Born on the 10th May,
one of 4, Gucci arrived home 8 weeks later.
An ‘almost image’ of her dad, Q-Pid,
Gem-u-Mine Gucci is a King’s Y-Ed’s
Miniature American (Australian) Shepherd, and resembles a miniature Bernese
Mountain Dog puppy. 
House training turned out to be a
nightmare as she had a serious tummy bug, which she kind of handled on her own
by being confined to the study at night with Macc. He was initially not
interested in this disruption to his quiet domain but has no trouble honing in
on all the attention she receives, making him a more relaxed dog. This puppy
isn’t “big” into receiving attention and more inclined to be aloof, which in
turn is perfect behaviour for this family unit as my husband thinks Aussies are just “too much”. (She barked
at him every evening when he arrived home for an entire month). But now we have
a watch dog. Food and toy driven, I have embarked on my first clicker training
journey and it is turning into a very rewarding experience. Sit - down - recall
- roll over - crawling - saying ‘hi’ with a single paw - running through a
tunnel - retrieving and tugging were her basic successes within the first 4
weeks followed quickly by begging - jumping into my arms - climbing into a box
- targeting a paper plate – tunnels and a brief ‘out of sight stay’ .......
Quite the little speed demon she
will try outrun Macc to get to whatever is thrown and if she doesn’t get there
first, will then just take it from him anyway and get the reward for
retrieving! He, of course, has been extremely tolerant and has now twigged on that
he can play with her. (A perfect opportunity for Nicolette to step in once
again and train “Macc’s turn and Gucci’s turn” like she did with Emma and Amie).Kit-Kat has turned out to be Gucci’s best pal – must be a size thing - and he now comes to have his ears preened daily by her.
Trying to keep her out of water
during all the rain has probably been our biggest problem as she likes to dig
and create mud puddles which endears her to the Twins. She still needs to spend
more time with them to know they are more than OK to be around because
strangers are daunting and she does not appreciate being fawned over and/or cuddled.
This 4-month old fluffy bundle is
now the largest of both litters (8 pups in total) and the best of fun; the very
reason why people need puppies and dogs or any animal to be a part of their
lives, and I’m looking forward to happy times together.
C’est la vie
