it's now or never". I turned all the girls loose in the living room and after some grumbling and posturing, and some heavy duty supervising by myself, they tolerated each other. After a day or so of tension, the girls decided it was more fun to play than posture.

Here are Bindi and Jozie cuddled up on the heat vent.

Now that they are getting along, they have become "tag-team wrestlers" against the poor cats. I think the cats were happier having a bouncy puppy wrestling with them than being "body slammed" by two adult dogs. sighs

[tanza]

Great news Robyn

[nomrbddgs]

Good for you Robyn, I'm glad things are working out.

[Ninabeana26]

Glad to hear that your girls are doing well together & that Miss Ayla is doing well in her new home

[renaultf1]

Great news on both the puppy's new home and Jozie and Bindi. I've been meaning to ask, was the name Ayla chosen because of Clan of the Cave Bear…Ayla being the lone survivor of her clan in that book...fits given the birth troubles that happened.

[YodelDogs]

@renaultf1:

Great news on both the puppy's new home and Jozie and Bindi. I've been meaning to ask, was the name Ayla chosen because of Clan of the Cave Bear…Ayla being the lone survivor of her clan in that book...fits given the birth troubles that happened.

Good catch! What's funny is that Steph and Chris each came up with the name seperately from each other. Steph's Ayla from Clan Of The Cave Bear and Chris' Aayla from the Star Wars jedi master Aayla Secura. Steph and I would like to find a registered name to reflect the Clan Of The Cave Bear connection whereas Chris would like her registered name to be Star Wars related. We are currently at an impass. :p

[YodelDogs]

Ok so this week's photo session did not go very well

Ohhhh that smells yummy! I'm going to jerk it out of your hand!

Come on, lady. Give me that cookie.

Quit moving it so I can get a better grip on it.

Darnit. There you go moving it again.

Yay cookie success!

[renaultf1]

@YodelDogs:

Good catch! What's funny is that Steph and Chris each came up with the name seperately from each other. Steph's Ayla from Clan Of The Cave Bear and Chris' Aayla from the Star Wars jedi master Aayla Secura. Steph and I would like to find a registered name to reflect the Clan Of The Cave Bear connection whereas Chris would like her registered name to be Star Wars related. We are currently at an impass. :p

I love it…and too funny that they came up with the same name separately! Clan of the Cave Bear (great, great book and series of books)...boy does that take me back! :D:D:D

[renaultf1]

Too cute!! Sometimes the subject isn't too cooperative! :D:D

[snorky998]

I totally missed it!!! Clan of The Cave Bear Ayla….pound self in head...LOVE that series.

[Quercus]

@snorky998:

I totally missed it!!! Clan of The Cave Bear Ayla….pound self in head...LOVE that series.

I love that series too…I was wondering if puppy Ayla was named after the character.

[YodelDogs]

@renaultf1:

I love it…and too funny that they came up with the same name separately!

The same thing happened when Steph and I co-bred a litter with her dog Luna. For the black male puppy, we both came up with the call name Clipper and Eclipse to be in the registered name seperately from one another. (Clipper aka Sherwood's Eclipse Of The Moon is a littermate to lvoss's Rally.)

[Andrew]

Yay!! I too was wondering if Ayla was from Clan of the Cave Bear!!! Glad it is I LOVE that book & her character!!!
Ayla is beautiful!!! VERY happy to hear Bindi & Jozi are getting along. Does this mean you might be keeping Jozi still?

[saba]

Well, I hate to be repetitive, but I to was wondering if it was connected to Ayla, from the Clan of the Cave Bears :D…

I am actually re-reading the series at the moment, (for the 3rd time I might add...), and thoroughly enjoying it

[Nemo]

@YodelDogs:

Bite inhibition training is almost complete and she is rock solid on startle reflex training. I'm really proud of how smart and easily trained this girl is. She has truly been a joy.

I'm just catching up on this thread…. I've read the link to bite inhibition training lvoss gave in another post. But, how do you know know bite inhibition training is "complete"? Their bite is "gummy" consistently for a period of time? I would have guessed that you would have to keep that up for a while until they are a little older since puppies get so easily excited.

[YodelDogs]

@Andrew:

Does this mean you might be keeping Jozi still?

If the right home comes along I will place her.

[YodelDogs]

@Nemo:

But, how do you know know bite inhibition training is "complete"? Their bite is "gummy" consistently for a period of time? I would have guessed that you would have to keep that up for a while until they are a little older since puppies get so easily excited.

One thing I will never understand is why so many people automatically stick their finger or hand in a puppy's mouth. Then as the puppy grows, they complain because it always wants to gnaw on them or nip. :rolleyes:

From the time my pups start to mouth me, I yelp like it hurts. They soon learn that humans are delicate creatures and they shouldn't use their teeth on them. Visitors are scolded for sticking their fingers in the puppy's mouth and instructed to yelp as I do. It is far harder to train people than it is puppies! New owners are instructed to yelp when the pup mouths them and give the puppy a toy to show it what it should be chewing on. The one's who follow my advice have very few problems with nipping pups.

Ayla presented a new problem. She had no siblings to learn bite pressure from. The adults (nor the cats!) never yelped. Teaching her that a yelp means ouch has taken longer than usual. Consistent reinforcement will halt the behavior though. It just takes time and patience.

[Quercus]

Yeah, I would say bite inhibition training is "complete' at the puppy stage when they stop chewing on you in play. But you won't really know how complete it is as an adult until the dog might be forced into a situation where it really wants to bite either out of fear, or anger. Ideally, the dog would go thru a progression of 'bite' stages starting with an air snap, and then a muzzle punch (where it feels like the dog bit you, but there isn't any teeth marks or blood), and then a there is a bite where the dog opens its mouth and applies pressure, but doesn't break the skin. The idea is that the dog only applies as much pressure as needed in an emergency (in the dog's mind). A dog with no bite inhibition will overreact and inflict multiple skin breaking bites for someone bumping him while sleeping.

That is a worst case scenario, obviously. Lots of dogs wouldn't dream of biting a person; but the idea is to teach a dog how hard is too hard, rather than teaching them to never put their mouth on someone. And, as Robyn mentioned, singleton puppies, or puppies that were removed from their dam and littermates too early often have more trouble learning this.