General Care

As time goes on, Faro's NEW experiences become fewer so there is less to post about.

So I thought I'd make a general post about his daily care etc

So, Faro hears us wake up in the morning and starts to whine to go out.
First job of the day is to let him outside to pee. He usually then has his breakfast of 2 scoops of dry mix and then gets a varying length of time out of his crate to let off steam.
At this time in the morning he is at his highest energy level so is bouncing off the walls.
However he cannot go out for a walk immediately because we have a 4 year old to get ready for school!

Faro usually gets to come on the walk up to the school which is his first exercise of the day. However sometimes he has to wait patiently in his crate if there is only one of us available (as it take 2 people.. one to take Lucian into school and the other to wait outside the gates with Faro).

On return from school, we have to finish feeding/watering/cleaning of the horse/goats/chickens/rabbits/guineas/ducks & geese.

Once this is done we are free to take Faro for his long walk of the day which is designed to wear him out.
He might be on lead, off lead or on and off like a yo-yo. We might stop to play or we might just walk continually. We always try to take different routes and have not yet done the same walk twice.

On return, Faro goes straight in his crate to signal that his job/work is over for the time being.

At some point he will have lunch which is one scoop of dry feed and in the evening he has another scoop.

There is no structure to the afternoons. We basically let Faro out when we have time to go outside with him.
We aim to leave him in his crate for no more than 2 - 3 hours at a time, during which time he either rests, sleeps or chews on a bone (as he is teething).

Sometimes he will whine to come out for a short burst and we try not to let him out immediately if he starts to whine because we do not want to teach him that is the way to get out! Similarly, we try to let him out when he least expects it. We know if he whines then barks it is because he actually needs the toilet so at that point we would let him out, give him chance to toilet then straight back in.

So that is how it goes with the crate. Faro is allowed in the kitchen/hall and the front garden.
He is not allowed in the back garden where there are other animals, or in the sitting room which is Lucian's place to play in peace without having his toys pinched!
Plus, one floor is quite enough to have to keep clean of muddy paw-prints lol

So, quite different from raising a puppy who needs to learn to be a house pet. Raising a working dog is a LOT easier in many ways and you don't have to make so many adjustments to your life/home.
We are not able to enjoy Faro sleeping in front of the fire, sitting with us on the sofa or just being with us of an evening while we do family stuff in the sitting room. But then we do not have a constant 'second child' who needs to be watched 24/7 and we are able to thoroughly enjoy walks with him and bursts of play at a time to suit us.

This way of life with a dog has also taught us that crate training enables you to spend QUALITY time with a dog. The whole time he is out of crate you can interact purposefully with him. When a dog is a member of the family, you interact an awful lot with him, but unconsciously. Therefore you are more likely to teach the dog bad behaviours without even knowing you are doing it. A crate trained dog is ready to switch into obedience mode for the period of time you have him out then he gets to be at rest in his crate, knowing that you have no expectations of him and he is free to relax. A luxury some dogs never enjoy.