Tucker Time

This is Tucker, our new puppy. He's a Miniature Australian Shepherd, and he's a fantastic little guy. He just had surgery to be neutered and he's been a serious pain ever since. We found his breeder by googling mini aussie -- we didn't know they'd shrunk Aussies down to minis, but we knew we wanted the intelligence of an Aussie without the exercise requirements.

Maryanne does clicker training because the behavioral modification is fun to watch -- because it's a game Tucker loves too -- and both Maryanne and Brian are about equally disillusioned with electrical stimulation collar work, because while Tucker certainly pays more attention, he also hates doing it, so it isn't fun for anyone.

Tucker obeys sign and spoken commands for the most basic things he does -- Sit, [lie] Down, Come, Place (a command meaning he should go to his bed or another place in the room that is his), Crawl (army crawl), Ring the bell, and to a lesser degree Stand, Say Please (where he sits on his haunches with his paws in the air) and Tippy Toe (where he stands as tall as he can on his hind feet). For some reason Tucker's more responsive to visual gesture commands instead of spoken ones.

Tucker's favorite passtime is trying to get Niko, our 3 and 1/2 year old calico cat, to play with him. He fails. She doesn't detest him, she just doesn't think he's very fun to interact with -- her version of playing is being willing to run FROM him rather than planting her claws and spitting dangerously. I've not yet seen her initiate play, but I think she will eventually.

Brian and Tucker in Breckenridge 10/06