And the winner is.....

I have asleep at my feet the new Sonic (aka Little Man). It was so hard to choose and took me all day. For the most part I was set on Shoulder Spot Boy but as we did the temperament tests Little Man did better at the tests that I felt were more important. Although I ended up basing my final selection on a test that I did which involved me sitting down by myself with all the puppies. As they kept jumping up on me I kept pushing them away to see which pup would keep persevering. Little Man just wouldn't leave me alone. Even after everyone else had buggered off to play elsewhere he just kept trying to get into my lap. So at that point I felt that my decision was made.
We had a good trip home from Kojonup with both Shoulder Spot Boy (now known as Billy) and Sonic riding on Gillian's knee. After a bit of fidgeting they both slept for the majority of the journey. We arrived back at my house around 8.30pm so it was a bit of a rush getting them all fed without Sonic screaming about being left alone. He was really hungry though and tucked into his dinner with gusto.
Last night wasn't too bad. I had his crate right next to my bed. He whimpered a bit which is understandable seeing as his whole life has just changed. After chatting quietly to him however, he settled down. He did wake up a few times and whimpered a bit but generally went back to sleep if I talked soothingly to him.
He's been having lots of fun exploring today. Unfortunately it's a very wet and windy day so we haven't been outside much. He follows me everywhere and when he gets to me plants himself between my feet. I wouldn't call him independant at all at this stage. He much prefers to be with you and as close as possible. Right now he is currently fast asleep at my feet.
He's enjoying playing tug games with me but when I tried doing some food rewards this morning for eye contact he didn't really get it at all. I think we'll take that type of training very slow. He does like food but he's not all that motivated by it. Mind you with his fat little belly that's not really any great surprise!!
All in all I'm very rapt with him. Sam has done a great job bringing them up to be happy and well adjusted little dogs.

Time to pick Sonic....But who do I choose??

Shoulder Spot Boy

Little Man

(Photo's by Sam Weaver)

Sam has suggested that it would be good for us to take our pups home this weekend. She thinks that the pups are ready to be socialised outside the farm environment and start embracing their new lives. So Sonic will be coming home with me after I choose him on Sunday. I have taken an extra week off work to be with him for as long as possible before heading back to work.

So who do I choose, Shoulder Spot Boy or Little Man?? I think LM is totally cute but SSB seems to be really shining personality wise. From what Sam has written on the pupdates blog SSB is the first to do everything and appears to have no fear of life. LM doesn't seem to be quite as outgoing and is more upset by noises etc. I may just have to rely on my gut intinct when I see them on Sunday.

I have some serious puppy preparations to complete over the next couple of days. I was going to do most of it this coming week but now the arrival date has moved forward I only have tomorrow. So Riot and I will be making a trip to Better Pets and Gardens to see if we can get some puppy food and accessories at a good price (have to use his fame for something good!!).

Then I have to organise a bit of a roster and plan what types of puppy training I want to start him off with. Busy, busy, busy...

Little Man is growing up

(Photo by Sam Weaver)

Sonic will be 7 weeks old this coming Saturday and the time has come to go and visit them to make our official puppy selections on Sunday. Although I think we all have a pretty good idea which pup we want we will be temperament testing all of the pups before choosing. It sounds like the litter is still very close potential wise. My favourite, Little Man seems to have quite a few fans at the moment so I think I will be breaking a few hearts if he ends up being my final choice. Certainly a bit hard to not fall in love with that little face of his...

I also need to finish preparations for my training schedule. I know that I want to follow Susan Garrett's training methods as although my three year old border collie Riot is not the speed demon that I originally hoped for he understands his job beautifully. So I'm happy that Susan's work is the direction that I want to take with Sonic. Her book Ruff Love has a program that I will follow while Sonic is between 8 weeks and 7 months of age. It will include Sonic being in a crate whenever he's not supervised (he will be in a pen while I'm at work), he will be allowed to play with other puppies while on lead but I will call him out of play frequently and reward him, no free running with my other dogs at all, no unsupervised play, work on him eating part of his dinner from his bowl and the rest from my hand, work on hand targeting and various games. I hope to schedule about four to five short training sessions per day. I think I'll need to actually put together a training plan on paper to help fit it into my daily routine. It is always so hard to incorporate a puppy into your normal daily life as they don't believe in doing anything that is routine!!! As much as I look forward to him coming into my life I will also be enjoying these last couple of weeks of peace and quiet before he arrives...

Could he be Sonic?

(Photo by Sam Weaver)

This is "Little Man" at four weeks of age. I wonder if he will be the future SuperSonic...He's terribly cute that's for sure.

The waiting game

This blog will be following the life of the newest member to join my border collie family, Sonic.

Sonic was born on 4th August 2007 along with 5 other litter mates. He and his siblings are the result of a mating done to try and produce some very special agility dogs for Kriszty my fellow agility competitor, and myself.

His father is Mick who is a farm dog living on a wheat and sheep property in Narembeen. He was selected due to his rather amazing brother Domino. Domino, in my opinion, is the fastest agility dog in Australia. To watch him run an agility course takes your breath away. He was recently clocked at running 10 metres per second over an agility sequence which is totally mind blowing. Mick is a lovely dog and by all accounts is very similar to his brother. He has never done agility but is an incredibly athletic dog and has all the drive in the world. Sonic's mum is Ivanhoe Sally. She belongs to Richard and Sam and was bred to be a three sheep trialling dog. I've always liked this lovely girl from the first time I saw her. Sam and Richard have been kind enough to let Kriszty and I use her to produce this litter.

Originally I wasn't going to get one but after helping track down Mick and talking to Kriszty I decided it was too good an opportunity to turn down. Although I already have four bc's only one is currently competing with the other three living the lazy retired life which involves eating, sleeping, eating some more, going for a run and then off to sleep again...Plus I want to get a fast dog while I'm still phyically able to do what I need to be competitive. No point leaving it until I can't run anymore! So bring it on.

The litter is now five weeks old and according to Sam, getting naughtier by the day. Sam is very impressed with the pups so far and thinks that they are very outgoing. The puppy that will be Sonic is not 100% decided although there appears to be a front runner who is currently known as "Little Man". Sam described him on her blog as "he wasn't always the littlest, but since he's become mobile he is way too busy to eat, so he's become a bit scrawny. He's always the first into everything, the one who gets stuck behind furniture, the one who gets through the fence and off over the hill". Oh boy, I think that maybe I'm going to have my hands full with this little guy!

Sam has kindly created a "Pupdates" blog so Kriszty and I can watch their progress while they grow up on Sam and Richard's farm. We plan on driving down to see them when they turn 7 weeks old and then will have the hard task of actually picking out exactly which puppy we want. At this stage I plan on going with whatever Sam recommends as she is the one who is seeing them everyday and watching their little personalities take shape. I think it will be quite a hard decision!

So for now I will be anxiously awaiting Sam's updates on her blog and totally hanging out to see them in two weeks time.