hey everyone it's me Lacy and Drew and we're here with our good friend Jordan who is going to talk to us uh and in-depth a little bit about um her dog program which is incredible and we've been blessed by it so um I think we're GNA answer probably a bunch of questions you might have about hurting dogs and livestock dogs in general um and you know just I buckle up it's going to be fun and you're going to want one
so
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let's start at the very beginning because I'm always really curious about the background of people and where how in the world did you end up um raising so many dogs because how many dogs do you guys currently have we have eight ranging from yes ranging from seven years old to nine months yeah that's a lot of dogs for one house it is uh yeah if your breeders though not if you're breeders so what was the what what do you think was the like trajectory of you starting out having a dog or even in your childhood did you always sort of want to do this or is it kind of a random what happened that's a really good question so it's it's kind of funny my parents recently moved and of course when they packed everything up they went through like all my old notebooks and papers and stuff and I actually had on a like kind of like a bucket list uh to raise Australian Shepherds and it's kind of funny because I wrote it when I was like maybe 10 years old that's incredible yeah so I guess maybe it was something I I always thought about um but it really started when Josh and I were in college and we started dating he had a dog um he had an ustralian Shepherd and of course we were both seniors in college so we were you know ready to kind of start our own life and we made the decision to get a puppy we said that we would tell his parents it was mine and we would tell my parents it was his but she was ours and uh so it kind of started there but so we had Wyatt and Piper and they were our best friend friends that went everywhere with us so they were part of our engagement they were part of our wedding they went on our honeymoon with us oh my goodness um and yeah and and so kind of the obsession went from there uh we had our first litter in November 2018 and we ended up keeping two boys from that litter so whyer were the parents yes yeah so Wyatt and Piper were our original to and and we kept Pine and Finn and then in 2019 is when we bought our house and we were so excited because our property was very flat and so when we came to sign onto the house we actually brought Piper with us and I stood at one end of our property and Josh stood at the other and we had her run back and forth in between us because up until that point we lived in an apartment and so we obviously did not have the room for everybody to run and we were ecstatic to at least now have a property that our dogs could run and play all the time and that's what they do about 95% of the time as they just run around and play and live their best happy life okay so then how did that transition you're like okay so now let what I want to do is I want to master breeding these animals because I know your program is pretty intensive it's not just like a let's have some puppies and see what happens you're really in and you you have a very kind of systematic way of doing things so how do you shift from sort of that mentality into the the training I know you've done and that you implement with your puppies um what did that look like honestly it started after we had our second litter so our second litter was born in 2020 and of course with the crazy way the world was we could not big people to come over and play with puppies we we would say hey we'll even be outside we won't be near you guys just come over and pet the puppies and we knew how important that early socialization was even then um but we saw a lot of flaws in that early socializing with our puppies so our second litter that litter born in 2020 that was our last litter that we let leave at 8 weeks and when those puppies were about 6 to 8 months old a couple of the fam said hey we're having some issues with you know not being friendly to everybody you know suddenly something that they were okay with before they're not okay with now something that the puppy had never been around before you know they were terrified of it and so we just really saw that need for us to step up our game as breeders because even though we only get to see those puppies for those first 8 to 10 weeks everything that's kind of after the life a lot of that can be reverted back on us even though there's so many situations that that puppy can have after they leave us and so I personally don't want our families to have a reason to come back and say well something that our puppy did when you had it you missed you know I would rather do so much more so that there's less of that opportunity or that room for thinking oh this must have happened before the puppy came to us well we were just talking with friends of ours and they said their dog has some behavioral issues and they said you know I think something happened when they were a puppy at the train or at the Breeders and I you know I don't know that I ever would have like gone that back far back but he's kind of scared and it's like childhood trauma yeah yeah yeah yeah but I would say like when when we got our puppy Robbie I was reading all the dog books I could on like training and stuff like that and there's always like any top like you know celebrity trainer like the first five chapters I would just skim through because like as I was reading it like you guys had already done all of it and I was like you know and I was like man this is this is amazing because I'm like I'm a very much a checklist person so I wanted to like check off all of those things and they were already all done I was like wow this is amazing yeah yeah well thank you it it really we saw that opportunity for the puppies you know they're always the focus of our program we love our dogs and we love the puppies and we really wanted to help set the puppies up for Success so as much as we could pour into them so that there would be a greater return on investment for the families later on in life like that was what we decided okay we need that to be our Focus and instead of focusing so much on what color the puppy is you know what gender the puppy is it's like all of these puppies have the same value and they all deserve to be given the same opportunity to succeed no matter wherever they go um and so that's really never seen that mat before that you do like you personally like know these puppies and their personality and then you match them with where they're going depending on what the lifestyle is that they're going they're moving on to and that I I didn't even even know was a thing that people think I think I thought you pick a breed based on what their you know sort of Tendencies are genetically I guess speaking or breed speaking and so the idea that you're like and you have a system of doing that right like you're not just like a dog whisper you actually right yeah so it's called Bart puppy aptitude test and it's um been around for a while I don't know when it was first like created but it's to test the imp the inherited part of the personality and the puppy reactions they're done on the day that they turn I believe it's 49 days old so it's the day they turn seven weeks old because anything tested before after that specific day is a learned behavior and so you're testing like the most raw reaction from that puppy uh you know and it just really tells you basically the stability of the puppy and the and the sort of home that if nothing is is done differently you know if the puppies continue to ra be raised you know with no formal training or or you know just very Basics it'll tell you you know this is the tendencies that that puppy will have um you know this is a great puppy for a firsttime owner this is a good puppy for someone who has experience you know um and that really helps us determine which puppy is is best for each home and I know you've you worked with people who use the animals as service animals right and emotional support animals and so like in all these variant people with families people where the child is really the main caretaker People Like Us who want a kind of Dual Purpose family dog but also really a working dog um and what are like I guess when I I know that you pressured us to get a dog which we already wanted to do anyway but you're like this dog is perfect for you this perfect you I think what I'm I'm curious about is what were you looking at in our dog that you're like oh this is a really good match for Drew and Lacy and their honestly the fact that like I'm gonna put it this way and it sounds different in today's society but you guys are home bodies and I mean that as in like you guys are gonna be I appreciate it yeah absolutely um but home bodies so you wanted a dog that could integrate with your family well you know especially with you guys wanting Abraham to really step up and like this kind of be his dog his buddy um to go with him and keep an eye on him when he's out exploring but then also having a dog that if he's with you guys being able to say hey I need that cow back or let's go and turn this bull calf back around and bring it back over um you know so the the hurting aspect was big so we do the hurting Instinct test when they're five weeks old and that just kind of helps us really see who's got a little bit more aptitude for following the stock and having that natural drive and Instinct um you know out of all of the puppies in Robbie's litter he was the male uh Rogue the puppy that we kept she was the female that had the most interest and then Robbie was the male and so they're like twins every time you post a video I'm like oh my goodness that dog looks so much like Robbie what's Robbie doing I know I know it's that it's that cool consistency that you see um that you want in the breed so like not only do we try to focus on our puppy raising aspects but like also since we're raising Australian shepherds like we want the preservation of the breed we want it you we want there to be consistency you know um we want the behavior to be the same we want the looks to be the same we want um the drive and really the instinct there sorry we've got uh a lot of helicopters flying super low here lately we're about 30 minutes from Fort br oh yeah we can't hear him on here yeah I actually oh that's good that's good yeah this just like maybe half a mile that way pretty close um so but but anyways but focusing on the preserving of what made the breed s such a success story here in the US and really having seeing that consistency even amongst you know litter mates so it's really exciting but that was really my focus point for you guys was a puppy that scored well would do great in a home with kids would do great with other animals um so that would be a more a mostly Forest puppy on the wart puppy aptitude test but then also having done our instinct test knowing that he had more of an aptitude to follow in fact you know having him just sit and watch the chickens with Finn um as he was growing up even past the five weeks old like that was really cool and kind of stuck out to me was hm okay this puppy's already trying to take notes of what we're doing you know uh that that spoke volumes to me of okay this is a puppy to keep an eye out for for someone who's wanting dog that's going to work that's really he does so well and he's getting better and better with larger livestock too and I think if you haven't seen um before you should check out um Jordan's Channel because she's always sharing great videos of her dogs doing some of these things even on the small home said putting the chickens up and that was actually I think one of the turning points for us is we saw you shared a video of putting the chickens up and we're like oh my gosh that's a like and you know we've had sheep for years and we've talked about this a little bit um on the podcast but that we you know don't have the Sheep currently and we aim my aim is to get them again but not until we have an animal that can do their hurting because human hurting of really really uh sort of wild cheep which is our goal is to have these sort of wild cheep um is not fun it doesn't bring out the best in humans to to perform that act so I think it's been interesting to me too like watching Robbie like learning I didn't like it's been like you read the hurting books and like they're helpful but at the same time I think like actually just being with the dog and like building that trust and relationship with a dog like a lot of times now he he will like I can say fence and he goes to the other side of the polywire and makes sure nobody comes across but in some days like this morning I was like Robbie come on and he just sat there and he was like no I'm gonna just watch the cows today so it's like seeing him like thinking and still learning is it's a it's interesting to see like the progression because for a while he was like I remember texting with you like he was terrified to even come in with a cow yeah and now he's like he's he's not hesitant to come in with them and he's like learning how to move them and um yeah it's it's really an interesting trans confidence yeah and I think not just confidence in his abilities but confidence in like communication with all of us because it's different with each of us right it's not the same he doesn't communicate with Abraham the same way he does with true or with me or you know um but one thing I noticed the other day that was so shocking is that Drew took two of the kids and ran to the grocery store and when he was leaving normally Robbie wants to you know whoever's going down the driveway he goes with them um and Drew turned around he looked at him he said stay and Robbie just stood there and he stood there until they came back from the grocery store I mean it was incredible I don't know if he actually did but but yeah he was in the same spot I'm suspicious of if he actually probably went somewhere else for a while but um but the fact that he stayed was really huge because for the past like week or so he really has just chasing every car down the driveway that has any of us in it he doesn't care about other people he's not chasing the car he just wants to be with us yeah yeah he's just going so anyway um yeah it's just been really impressive and now like today I walked down the driveway and I turned around and he was gonna come with me and I said no Robbie stay and he did and that was the first time I've successfully gotten him to of obey that command so that was it's cool for for them to use it in like real life I had um the last week the fence was off for some reason you know we must have just forgot to turn it back on and so one of the sheep had gone outside of our perimeter fence which is just five strands and I was like Oh shoot what am I going to do well Rogue was right beside me of course and so I I put my foot on the fence and I said okay Rog go out and so she went through the fence and I said go get that sheep and I pointed cuz she's like looking around and she saw him and she took him and she ran him halfway down the property and turned him back and got him back in through the fence and then come back through the FRS and it's crazy but I've been dwelling on this more especially this past week after we went to HOA and did the hurting demos having hurting dogs that are capable of doing the job I'm not scared or worried now if there's an animal out because I know that I have a dog that's capable of of getting the job done you know whether they're outside of the proner fence or they're just outside of like their enclosure fence I'm like okay it's okay I have a dog that can do this whereas I know when we first started homesteading I would be like yeah Panic oh my gosh yeah might have chased a pig down at the road before down the main road yeah that's happened yeah yeah we've had to chase a pig back from our neighbor's house before so I get T but but it's nice now to have the confidence and have the dogs that it's like okay they know what they're doing and we have enough communication that if I ask them you go get that sheep I don't care what you have to do to get them back in you know I could not have done it in five seconds like she did would not have worked and we've been watching we watched this mustard dog show with the kids to sort of just because it's super fun to watch these people train these hurting dogs they're in Australia and Kelpies which is not I've heard and you can maybe tell me if this is true or not that Australian shepherds are not actually from Australia I don't know if that's true but um they're not they're not no they're they're from the US um but the The Kelpies the way that they work is so much less of a harsh impact on the animals and they're using them on of course on these like property these ranches that have millions of acres and thousands of head of cattle or whatever livestock they have and um what they're moving away from is formerly they're using like helicopters and motorcycles to help round and Wrangle these animals and the interaction between the dogs and the livestock is so much less intense so much less of a trauma for experienced for the animals for the livestock and I think that makes so much sense to me because the way they do it is like I mean they really are they are just doing enough to get the animal to do what they want like not to really scare them or um there's just not trauma involved and I mean our experience hurting sheep as a family like lots of trauma there's lots of trauma on both ends so that's such an incredible like you know Farm um smarter not harder like it's always I'm like why did we should have just gotten but we just didn't even realize I think so we also bringing up the topic of livestock Guardian dogs because they have their own role right to play and so we have purines and a p um an aolan cross um and they're incredible dogs but they are not hurting dogs so no you know them being here they never would have like come to help us bring the sheep in no usually they just added to the chaos yeah yeah they're just kind of and they want like I don't know what you want us to do yeah they don't get it that's not how they operate so it's just so fascinating to me watch how those instincts come out but um but also the well behaved of the animal that we got from you guys has been incredible because you know you see people get dogs all the time and they're like oh man it took me weeks to potty train it took me weeks to keep them from eating shoes it took me weeks to keep them me from chewing on all the furniture and we have not had that experience at all um and I was actually really really terrified about that and I don't know if that has to do with you or the breed or what but um I feel like it was you well thank you it it is a lot of work to get to that point but we have just found it it's so worth it for um for like you guys and for all of our families that get one of our puppies is if we just lay the foundation like the puppies want to be potty trained like that's the thing is it's just opening that door of communication of oh hey I don't want to potty in the house I don't want to potty where I sleep I'd much rather go outside and go to the bathroom but it's starting that at six weeks old and you know your guys's dog came from a litter that we had 3 weeks after I had a baby and I said well I'm going to be up every two hours feeding a baby anyways I might as well be letting puppies out too oh you know and so it's just it's that progression of like okay every two hours getting up letting everybody out okay let's go back in let's go back to bed and it progresses to then by the time they're 10 weeks old they're sleeping seven to eight hours through the night with no accidents and their own kennel you know and understanding what that process is of okay I'm going to let you out we're going to go outside we're going to go potty and you know it starts with they're going to have one little accident next to the door because I didn't get the door opened fast enough you know to okay everybody's going out we're all doing our business outside and then it makes it such a seamless transition to where instead of you guys spending months potty training it's maybe two weeks of having an accident here and an accident there to being fully potty trained by 12 weeks you know and so that's the goal is like to make it so easy and everybody loves puppies but hates getting a puppy because they always dread the process yeah you know I man when we got Piper she was eight months old and we were still working out of potty training oh you know it just like and that's the thing is when we went and we picked her up from the breeder like the house smelled like puppy pee you know she peed on the couch beside us as we were there visiting and it's so it's like we took our knowledge and our experience from that and our knowledge and our experience that we gained from having our second litter of okay we need to do more socializing so that the puppies have a better chance to be successful you know it's it's all of those little things that it's like okay we can do this if this is what we want to do and we want to do it the right way and we want to raise better puppies this is what it's going to take yes it's more work but there's so much benefit left from it you know um for sure it's lifechanging because you know our dog can be with anyone he can be with any people he can be with any other dogs even um he is not intimidating to other dogs we've noticed and he's not intimidated by them you know it's like this equal he's comfortable in almost every situation I can't think of one where he really doesn't do well um and that you know having friends and family and and knowing people who have dogs that aren't in that way um I know that it had to do with because I think that's true of all your dogs because I've met a lot of them too and they're all super friendly um and I've met other Australian Shepherds and you know I mean it's just comparing his demeanor to u to those others and you can see like the way he interacts with other dogs he can pick up on are they um like social cues yeah exactly you can watch he's like watching how they acting interacting in a way that doesn't make them on the offensive um even as a puppy cu still a puppy and he still really just wants to play so um it's a really it's been interesting to watch that um but so I my question then is how and like maybe do you have some um resources or tools um that you recommend to people um whether they already have a dog or maybe before picking out a dog or maybe they're even thinking about breeding dogs as sort of three separate whole questions but um what are some of your favorite resources and where do you encourage people to to get an and training on this kind of thing yeah uh so the first thing I'm going to do a little self-promotion because I do have a couple YouTube videos uh so our YouTube channel I do have a few videos I have one that's called What to Expect When You're Expecting puppy Edition um where I just kind of it's a longer like talking video but it I just kind of talk about like how to really set the puppy up for Success when bringing home a new puppy and proper interaction with the puppy a lot of the times we think it's cute for them to chew on us and we think it's cute for them to bark and jump up and it's like we so quickly forget that that puppy is going to turn into an adult dog and that behavior is not so fun when they're an adult dog and those teeth are bigger and they bite harder and they can they're heavier and so that jumping up weight and that barking is not so cute anymore and so it just kind of goes over that a little bit so so our our YouTube channel is just working Aussie's Homestead and uh another good resource especially for breeding uh so we do a combination of what's called Puppy culture and then we also use Avid dog now Avid dog is only available I think through goodg now there's the website gooddog.com and um once once you're signed up through there then you have access to all of avid dog's courses so Avid dog especially includes what we use which is the early scent introduction and it's very similar to early neurological simulation that we use and that's done the first from day three until day 16 uh to really help focus on all of the senses that the puppies have during the neonatal phase because their eyes and ears are still closed and so you're focusing on their touch and sound um sorry not sound but uh their touch and scent sensitivities and focusing on putting them for early uh neurological stimulation is stimulating those brains to really work a little bit sooner and it allows them when they're adults to kind of put stressors on a scale rather than just have the fight ORF flight response and so that'll help them later on and then the early scent introdu is actually introducing them to a new scent for that same period of time day three to day 16 uh to kind of help stimulate their minds to kind of work a little bit harder so like some of those we have a a snake skin that we use I use wool we have um their favorite one is putting their nose up to our cat so half of them will be like interesting and the other half are like this is exciting what is this you know but you know some other examples are like black tea soil um Pinewood shaving so just kind of a variety of like earthy and uh you know we have lemon peel that they smell too so just kind of a variety to really get their brains more stimulated even at that really young age because normally they're just around mom and they siblings and that's it and so introducing these other scents they're like hm interesting uh and then we record their response but so for for breeding and for just some more information on like more socialization protocol would be the puppy culture uh and so that is focused on like really novelty environments novelty items novelty in uh different situations bringing people in and then something that we do especially that I haven't yet heard of another breeder do doing is we actually partner with two local yoga studios so we co-host a yoga with puppies class so it's a variety of people from uh kids have shown up at those classes to like some older adults and it's people moving their bodies and wear positions and a safe for the puppy environment because dogs don't frequent yoga studios which is nice so it's usually clean everybody takes their shoes off for the event and whatnot so that there's um a very good like biocurity going on but it's a cool event not only for the people to play with puppies of course but for the puppies to kind of get more used to a variety of people not necessarily paying just specific attention to them uh which we've also found is really good for the puppies is if they go into an environment and people don't necessarily pay attention to them right away it also helps them be more neutral and not over aroused when people pay attention to them right yeah oh so would you say all of that is good across breeds or is that all specific yes I would say good across breeds um well socialized puppies are always the key no matter what the breed is yeah and that's where it's been fun is even though what we do is not necessarily the norm I know a lot of breeders across the country that raise different breeds of animals or not animals but just different breeds of dogs that do the exact same thing that do willart puppy AP test their puppies in match to families too rather than allowing people to pick and so even though it's not the normal in terms of most people buying a puppy um finding a breeder that does that is going to be so much better off for you and your family in the long run is there a list somewhere I mean everybody should get their dog from you guys but you know you have limited capacity so is there a place to find like people who are following those protocols um not necessarily if so even if you search up like puppy culture breeder you're going to have hit or miss and that's where it's important to do your research on the breed but then also do your research on the breeder too um so for us
like especially if you're sorry I'm like trying to think about how to phrase this so that's not as controversial as it is um so in in the dog world like obviously if you're going to support a breeder you want to support a breeder that is focused on breed preservation and actually using the dog for what they were bred for um that'll kind of help you like you like you said earlier check those boxes you know if somebody just breeds their dogs to breed their dogs most of the time that's going to be like your backyard breeder and these days it's a lot harder to spot that um than before you know because the people that were doing the necessary steps to socialize those puppies you could kind of like find them out a little bit easier than you can now uh so there's not short answer there's not really a list but there are a couple groups on Facebook where you can ask about a specific breeder or you can ask about recommendations for a breeder if you have specific breed in mind one of those is going to be uncensored breeders uh forget if there's anything after that but but it's a Facebook group where you can just go in there and and kind of ask for recommendations as well and my name is not thrown in there ever I'm still reasonably small and new compared to a lot of the Breeders that are going to be in there you know there's people whove been raising Australian shepherds since the breed began there's people been raising them for you know 30 years it's so it just I've been raising them for five years so considerably speaking I'm a very small newer breeder but then I also only have one to two letters a year so I'm not going to be somebody who has five or six lits a year either just oh wow you know for our own personal preference and just you know we are not at the point to hire anybody and so breeders who have that many dog that many puppies a year and raise them with the same Protocols are going to be somebody who has help um and we just aren't there yeah yeah okay so I'm so curious like how if you have any recommendations for people who are wanting to breed because you know we know a lot of homesteaders and they're looking for ways to kind of find a niche and um even with the livestock Guardian dogs I see a lot of people breeding their their livestock Guardian dogs do you have any recommendations for them in terms of like doing things kind of above above bar um you know in a way that's responsible and um because I know there's you know always conflict when I see people post oh we're breeding our great pyes um you get so many respon like no backyard breeding and there's so many in the shelter and you know I I get both sides honestly because we have dogs and we're like oh this is a great dog we should breed her she's got a great demeanor but um what are your recommendations excuse me I think honestly it's just understanding the market too um I've had a couple people especially recently reach out if I have a stud that they can use or if I know somebody who has a stud that they can use and it's almost like now I have to ask the question first of do you have potential homes lined up because if somebody doesn't like right the puppy market and I hate to put it this way because it you know that's kind of what it is at this point but the puppy Market is on a weird wavelength these days you know the only reason I'm GNA say this and I might like go back on it later in life but I think that a a key aspect of us being successful is because we are small and because I keep a waiting list right and we don't breed until the waiting list is full and so for us like our waiting list is six families because that's like for me that's a good average size litter so like the litter that you guys got a puppy from she ended up having nine but I had the six families already like good to go excited and uh so for us like I think it's successful and even though you know so like this recent litter we had eight and I only have one spot left but they'll they'll be five weeks old on Friday so I still have five weeks to find the perfect home for that last puppy and actually have a call later today to kind of talk to a family but um if you don't already have families lined up or a plan in mind of what you're going to do if you can't find those puppy homes then I would not recommend breeding that's really good I appreciate EXA all of that yeah because I feel like like what Lacy said that's like always the feedback is like they're going to end up in a shelter not even told Lacy like she was kind of pushing to well my sister wanted one she wanted a puppy and I was like you know she would be a great like pet dog and H for a family um but I didn't want a breed her for just one I know and I was like and I don't want six more PES on our property right now if I had a dog that like everywhere I took her everybody was like oh my gosh if you ever have a puppy like I want one you know that's one thing but if you have a dog where you're like you know it'd be nice to have a little extra income and I think this dog would be a good fit I don't think that that's enough of a reason to breed especially right now so like I personally know several off Tran Shepherd breeders like mind you again you know I have seven of my eight spoken for already um I have a couple Australian Shepherd breeders that I'm friends with that have four and five and six Monon old puppies that they still cannot find homes for and that's where you know talking with my husband especially because we we kind of like bounce ideas off of each other and we and we talk about it and that's where our focus is not on the puppy it's on our program and how we raise our puppies and so like this is the first time we've ever had this but one of the families that's on our litter right now um they don't even want to know which puppy we pick for them until they come to pick it up it's kind of crazy but you know if they said well if we're not going to know for seven weeks was another three but it's because they trust the process and the program and know that whichever puppy we pick for them is going to be a good fit and so it's it's really that's that's what I think also kind of sets us apart is rather than talk about oh my gosh I have puppies out of this dog that has all of these titles like yes I title my dogs but also you know I put in so much into the puppies that kind of that's that's where people are like oh okay I want a puppy from you because you do all of these things with them not just because wow I love that dog I want a puppy from that litter instead it's you know coming is right and also the the way that we raise our puppies is what is kind of The Sweet Spot for us well I didn't even want a dog but then I talked to you and I was like but she made me want a dog and the idea of like being matched with this like perfect match was this like oh okay it's kind like a pound because you do feel like yeah kind of but what you feel like when you buy a dog it's sort of like luck of the draw right like you just don't know for sure what their personality is going to be and you hope you can train them but there was just more of a guarantee when I got a dog from you that there was like this was going to be a good fit and um and you know like the additional support that you guys offer like continuing to like offer for the dog I mean that's a huge element too because you can't I don't know where else you could go and get a dog that it would come with that kind of um followup and I know I don't even know I don't even know where Ruda if I had to find that farm no yeah and half the time that I hear too especially in like Australian Shepherd like training groups and stuff is someone's like oh well I have this issue going on and I tried to reach out to the breeder and they blocked me and it's like like like of all the things like yeah I would feel awful if somebody you know blocked me if I had just bought a puppy from them you know I just well even experience we want yeah you have a sign a document that if you ever want to get rid of this dog then you need to tell me first like it's just this really kind of beautiful like there's no yeah I just it feels like an adoption like a real true adoption and know we actually um I haven't said anything about this publicly but we actually like had our first experience with that um just this past month um one of the families he uh lost his job and realized that having two dogs was not quite what he was hoping for and we reached out to a family that had talked to us about our dogs before but they weren't quite sure yet and I said hey I think this guy would be a good fit for you you know I said really talk it over think it over you know he's safe so he's not going anywhere and one of our other uh puppy families actually fostered him for a while and uh this Sunday he's actually going to be picked up by the new family but it's one of those where like the stars have just aligned for that but that was our first experience of hey this isn't quite working how I hoped it to and not because of the dog but because of the lifestyle right um and and the old lots of things changing all at once right and so um but that's you know I know for a fact that he's going to a good home um even with it being a new home you know and that's where like my heart feels right doing that yeah yeah and I think that's interesting because you know we have Robbie and I can't imagine not really having him anymore but I do think that if he needed to get have a different home he would be fine like it wouldn't you know it might not be ideal for him and his little heart and mind but he also would adjust and it would be okay because he's so well I don't know adjusted yeah yeah honestly we kind of had a funny conversation about that the other day of okay if something drastic happened and we had to like get rid of all of our dogs oh yeah who would transition best you know and it was like absolutely if someone has a ball or sheep for her to herd She's good like it doesn't matter where she goes if someone at least has a ball for her she's like okay we're besties [Laughter] now I'm curious this is like kind of a um a selfish question but so I've noticed like Robbie has like these transitional like um milestones and his age and we're coming up on like what like almost 11 months now what do you think like the next challenges with like Behavior or learning or like where what should we be looking for
next so usually between 12 months and 16 months you have another fear period and it could just be something super slight um and some peppies don't go through it at all but it's just where they're a little extra rebellious they decide H I'm not going to listen today yeah and joy is going through that right now Joy is uh our keeper from Piper's last litter and she turned a year old in August sorry I want to just make sure we're not ripping up something we're not supposed to um but she just does whatever the heck she wants yeah and she we'll open the kennel door and none of our other dogs do this but we open the kennel door and she just comes very out flying and she's like who's going to go wild and nuts with me and he looking around and everybody's like not me so it's just it's an interesting transition for her um but that's what I would kind of be looking for is like it might be very slight he might not have it at all and it might be like H okay we are just not working today and that's where uh I've had a few moments with Rogue this past week where we have been practicing and practicing and practicing and then she decides H I don't remember anything that I've worked on yeah um which is very frustrating especially for us if we're like we're gonna do this and it's going to be great I did some hurting demonstrations with her and the demonstration I did with Finn I literally told the crowd I said okay number like top two things don't let your dog go to the bathroom where you're going to move livestock or when you're moving livestock and two don't let the dog eat the livestock food or the livestock poop what's the first two things my puppy does when I take her in to go work the sheep goes and pees and poops and then goes and starts eating the Sheep poop which she has never done because I've never allowed her to do it oh my God right in front of the crowd I'm like because I see I didn't know okay why not eat livestock poop I mean it's like I don't I didn't it's disgusting that's why I don't so it's just that that mindset shift so if I'm in there and we're going to work the livestock I want her to be focused on me and the livestock I don't want her to be focused on nice little snack right here it's nope I need your full attention because if something happened in like that whatever it was especially like if we're working cows because cows can be a heck of a lot more dangerous than sheep but if I all of a sudden if Robbie's over eating a cow patty and one of the cows decides that he doesn't like when where you're standing and he decides to come at you you want Robbie to be there to come and say hey no cow that's not where you're supposed to be but if Robbie's too busy over there eating whatever you know that's the thing is you just want that that Focus retained on you and what you're doing not oh let's go have a yummy snack you know and that's where when we move the livestock after we're done if the dogs go and eat whatever poop that's you know in the in the last padic that we moved him from I'm like okay that's fair game now cuz we're not working but when we're working I want that full Focus that's so interesting I've noticed that like that mindset like I have the command with him on me and it like he's supposed to be on my right hand side like right at my fingertips and when he's at his best he will do that and he'll be like looking at me for direction and I've noticed the amount of time that he does that is getting longer and longer but for a while it was like you know 30 seconds a minute but you know yeah now now now he'll like yeah he'll when he's doing really good it is like a we're working now you need to pay attention and and he gets that which is it's a really like I was watching one of your videos and like I commented on you got really emotional with like that connection and I do I feel that sometimes too is like man he's like we're like really like Jing right now and like making this happen and that's like I don't know it's there's not another animal in farming that I feel like you get that way so it's a really cool connection I don't think there's another way to do that with an animal maybe I would say horse people may I will point out that um Drew was not really 100% on board with getting dog I a good amount of coercion but I did see this coming for the record I was not on board with the dog and still not sure yeah like I think move out now yeah when you're laying on the couch and he lets a fart out and it's like what he's he can smell so well he plays with the other dogs too so I mean he and our other dogs smell terrible they're outside all the time they're outside dogs and uh so he's like this mix this weird mix of like a farm dog and an inside dog and it's it's a little it's a little we're still working through that tricky yeah yeah and also Abraham and him play so much that Abraham smells like him so yeah we're trying to figure that out too any it's tough we call Abraham and Robbie our dogs's got to sit in the back seat that's funny well I did want to just bring up this one story you shared recently with us about how you had a rabbit situation and I can't even remember what the situation was maybe I don't know if you want to share this or not but you had this situation um and you were able to you didn't have the ability to like grab something and take care of the animal in the moment that you needed to and the dog was right there and the dog did it so I don't know if you want to share that story but I just think it's like really yeah okay it's okay I
mean yeah I mean it kind of like shares about like the training aspect with the dogs is like really understanding what I ask of them um so for those of you listening who don't Homestead uh close your ears and for those of who do Homestead so I had this rabbit um she was my oldest though but she was very small and so I was trying to dispatch her and I could not get like the dispatch done and you know if if you Homestead at all you know that you want it as instant as possible and I just was really struggling and we were kind of like at that time cunch where it was a lot of trauma for her is a lot of trauma for me because I'm like I'm just trying to dislocate here and it's just not happening and of course I had the dogs out with me um and so I actually called them over and I sat her down and she didn't she didn't go anywhere because again of the trauma that had already been caused and I told the dogs to get her and again it it seems a little like harsh and very primitive to say that to a dog but I was able to tell them to get her one bite done and then I said okay that'll do and they all backed off of her and and she was gone you know but it's where it was that training aspect of okay the dogs understood of gter and what I meant from them in that moment to okay that'll do and rather than like taking the rabbit off and ripping her apart the way that normal dogs do they they understood that that was not their thing to do in that moment so um yes it's a it's a little primitive and it's one of those stories where you're like I'm only going to tell people that understand the setting and the environment where I would tell my dogs to do that um but in that moment I needed it to be instant yeah and I was not able to get the job done in that moment um and so it was very helpful to have dogs that that bond that I had grown with them they could they could understand I just think it's so clear what the potential is for the relationship between the owner and the dog in that situation like that just is I got little chills from even the second time you told it because it's just I mean the idea that you can have like a um a companion that's there to support you and help you get your job done it's just I don't know I just feel like Aussie's like their vocabulary like you literally can almost speak to them that's what Lacy keeps saying she's like you can tell him a sentence like it's not like sit and come and stay it's like go to the kitchen and get me this and come back like you almost can do that it's Cy yeah I mean like I can I can tell you know the dogs hey we're going to put the sheep in the barn and I can say it just like that and I open the gate and the dogs take and put the sheep in the barn and I'm like that's awesome you know but it's just that that's the fun part about having dogs that are so smart and pick up so much like not only on our l anguage but our body language too and our facial expressions you know um that's one thing they sense that too like a lot deeper than just what you're saying it's how yeah yeah how like the energy you're putting out there they know too and it's it's impressive the kids are the kids keep joking they're gonna teach Robbie how to tie Abraham's
shoes I bet you if he had like the velcro ones fig out J is he's going to like put his mouth on the shoe and then take it off and it's going to be TI this is great love kids in their imaginations too that's fun but I can see that like you know we're talking about using in on Homestead I can see you know I don't know for some reason particularly like with like if you had a special need situation like how this dog this breed um if they're well trained could just be so helpful we do have a friend that has an Aussie um meant to be a service dog but she's become more of a pet but she can do pretty incredible things for him um and it's just really beautiful to see because I just don't I don't know I'm it's new for me new for me to see that in real life so um yeah well we've gone much longer than we said we were going to I figured we would but that's okay um I would love for you to just share any parting words of advice you might have um and then also just um how can people if they wanted to get on your weight list if they um just want to learn from you what are the best ways for them to get in contact and kind of Follow The Journey of you and your dogs along absolutely well I did just want to thank you guys for this opportunity I'm always excited to share more about our dogs of course and love um any opportunity we can do that you know whether that's going to different events and offering hurting demonstrations or just even attending as vendors to events uh you know it's always interesting the the conversations that are had and then the questions that come up but you can always reach us at working aies homestead.com and we have all of our social media links there but we're also on Facebook Instagram and then of course YouTube uh but really reaching out through our website is good you can send us an email through there um or just send us a message on social media even so I'm excited to always share about this do a Shameless plug for the event coming up where you will probably be doing demos I'm assuming yeah yes yeah absolutely I know so we're hosting our own conference uh in February 2024 it's going to be February 16th and 17th it's called the resilient living conference and you can actually purchase tickets through Eventbrite I have that listed on our website as well but Drew and Lacy will be speakers and teachers there so I'm excited to have them and then also I'll be talking about hurting dogs on the homestead and then I also have a friend that is going to do the flip side side of that and talk about the lifestock guardian dog aspect too so I'm really excited about that event um but again it'll be in February and a fun event to plan for because it'll be in the slow season and um hopefully more homesteaders can come to it and there's a dinner and everything I'm really looking forward to it's GNA be great it's a good time yeah there's nothing else going on so just come and let's hang out yeah absolutely abely very cool well Jordan it's been lovely as always we're fortunate to have you in our lives in our Inner Circle we get to talk and and hang with you pretty regularly um and hold your puppies and your babies and actually before we go can we see some of the puppies do you yeah of course at my feet yay if you're listening but you can hear them and um you can always go to YouTu oh my gosh how different they look like a little bear see how many more can I grab I know come here a let's see and we'll get one more come here it's all right oh look it okay I don't know if it's a him or her the one on the far right is my far right is adorable oh my God they all are but love the spots awesome okay well you heard her well might be gone today she does have one puppy left in this litter but just get on the list and then start learning about these incredible dogs and what they can do for your for your home and Homestead um from Jordan and Josh even before maybe get your phone but um it's been an honor and so much fun we'll talk soon absolutely thank you
