Tips On How To Raise An Australian Shepherd

Getting an Aussie is one of the most life-changing experiences I have ever gone through. I remember doing so much research just to make sure I knew how to raise you. When we picked you up, I realized I would do anything for you. But how could this be? I don't even know you. Weeks went by and our bond became stronger. Is this what it feels like to finally be a father? And this love, even though you can drive me crazy. Wondering if I'm doing a good job and I can make you happy. I've taught you so many things and many life lessons. But Winston, you have taught me more than I could have ever imagined. So for those that are new here, this is Winston. Our 10-month-old, almost 11-months- What? What's going on? Oh, that was a good secret. It's very wet. As I was saying, he's almost 11 months old. And today we're going to be breaking up this video into four different sections. There's going to be two to four months old, then four to six months old, six to nine months old, and then nine and onwards. Bringing an Aussie home is such a special moment because now you're officially raising this helpless creature. Probably have friends and family that are lined up that want to see your dog. They may even want to bring their dog over to meet your dog. And this is exactly what we did. But this was our first mistake. If I could do it all over again, I wouldn't do it this way. Don't get me wrong. This is a great opportunity to socialize and desensitize your dog. But you need to add structure around this. You first need to create a bond with your dog. Make sure that everything good comes through you. That means feeding them, playing with them, loving them. Once you have that bond, then you can take a step forward and introduce them to your friends and family and maybe a family dog. Many people think that socialization is bringing their dog to dog parks and letting them meet strange dogs and random people. But this could not be further from the truth. Proper socialization and desensitization is bringing them to new surroundings and rewarding them for when they engage with you. So what I mean by this is, let's say you'll take your dog to a field. They'll feel grass for the first time. They'll meet a new bug. They'll see a bird fly by. And every time your dog looks right at you, bam, you're going to reward them with a treat or food. That way they see you as something valuable, even though there's all these distractions outside. Play is huge because you want your dog to see you as something fun too. And in my opinion, the best kind of play is playing fetch with a tug toy. Because it fulfills an urge of theirs, which is hunting, chasing and killing. Yes, I said killing because it fulfills their prey drive. Aussies are high drive dogs. We all know this. They were literally bred to herd other animals. So we have to give them an outlet for those urges, which is why playing tug and fetch is great for them. But keep in mind, you're also going to have to train them to resist from chasing squirrels and rabbits and birds. Playing tug not only releases those urges, but it also builds a confident dog, which is going to help you in the long run. This next one is a pretty obvious one, but you're going to have to potty train your dog. Now, I don't suggest using pee pads. I think they're a horrible idea because once they've graduated from pee pads, you're going to have to transition them from peeing inside the house to peeing outside the house. And it's just, it's an unnecessary step. I don't think it's a good idea. So the way that I potty trained Winston was that every hour to hour and a half, I would have an alarm that goes off and I would just take him outside and he'd do his business. Now, listen to me very carefully. Every time your dog drinks water, just take them outside. I can't tell you how many times Winston had to pee after just drinking a few sips of water. It's absolutely ridiculous. When it comes to feeding your dog, use their meals as a way to motivate them to get things that you want them to do. It could be tricks. It could be obedience. It could be whatever it is. Use their meals as a way to train them. This will create a great bond with you and your dog and it will show that you are very valuable to them because you are their source of food. Don't use a bowl. Feed them by hand. If you're wondering why I have a glove on, it's because we feed Winston raw food. If you want to know why we feed him raw food, you can check out my last video. I explain why all there. Now, the way that you're going to want to go about this is first attach a line to your dog just to hold them accountable and, you know, make sure that they're engaging with you and not anything else. And by the way, at this age, at this young age, you're going to want to have a house line attached to them while they're outside of the crate just to make sure they're not getting to anything that you don't want them to. So the way I'm going to go about this is, let's say I want some, I don't know, eye contact from him or some sort of engagement from him. So I'm going to come over here, Winston, come. And then I'm going to tell him to sit. Good. Now, right now, he's staring at me dead in my eyes. And what I'm going to do is I'm going to tell him, and reward him, reward him for food. Down. And he's still staring at my eyes. I'm going to tell him, good. I'm going to give him some food, some more. See, use their food as a motivator to get them to do the things that you want them to do. This is such a missed opportunity that people do when they just feed them from a bowl. By the way, you're going to want to start your training inside of your house because there's a low level of distraction here. Now, once you're happy with your training inside of your house, you're getting a lot of good success, then you can kick it up a notch by bringing your dog to your backyard or maybe your driveway and do some more training there. Once you're happy there, you can then kick it up another notch by bringing them to a parking lot or a field or a mall and then just keep doing it over and over again until you get great success. Lastly, I want to go over crate training. Now, I've already made a video about this, so I'm not going to go into depth and you can check it out. But what I will say is I believe it is mandatory. Now, there may be people who think that it's cruel and unnecessary, but it's so beneficial. Let's think about this. Let's say you had a kid, right? And you're going to put them to bed. You put them inside a crib or a crate. Let's say you're going to shower or you're cooking food or whatever and you just can't pay attention to your child. You're going to put them inside a crib. Same thing applies for your dog. It's not a bad place. We can even take it a step further. Let's say your dog gets sick or injured and you need to take them to the vet. Your vet is going to put them inside a crate and you don't want your dog to be even more in distress while inside the crate and they might have like a broken arm or whatever. You want them to feel comfortable and at peace. By this age, your dog should be fully potty trained. They're going to become more energetic. That means they're going to require more exercise and they're going to be more confident. So a lot of the things that you're doing in the first phase, you're going to still continue doing in the second phase, which is socialization and desensitization. Now, this would be the time where I'd start actually introducing my dog to friends and family and maybe a family dog, but I would do it in a structured way. I'd have a leash attached to him just to hold him accountable and to make sure that he's not getting into things that I don't want him to do. You want to make sure he's getting good habits, not bad habits. At around a six month age, you'll notice some issues happening with your dog. They may start barking at the doorbell or barking at people when they come into your home. So you really need to keep up with the desensitization aspect of things. The reason for this is because they're going through a fear period, which just means all of a sudden, they're kind of afraid of things. It could be a plastic bag blowing in the wind or be afraid of a garbage can. So you need to create positive association with the things that are scaring your dog. Now, like I said, they're also more confident. I know it's kind of a paradox. They're confident, but they're also afraid of things, but this is what just happens. So you'll notice that they'll start ignoring you or leaving your side and kind of wanting to explore things, which is why you want to keep your dog on a leash, hold them accountable and still show them that you are the most valuable thing to them. A lot of what you're going to be doing in this period is a lot of what you've already been doing, which is socialization, desensitization. I know you guys are going to hate me for saying these words so many times, but it's true. You really need to keep up with this. You're also going to be working through their fears, right? You have to show them that these things are not scary and create positive associations with them. You're also going to have to give them some more exercise. Now, when I say give them even more exercise, you really need to balance between physical stimulation and mental stimulation. Don't just run your dog. Don't just have them play fetch and tug and all these physically stimulating things because what you're doing is essentially you're creating an athlete. You're building up their stamina and in turn, you're going to have to work even harder to tire them out. So bring in some mental stimulation, which can be puzzle toys or obedience, right? Stuff that really makes them use their brains rather than physically moving. The last thing I want to touch on in this age range is they're going to have more energy, but you also want to give them an off switch. You don't want their brain to be on at all times, which is why I said in the previous phase, crate training. Crate training is going to help you a ton here. It's going to tell them that, hey, when I put you in here, it's basically meditation time, right? And it's just for your brain to shut off and relax. The nine month old and onward phase. This is the phase that I'm currently going through with Winston and I think everyone can agree from around nine months old to a year old is the worst part. Your dog is even faster and they're even stronger. They're fully grown. You know, they like to test their patience. Does it sound familiar? Because it should. This phase, the nine month to a year old is called the teenage phase. Now it's going to affect each dog differently, right? And it's depending on how well you train your dog. But I think generally speaking, most people can agree that this is the worst phase and it's the one that gives them the most trouble. I'll give Winston as an example. So if you've seen my reactivity video, you know that Winston is reactive to other dogs. Now, I believe the reason why Winston is so reactive to other dogs is because the way that I introduced him to Whiskey. If you don't know who Whiskey is, he is the Bernadudo. You can see him in my earlier videos. The way we introduced them was there was zero structure, which is why I'm telling you guys at the beginning, when you get your dog, make sure you have a strong bond with them. Make sure that you are the center of their world. Because now when Winston sees a dog outside, he just wants to play with them. We have been working on this for a while and he has gotten better, but he's nowhere near where I want him to be. He still has outbursts. He goes over threshold and then he gets frustrated because he can't go see the dog. And then he ends up lunging and barking and et cetera, et cetera. It's not a good look. It's annoying. It's embarrassing. And it's just something that no dog owner wants. If you guys are also experiencing any troubles, you know, you've done your best and you're still not getting the results you want, go see a trainer. There's no shame in seeing a trainer. I'm seeing a trainer for him and I'm making sure that we are getting to the other side as quickly as possible, as efficiently as possible and as painless as possible. If you guys made it to the end of the video, thank you so much from the bottom of my heart. We're trying to get monetized and we're almost there. So every like, comment and subscription, it really goes a long way. If you want to see some sort of video in the future, let me know in the comments below. And until next time, I'll see you guys later.