It’s been a while since I’ve visited here to up-date and add to my web-site.  A good part of the reason has been the new addition to my home .... in the shape of a Rhodesian Ridgeback puppy!!    He came here at 8 weeks of age and is now 12 weeks old.  He’s a bundle of joy ..... and sometimes a bundle of terror! .... but with consistency, persistency and patience on my part (yes, sometimes it has been stretched a little ... LOL) he is beginning to understand how the household works and the boundaries he needs to live by to get all the goodies.  Oh ... and his name is “Mandela” (or “Nelson” when he is naughty, LOL).  Of course there are those other affectionate names we have for when they are acting as angels and Mandela’s is “my little Man”. 

In these last 4 weeks  Mandela has learnt quite a lot.  Apart from simply becoming familiar with me; crate training (which is helping immensely with his toilet training); and general run of the mill household word/commands (such as “out of my fridge” and “out of my kitchen”), he’s learnt to fetch the ball; shake paw (“five”) and sit (which he performs beautifully).   He also does lovely enthusiastic recalls with a sit in front, no less!  All these things I’ve simply taught him using ‘free shaping’ as the method.  That is, when he exhibits a behaviour I have recognised as something I want, I’ve rewarded him for it.  That he loves his food has made this somewhat easy.  Once he is repeating the behaviour, I have introduced a command for it.  After that he only receives the reward (which is sometimes food and sometimes a game of tug) if I’ve given the command for the behaviour.  If I didn’t do this, he’d be forever trying to shake paw with me!  Of course, I’ve also been working on teaching him loose lead walking, something that is coming along reasonably well given he is only 12 weeks young.  I have done some work on “drop” and that is happening, although I’m not focusing on this so much .... it’s something that will come a bit later in his training.

Most of the time though, I’ve centred on providing Mandela with as broad socialisation experiences as I possibly can.  He’s been with me on a short train ride; for an on-lead walk down the main street of my home town;  to an airport where we heard and saw planes and helicopters taking off and landing; through self-opening doors; stayed overnight in an unfamiliar environment; been left in the care of someone else instead of me for a day; and met puppies, adult dogs and lots of unfamiliar people at puppy/dog school.

His introductory exposure to all of these things has been done gradually and carefully structured so that he would not become too overwhelmed.  For instance, I didn’t just go to the train station and get straight on the train.  That evolved after about three separate visits, the first of which was where we simply sat in the car at the station car park together, listening to some trains come into the station and then leave again.  The next visit saw us in the enclosed section of the train station itself.  We simply sat there, with Mandela on my lap, whilst people and trains came and went.  Being enclosed the sounds of the trains were more muted.  The next visit saw us standing on one platform while a train came and left from the opposite station.  The visit following that one saw us on the train for a ride covering a couple of stops.   I made a point of not moving forward beyond one step in the process unless Mandela showed me he was not the least concerned with each step.  He thoroughly enjoyed the train ride and loved it that the school children came on board.  They all wanted us to sit next to them, so they could give Mandela lots of pats and generally coo over him.  He adored the attention, but I held him so that he learnt to behave quietly.  This was another opportunity to meet unfamiliar people and to learn how to behave in their presence that I know will stand him in good stead for later on.

Mandela’s toilet training is progressing and every ‘accident’ is always my own doing.  I don’t beat myself up about it if I misjudge the timing, but I’m conscious that it is my mistake.  I find that cleaning up the mess in his absence (eg. Whilst he is outside, or perhaps I put him in his other crate) is making a difference, as I’m sure he gained some perception of ‘attention’ when I cleaned up in his presence.  We’re not there yet, in the toilet training department, but we are getting there.  First thing in the morning is best (he’s sleeping through the night for the most part) as he is just picking up on the routine of going outside for the toilet before his first meal of the day.  I am there as much as I can be to congratulate him when he toilets outside and he will now urinate on command, something that he picked up on very quickly, probably because of my vigilance, frequency and consistency with it.

Apart from continuing with his toilet training which, as I said, is improving and easier (in part now I think because I understand HIS needs a bit more than I did at the beginning), I am now focusing on teaching him some independence.  This was difficult in the first couple of weeks as the weather here was so frigidly cold so leaving him outside for any length of time was out of the question.  So I began by leaving him in his crate and me being in a different room for a small while, only ever returning to him when he was quiet.  Of course the trick here is to know that he is toileted before I do this, as I would like to enhance him vocalising to let me know when he needs the toilet.  I built up the time he could cope alone with and am able to leave him for approximately 3 hours.  The only thing that restricts the time element for this now is that by then he is likely to be needing to toilet. 

But now that the weather has improved, we have spent more time outdoors over the last few days or so and once I could see that he was quite comfortable with being in the back yard, have begun to leave him by coming inside.  Initially I left the back door open for him so he could find me if need be.  But now I periodically close the door, denying him access to me.  I only leave him for shortish periods out there, as being outside alone is new to him.    Generally he is a confident little pup and so he is coping quite well with this.  If he were not so confident and coping well, I would need to manage this differently.

We have been down the main street of my home town a few times in his first couple of weeks.  I would have him in my lap (he was so tiny and it was so cold) whilst I had a coffee at one of those street cafe’s that have become so popular.  This afforded me the opportunity to not only introduce him to the novelty of unfamiliar people passing by (and more often than not, stopping for a chat and a pat) but also for Mandela to see and hear light and heavy traffic passing by.  He also saw some of the elderly people passing by on their motor scooters.  Yesterday though, I decided it was time and appropriate for him to take a walk on lead (after all, he’s getting too heavy for me to now carry him around!!) with me whilst I ran some errands in town.  Mandela handled the busy-ness of the town like a trooper and gave me the impression that he’s done this before perhaps in some other life!!  What a guy!!    He loved meeting the Bank Tellers (and they him), but of course for that I picked him up before we entered their buildings.

Today being such beautiful warm weather, I introduced him to the clam shell that we dog people often use as wading pools for our dogs.  Being a Rhodesian Ridgeback, I knew that Mandela would not be automatically attracted to water and getting wet (apart from the fact that this was a complete novelty for him), so I only put a small amount of water in – just enough to cover his toes – and made sure the water temperature was tepid.  He really wasn’t overly interested, but I want him to feel comfortable about getting into water and being a bit wet, so I used his love of food to help me by tossing in a few bits of kibble as treats.  He enjoyed fossicking around in the water retrieving them, but didn’t linger there.  That’s ok with me.  As I said, I only want him to not hate being wet or being concerned about water.  Once his puppy vaccinations are completed I intend to visit a beach.  I don’t propose that we’ll get anywhere near the water in the first visit or so.  I just want him to get to enjoy the feel of the sand and the sound of the ocean.  We’ll venture to wade in a bit further down the track, when the weather is hotter and when I know he is comfortable being in that environment.

Mandela had his 2^nd puppy vaccination late last week, so I opted to keep him away from other dogs and pups for 7 days.  We’ll make up for it next week though by fitting in as many visits with pups and adult dogs I know I can trust to be around puppies, as possible.  The Vet was great and had Mandela enjoying a platter of liver treats (not a ‘platter’ literally, but enough liver treats to keep him pre-occupied) whilst she gave him his needle.  He didn’t show the slightest sign of feeling the needle or realising it had been done.  He’s had his temperature taken and his ears and teeth checked, all followed up with a food treat from the Vet.  My goal is for Mandela to eagerly visit the Vet.  This will help him a lot in the event (which I hope never happens, but you need to be prepared) there is down the track something more serious that needs to be treated.  It’s stressful enough for our dogs when they are suffering an injury or other medical problem, without bearing the stress of simply being at the Vet’s in the first place.

Mandela also had a further worming tablet today.  I got the “chewable” (flavoured) type.  He loves food anyway, but being flavoured made it all the easier as there was no hesitation at all in taking it and eating it up! 

In the next week or so my further socialisation plans for Mandela include :

•        A train ride to CBD Melbourne

•        Visiting some buildings in the City including taking a ride in an elevator

•        Spending some time in CBD Melbourne to get him used to the sights and sounds of a very busy City, including those of trams

•       Visit to the beach

We’ll take a tram ride too, although I’ll reserve this for our second or third visit to the City.  Like I mentioned before, I am aiming for NOT going “too far too fast”.  Keeping all these experiences on a positive and comfortable level is the goal.  I’ve used up four weeks and have four weeks remaining of the pup’s critical period of development (ie 8-16 weeks of age).  All experiences inside this period are permanent.  I want him to have lots and lots of memories to draw back on for later on when we find ourselves travelling or in some other situation which is perhaps noisy or crowded, etc.  These early memories will help him cope with it and all lead to him being a confident and well-balanced dog.  But I need to get those experiences right and to not over-face or overwhelm him.  So it is a case of “hasten slowly” as my father would say.  Four weeks is not a great deal of time when you think about the multiple visits to places that a pup might one day in his lifetime need to be able to be comfortable with.  Especially with our own very busy lives that we need to fit in between.  No wonder these last four weeks have fled by.  And yet at the same time I feel as though Mandela has been a part of my life forever. 

Funny how they get ‘under your skin’ and ‘into your heart’ so easily and quickly.  

Mandela at 9 weeks of age.

And just over 6 months later ........ (as at February, 2009 ie 8 months old) ..... he's found his love of the beach!!

And here he tells me I've spent enough time in the office doing paper work .... and that it is time to go adventuring again!!!