29.......... Yay! A Puppy!

Born on the 10^th 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.

And then the fun began........

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

Mac and Me