Rio 6 Months

Still can’t believe the little horror is 6 months old.

I also sometimes can’t believe how smitten I am with her! Even when she’s screeching in her crate for whatever reason. (And oh, there are many reasons). I had a rough check list of things that my perfect puppy would be; outgoing and driven and conformationally balanced, not too big but not too small, plus a fair sprinkling of attitude. She definitely ticks all those boxes! She’s also tenacious and pushy and noisy, and she does share a lot of the same personality traits as Kim, but she’s actually mostly like a little mini Mollie at the moment. Except she’s definitely still her own dog!

I have to admit I’m struggling a little at the moment with things to do. I’m still doing lots of clicker tricks (currently working on back up), and continuous impulse control and distraction work. I also go out of my way to find busy places to take her for socialisation. But I feel like we should be doing more, or at least upping the work we are doing at the moment. I know I have a tendency to either baby my dogs or push them too fast, so I’m consciously trying to keep the balance right for Rio. She’s a very smart puppy though and I think she needs something a bit more challenging.

I think the plan this month will be to make an real effort to work on go-ons and waits. Rio isn’t too clingy at the moment but I know Aussies have a reputation as sticky dogs, and I really don’t want that, so I think a few toy races might be apt. And since Kim has no wait and Dyl has a minimal wait, I’d really like Rio to have a proper one! It’s not the end of the world if she doesn’t (which is why I’ve been lazy about it until now) but it’s good impulse-control work anyway. It’s probably clear by now as I haven’t done any plank work, but I intend to train Rio with 2o2o contacts, so a wait will be required there.

I did contemplate running contacts, but realistically it’s not possible. I have access to equipment once a week, in a class setting – not ideal for RC training! – and our garden is not large enough for a full-size contact plank so just the initial training would be difficult. I also don’t have access to a wider variety of dogwalks, so generalising the behaviour would be tricky. I am contemplating maybe trying a running Aframe, because I really love having a RC there. This is all future work anyway, we’re not touching contacts for another few months yet!

The next 6 months are going to be fun!