The New Girl - Page 3

Which pup is the one on the far side of ex-pen, beating on the water bucket then comes over to investigate noise and sits calmly? Totally like that pup's reaction.

Love the one that trotted towards the noise and looked very BOLD even after all the hubbub. I will take her...Nan

Nan - the pup with one ear standing and one down? I think we both want the same one, lol.

That's Olivier, a girl I'm holding back :) Hoping to do a co own on her, actually.

Yep, for my money that's the pup with far and away the most positive response to the shots. (not saying the rest of the litters' reaction was bad,
just I think Olivier's was spectacularly good). Looks like a good choice to keep, for her nerves alone, Xeph.

The puppy she ended up next to (the coatie girl) is very similar in her general reactions. But she didn't have to travel all the way across the pen, so she just tried to figure out which way to turn LOL

I chose the coatie as my hands down keeper because the tie breaker was that Riza (the coat) is more biddable. She always wants to be social and engage, whereas Olivier is a tiny ADD tornado. It takes a lot more work to get her to engage with me consistently. It's not a matter of her not being willing, but more a "Hotdoghotdoghotdog...BUTTERFLY!! BUTTERFLY BUTTERFLY! Oh...wait...we were doing a thing! Hotdoghotdoghotdog!"

I need the biddability that Riza provides for two reasons. The first is that if I'm going to cross back to Strauss, willingness to work for the handler is a must. Moo was the absolute best, and I appreciated SO MUCH about him, but he was an independent jerk a lot of times. He LOVED to work, but he didn't necessarily want to work *with* me. Once the teamwork clicked, it was unbreakable, but it took a lot of effort to get there. I need to temper that.

The second reason is that...well...I'm too sick too often these days, and it's just easier for me to deal with an animal like Riza. I'm not looking for a sycophant (ew), but that ease in partnership is nice. It's a nice break from dogs like Mikasa (who is very similar to Strauss in the biddability department).

I do want to see Olivier worked, no matter where she goes. She's got a nice offswitch, but impulse control will need work, and she's high energy. She'll need to do stuff to be happy.

I can't say I didn't get what I wanted, for the most part.

Puppies will be meeting stock this week :)

So, my littles get bathed once a week starting at 4-5 weeks old (depends on how long it takes them to end up smudged in crap). I kept the coatie (the first I've produced) from this litter.

It sucks that she's a coat, but it makes me SUPER happy that she's the most amenable to being groomed. She's not such a fan of the soap part, but the drying part? She sits/lays quietly and chews on a towel or what have you.

My other hold back? ADD demon child. Wants to leap off the table, spin in circles, bite the hose. SO EXHAUSTING.

I hear you about Coat. While my Coatie is super cute I hate that she TRAPS E.V.E.R.Y.T.H.I.N.G in her coat. It also doesn't help that she loves the mud so much. They are cute BUT the sheer fact they are trapping everything in their coat drives me nuts and it will most likely annoy the heck out of you too.

It already does, and she has puppy coat that holds nothing LOL BUT OMG look at her cute BABY BEAR FACE!!!  Her ears are hilarious this week. She looks like a Popple.

Whatever a Popple is. 'Zat some American kiddie-cartoon hero thing ?

It sounds like Olivier will do very well in a partnership so long as she gets some work to do. I do see what you mean about biddability in the sister you get to keep with you.
Just about every Shepherd I have known has had that "butterfly mind" at least at some stage in the proceedings, I thought it was one of the silent lines in the Standard, lol. But then I am lacking in ASL dogs in my entourage, maybe it got largely lost there ?